Coaching vacancy in Kitchener


By
July 25, 2016

After one season as an associate coach with the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League, Daniel Tkaczuk is moving on for a job within the National Hockey League organization of the St. Louis Blues.

Prior to moving to Kitchener last season, the 37-year old Tkaczuk was an assistant coach with the OHL’s Owen Sound Attack for three years.

His departure leaves a vacancy on the Rangers coaching staff that includes head coach Jay McKee and assistant coach Matthew Barnaby. Rangers assistant general manager Mike McKenzie also helps out as an assistant coach.

Should the Rangers move to fill the vacancy created by the departure of Tkaczuk, one man who may be strongly considered is John Goodwin.

The 54-year old Goodwin has a tidy background of success in the OHL as a head coach and an assistant with the Oshawa Generals and as an assistant with the North Bay Battalion and Kingston Frontenacs.

A former OHL scoring champion while a star centre with the Soo Greyhounds, Goodwin coached in Oshawa from 1994 until 2000 before stepping away from the league for 13 years to focus on his full-time job with Ontario Power Generation.

After retiring from OPG in 2013, Goodwin took an assistant’s job with North Bay and left after one season for a similar position in Kingston, where he spent the past two years.

Goodwin chose not to return to Kingston for the 2016-2017 season.

Another possible candidate to take over from Tkazcuk in Kitchener is Sault Ste. Marie native Jason Fortier, who spent the past season as an assistant coach with the champion Rouyn-Noranda Huskies of the Quebec Major Jr. Hockey League.

Unless he gets permission from the Huskies, Fortier can only move on from Rouyn-Noranda for a promotion, not a lateral move. And moving from assistant in Rouyn to associate in Kitchener would be considered a promotion.


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