Credit coaches for their success
NHL clubs should scouting them as well
Over the past three seasons, the Edmonton Oil Kings have done a lot of winning.
This campaign, the Western Hockey League finalists — the Oil Kings will open the league championship in Portland against the Winterhawks on Saturday — became the second team in WHL history to win 50 games in three consecutive seasons; the Kamloops Blazers 1990-92 were the other.
Their success hasn’t gone unnoticed.
General manager Bob Green built those teams and was rewarded with an NHL job last summer with the Edmonton Oilers.
Since 2011, nine Oil Kings players have been drafted to the NHL: Laurent Brossoit, Micheal St. Croix, Travis Ewanyk, Keegan Lowe, Griffin Reinhart, Henrik Samuelsson, Mitch Moroz, Curtis Lazar and Tristan Jarry, while Cody Corbett signed as a free agent with Colorado.
Brett Pollock, Dyson Mayo, Aaron Irving and Edgars Kulba are likely to be drafted this year.
The GM and players have been recognized for their accomplishments, but the coaches who have helped develop these kids have yet to receive the same recognition.
Getting head coach Derek Laxdal to talk about himself is almost as difficult as trying to beat his team in an Eastern Conference playoff series.
La xda l’s troops have reached the WHL final for the third straight season after steamrollering the Prince Albert Raiders, the Brandon Wheat Kings and the Medicine Hat Tigers. Edmonton’s combined Eastern Conference playoff record the past three seasons is 36-7.
Laxdal won’t say much, but his coaching record speaks volumes. Green hired Laxdal in June 2010, and his assessment at the time turned out to be incredibly accurate.
“I think this hire is the one to take us to the next level, to challenge for the league championship and Memorial Cup,” Green said almost four years ago. “It’s time to win. Derek is a winner and that’s the name of the game.”
Laxdal has won at every level he’s coached.
After a pro career that included 67 NHL games and stops in the AHL, ECHL and Europe, Laxdal joined the coaching ranks.
His first gig was with the Wichita Thunder of the Central Hockey League. Over three years, they had an 87- 58-5 record.
He then spent the next five seasons as head coach and director of hockey operations with the Idaho Steelheads of the ECHL and compiled a record of 217-10835, and that included two trips to the finals and one championship.
“You have to have good players, you need a good staff.” DEREK LAXDAL
Laxdal is the first WHL coach to win 50 games three years in a row. Ken Hitchcock, two years, and Tom Renney were the coaches during the Blazers’ threeyear 50-win-plus stretch, and both of them became NHL head coaches. Why is Laxdal a winner? “If you look at my record in the Central league, the ECHL, here there are a couple things you have to have in place: You have to have good players, you need a good staff and our management has done a great job of organizing players,” Laxdal said humbly. “We are very fortunate to have Steve Hamilton, Sean Brown, Dustin Schwartz and our video co-ordinator, Jory Stuparyk. I feel it’s not just the head coach, but it is the support group behind him that matters just as much.”
Laxdal would rather talk about his staff, but his best attribute might be his willingness to let his assistant coaches, specifically Hamilton, have a strong voice on game strategy and in the dressing room.
Hamilton has been pursued by other WHL teams for a head-coaching job, but so far, none have been the right fit for him and his family. He and Laxdal form a great tandem, but it is rare that a head coach is secure enough to allow the assistant to make a pre-game speech.
“Steve is a very strong coach, a very strong personality, and he has a very good way with words,” Laxdal said. “He comes across his point very clear and right to the point. That is a good mix for us. If he has something he wants to say, I’m not going to hold him back. Why have him here if you won’t let him do his job?”
After some prodding, I finally got Laxdal to share his thoughts on what makes him a good coach. “I’m passionate about coaching. I’m passionate about working with hockey players,” he said. “The key thing is the ability to have a relationship with a player and have that relationship when times are good and times are bad.
“I played for Don Mckee when I was finishing my career, and I couldn’t believe how he treated players. It didn’t matter if you were the top player on the team or the player sitting out, if you were playing well or playing bad, he treated everybody the same way. I really learned from that as a player and it was the one thing I wanted to instil as a coach.”
While the Oil Kings get set for their third straight WHL final vs. Portland, I wonder how many NHL organizations will be scouting the Oil Kings coaching staff as much as the players.
It is time Laxdal and Hamilton be recognized and promoted. They’ve been instrumental in the outstanding success of the Oil Kings.