This Bud’s for Sudbury
A vacant coaching position has drawn former Ontario Hockey League bench boss Bud Stefanski out of retirement. Stefanski, who originally hails from the northeastern Ontario mining town of Timmins, has joined the Sudbury Wolves as an assistant on the staff of head coach Cory Stillman.
To be sure, Stefanski and Stillman are quite familiar with one another. The 63-year old Stefanski is the father-in-law of the 44-year old Stillman.
Stefanski has not coached in the OHL since the 2006-2007 season when he was the head man with the erstwhile Toronto St. Michael’s Majors. After leaving coaching, he was a National Hockey League scout for the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs for a combined seven years before retiring in 2015.
In going to Sudbury as an assistant coach, Stefanski fills a staff vacancy that was created earlier this summer when Jordan Smith left the Wolves to take a similar position with the Soo Greyhounds as associate coach.
When Smith departed Sudbury for the Soo, the Wolves promoted Darryl Moxam from part-time assistant to full-time associate coach under the aforementioned Stillman.
Like Stillman and Moxam, Stefanski is a former OHL forward. Stefanski played for legendary coach Gus Bodnar with the Oshawa Generals before going on to a lengthy minor pro career.
Stefanski told Postmedia that he got the urge to come out of retirement and get back into coaching after watching his grandson, Riley Stillman, be part of an OHL championship team in 2017-2018 as a standout defenseman with the Hamilton Bulldogs.
“Following Hamilton and my grandson in the playoffs (this past spring), I thought, geez, that would be something, to get back into it,” Stefanski said.
As fate would have it, a spot on the Wolves coaching staff opened when Smith left for the Greyhounds and after Moxam was elevated from assistant to associate, Stefanski was approached by Stillman.
“Cory asked me if I would be interested in helping out and it was obviously a great fit, in a lot of different ways and in helping him mature as a coach. I believe (the Wolves) have a lot of the right pieces in place … they went about it the right way last year, playing the young guys, giving them valuable experience,” Stefanski noted.
Wolves general manager Rob Papineau officially rubber-stamped the hiring of Stefanski earlier this week.
Stefanski has nine years of OHL coaching experience including seven as the man in charge of the bench. He was head coach of the Barrie Colts for four seasons and bench boss at Toronto St. Michael’s for three more.
In his seven seasons as a head coach in the OHL, Stefanski’s teams had winning records five times and missed the playoffs only once. Stefanski’s teams were noted for their overall work ethic and they generally overachieved.
Stillman, as head coach of the Wolves, said Stefanski’s knowledge of the game and experience as a coach in the OHL makes his father-in-law a valuable resource.
“With the movement we’ve had this year, with (Smith) going to the Soo and then I moved (Moxam) to become an associate, I wanted to bring a guy in who had won in this league, plain and simple, and (Stefanski’s) record speaks for itself,” Stillman said.
As Stillman’s 13-year NHL playing career was winding down, he and Stefanski had discussed the possibility of coaching together one day — but the father-in-law was a valuable source of advice all along.
“I remember during my playing days, picking up the phone, calling him and asking him to watch and see, to give advice, and he’s going to do the same thing here for us,” Stillman said. “He’s going to be great for the guys, great to have behind the bench. He says we have the right pieces and he’s looking forward to us making playoffs, and that’s what we want to do.”
Stillman told Postmedia that Moxam will oversee the Wolves defensemen while Stefanski will work with the forwards and special team units.
The seasoned Stefanski is looking forward to seeing what the Wolves have when Sudbury’s training camp opens on Aug. 28.
“I’m somewhat familiar with their players but I don’t know their personalities and I said to Cory in my experience coaching, when kids leave in April, you’re not sure what you’ve got coming back,” Stefanski said.
“Kids get bigger, kids get stronger, kids get more committed, kids get less committed, especially if they’ve gone over in the (NHL) draft and they feel like their dream is over and at 18, 19, that’s an unfortunate thing, when that happens to a kid. So, it’s a matter of pumping them up.
“Confidence is something like how do you get it, how do you give it, how do you develop it? It happens, you know? That’s something where I could come in and help, perhaps, with some of the older kids,” Stefanski added.
The Wolves missed the playoffs and finished in last place in the 10-team Eastern Conference in 2017-2018. But better days seem to be ahead in the Nickel City.
Early projections have them as a seventh or eighth place team and making the playoffs in 2018-2019 in what will be Stillman’s second season as the Wolves head coach — and first with his trusted father-in-law by his side.