Friday, May 14, 2010

New Head Coach and General Manager for Sudbury Wolves

Press Release

The Sudbury Wolves Hockey Club is pleased to announce the hiring of TRENT CULL as the team’s new Head Coach.

Cull, 36, is a native of Georgetown, Ontario, played five seasons in the OHL with Owen Sound, Windsor and Kingston from 1989-1994. He then moved up to the pro ranks and played for ten seasons in the AHL and IHL. He suited up for a total of 614 professional games, tallying 28 goals and 79 assists for 107 points while racking up 1,615 penalty minutes.

Following his playing career, Cull returned to the OHL for two seasons as an assistant coach with the Guelph Storm in 2004-05 and 2005-06. In his second year, he helped lead the Storm to a 40-24-1-3 record, good for 4th in the Western Conference.

In the 2006 playoffs, the Storm lost in the conference finals to the eventual champions, the London Knights. Cull was credited in part with the development of star Storm defensemen Ryan Parent and Drew Doughty.

Cull spent the next four seasons as assistant coach with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch. His best season came in 2007-08 when Syracuse finished with a record of 46-26-2-6, good for third in the conference. It was the second best regular season record in Crunch history.

Dave Barr, who is an Assistant Coach with the Minnesota Wild, hired Cull in Guelph for his first coaching position. Barr also coached Cull in Houston of the AHL where Cull was instrumental in leading that team to a championship.

“Trent Cull is an excellent coach and I fully endorse him as a Head Coach of the Sudbury Wolves” states Barr. “He is a take charge guy, very creative with great ideas and passion for the game. Trent is one of the good young up-and-coming coaches that is well-versed in the ‘new’ style of game. He is a proven winner, he is personable, yet no-nonsense, and he is highly respected both by his players and his peers.”

Barr added, “Trent is one of the hardest working coaches that I have ever worked with. He is consistently the first coach to arrive at the arena and the last one to leave. I thought I hired a good assistant coach in Guelph, but I soon realized that he was a ‘great’ assistant coach.".

After hiring TRENT CULL as the new Head Coach, the Sudbury Wolves Hockey Club is also pleased to announce that Team President Blaine Smith will assume the full-time responsibilities of General Manager of the hockey club. Smith has been serving as interim GM for the past six weeks.

Smith, 52, has worked for the Wolves organization for the past 23 years and has served as interim GM on a couple of occasions. Most recently, Smith has assisted Mike Foligno with the role of General Manager by assisting the scouting staff, identifying players, interviewing players and implementing the new RINKNET scouting system which is used extensively by NHL and OHL team managers and scouts.

Smith recently directed the 2010 OHL Priority Selection which allowed the Wolves to secure the rights to highly-skilled forwards Mathew Campagna, Brody Silk and Sam Schutt in the first two rounds. Last year, Smith supervised the 2009 OHL Priority Selection where the Wolves selected Justin Sefton, Frankie Corrado and Kristoff Kontos in the first two rounds. All six players are expected to play a leading role in the Wolves’ resurgence in the OHL standings.

Smith is recognized by his peers as a tireless worker that works endless hours for the hockey club. Smith was promoted to President of the Sudbury Wolves in 2008. Smith has worked closely with a number of team General Managers in the past including Mike Foligno, Bert Templeton and Sam McMaster.

“I firmly believe that a successful manager is one that surrounds himself with successful, hardworking and dedicated people” notes Smith. “I have accepted this position knowing that we have very knowledgeable and quality individuals that will assist me in making the right decisions as we move forward.”.

One of Smith’s recent tasks was interviewing candidates for the Head Coaching position of the team which lead to the selection of Trent Cull.

(Nathan also is a writer for Maineiacs Post to Post and the Maine Hockey Journal. He can be reached at fourniern@students.nescom.edu)

No comments: