New hire for Sudbury Cubs
Darryl Moxam has long been a fixture in Sudbury as a high level hockey coach of good repute with multiple affiliations in his home town. And now, the 45-year old Moxam is returning to the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League from the Ontario Hockey League without leaving Sudbury.
To be sure, the hiring of Moxam by the Sudbury Cubs could well be termed a game winning goal by the NOJHL’s biggest market team.
Fresh from a half dozen years as an assistant and associate coach with the Sudbury Wolves of the OHL, Moxam has opted to depart the major junior team to return to the NOJHL with the Cubs. Moxam was a coach with the erstwhile Sudbury Northern Jr. Wolves when they won the NOJHL championship in 2006.
Notably, the NOJHL Wolves at that time were owned by Mark Burgess and managed by Blaine Smith as an affiliate of the OHL Wolves. Burgess owned both teams then with Smith as his chief lieutenant. Ironically, both are now in the same positions with the NOJHL Cubs after having moved on from the OHL Wolves in an ownership sale of a few years back.
And Moxam is now again working for his old bosses in having been hired to take over the bench duties of the NOJHL Cubs following the recent resignation of Vagelli Sakellaris. Sakellaris, a Sudbury school teacher, resigned as head coach of the Cubs after leading them to a third place finish in the NOJHL’s West Division in 2021-2022 followed by a semi-final playoff loss to the Soo Eagles.
In returning to the NOJHL and Sudbury, Moxam will retain trusted old sidekick Dave Clancy as associate coach. Clancy will have expanded duties with the Cubs for next season, given that Moxam also has a new association with the Sudbury-based Northern Hockey Academy as a director.
Meanwhile, Moxam, who originally hails from the Sudbury area town of Lively, said he is looking forward to once again working for aforementioned bosses Mark Burgess and Blaine Smith with the NOJHL Cubs.
“Burgie, Smitty and I have worked together in the past and we enjoyed lots of success winning an NOJHL championship with the Sudbury Northern Wolves (in 2006),” Moxam said. “I look forward to rekindling our success with the Cubs next season and build on the solid foundation of player development that Vagelli and his coaching staff achieved this past season with their young players.”
Moxam, who previously helped coach the Sudbury-based Laurentian Voyageurs of Ontario University Athletics for a number of years, also has a lengthy past as an OHL player with the Peterborough Petes, Oshawa Generals and Sudbury Wolves. He also starred in the NOJHL with the old Rayside Balfour Sabrecats.
Meantime, as Moxam is the new head coach of the NOJHL Cubs, Jeff Forsyth will carry on as the team’s general manager under owner Burgess and managing director Smith.