Rangers fire assistant Barnaby

KITCHENER — Matthew Barnaby is no longer behind the bench with the Kitchener Rangers.

The team issued a two line news release announcing that it had parted ways with the assistant coach Tuesday night.

“I don’t want to get into the nitty gritty of it,” said general manager Mike McKenzie. “It was philosophical differences and this is the route we chose to go.”

Barnaby joined the Rangers in June of last year under head coach Jay McKee and was in charge of the team’s defence, among other things. The pair are longtime friends and were teammates with the Buffalo Sabres during their time as players in the NHL.

When asked about how Barnaby performed in his role as assistant with the Rangers, McKenzie said he did not want to comment.

Barnaby did not want to go on the record and McKee could not be reached Tuesday night.

McKenzie said the club is in “no rush” to appoint a replacement but that McKee’s job and that of assistant Andreas Karlsson are safe.

The GM said there was no truth to rumblings that the team wanted to fire Barnaby in the off-season and that McKee resisted the move.

The Rangers bench has been anything but stable of late. The club has had four head coaches in the past six seasons and several different assistants. The team did not renew the contract of associate coach Jason Fortier this past offseason.

The news comes as the Rangers are enjoying a fine start to the Ontario Hockey League season, one that has them with a record of 3-1-1-0 and in first place in the Western Conference.