OSHAWA -- When the season ended, Durham Fury interim GM Peter Tosh didn't figure he'd have to look too far for his new head coach.
Both he and Grant Musselman indicated after the final game of the year that the latter wasn't likely to return behind the bench.
Armed with that knowledge, Tosh had a man in mind right off the bat.
So once Musselman's departure became official last month, it didn't take Tosh long to name John Winder as the new head coach of the Fury.
"John has been a head coach in this league, and a successful one having been the South Division coach of the year award twice," Tosh stated. "We had quite a bit of interest in the job, but we wanted him to be our guy."
Winder, a teacher at Courtice Secondary, began this past season as head man with the Ajax Attack, and previously served in the same capacity with the Pickering Panthers.
While Musselman brought a no nonsense type of approach to the bench, Tosh says Winder's teaching background will provide the kids with more of a learning foundation of which to build on.
"John is a school teacher and he wants a group of kids that want to be students of the game," he says. "He loves to teach and we think we have guys here that want to be here and want to learn and it helps that John is here for all the right reasons."
Joining Winder on the bench will be Trevor Nkiwane, who was an assistant under Winder in Ajax and Bill Brady of Oshawa, who most recently was a head coach for the Cobourg Cougars.
Winder will be Durham's fifth head coach in three seasons.
Meanwhile, the search for a new GM has been placed on the back burner for now, and the club will prepare for spring rookie camp with Tosh still holding the position.
Whats going on ?
Any word in from any other team.
Pickering haven't got any coachs listed.
Will the Rangers coachs be back.
Whats going on in Jr Canadiens land,
I would suspect that the JC will be bringing in Dan Cameron. Cameron last stint in tier 2 was as the bench boss for the Georgetown Raiders team which advanced to the Royal Bank in 2004-2005. He was seen attending just about every game of the JC at the end of the season.
Some controversy surrounded his last days as Head Coach as seen in the Tigerpaws forum as well as in the Georgetown press:
Steve Thomas was on the sheet as an assistant coach all year ... but the truth is I can't remember the last time he actually was on the bench. Maybe at the start of the year?
The Buzzers are not the team they were a few years ago. But as some have noticed, it probably is the goal tending. The Buzz are a class act ... they take a goalie and ride him the whole way. Binnington backed you Kain Tisi for two years, and then last year they gave him the reins and built the team around him. This year it was Gershon, who had backed up Binnington last year. My opinion, Gershon was the Buzzers achilles heal in the playoffs. And frankly the backup ... Perkins, was not an OPJHL quality goalie.
I'm not sure Ricci has what it takes to make a true contender. There is no doubt that De Piero (sp) of two years ago did. He literally worked miracles with the team ... but ... he had better goal tending to work with.
If the Buzzers plan to return to form, and take the south again, they need to find a GREAT goal tender. Everything starts in net. If you don't have that, you have nothing. And this is especially so with young kids like the Buzzers always have. AS the style of this organization is not to build a team with a wallet, and just go out to get a bunch of players in their last years of eligability, they attract a lot of players who want to NCAA route and don't plan to stay more than the requisite number of years (Cogliano, B. Smith, B. Burlon ... the list is endless). Therefore, to go anywhere with the sort of talent they attract, they need to build their team around a goalie who they can really depend on.
Personally I'm not sure Ricci inspires the players the way that some coaches do. But what do I know? I'm just a fan. My guess is that just as the Buzzers are loyal to their players and won't upgrade on an average Goalie mid season (by dumping him ... like Vaughan, Markham ... etc.), they will treat Ricci with the same. He'll be back. But I fear that this means the Buzzers are not going to be the greatest of teams in years to come.
This will only make a lot of you out there find them more likeable.
There werent that many good goalies available!
The Waxers got Rank from the USHL!
Look at the Pickering Panthers they cut both goalies.
You dont win in the playoffs without good goaltending!
Matty B .... Sorry. It wasn't my intention to dump on Markham. I was just calling as I see it. My understanding is that Iafrate left Vaughan because the coach quit on him. As you are more in the know that I ... what happened with McKinnon in Markham? I thought I heard he has now quit in Markham because he was demoted big time. He wasn't the back up in the last game against the Buzzers.
Fact is ... teams do upgrade if they think they can get better.
Goaltending HAS to be superior in order to win.
And Matty B, to be fair ... I wonder what the Buzz would have done this year IF there had been quality goaltending available to them? I don't know if there was? Or ... if they would have gone for it.
fact is markhams goaltending was better and it was very evident going into the series. also smith was a non factor. talent was a little better for markham and cornacchia outcoached ricci HUGE!
