#AustinIceBats

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CANTLON'S CORNER: KNOBLAUCH NAMED NEW HARTFORD WOLF PACK BENCH BOSS

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - The New York Rangers finally named a new head coach, on Monday after a 15-week search to replace the fired Keith McCambridge. Kris Knoblauch becomes the seventh coach in team history, but no assistant coaches were named. Also, no quotes were released in the statement from either Pack GM Chris Drury, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton, or Team President, John Davidson, regarding the hire, which comes off as a bit unusual. Knoblauch, 40, joins the Rangers organization after being released by the Philadelphia Flyers after two years (2017-19) as an assistant coach as part of the team's organizational purge. Knoblauch’s 13 seasons of coaching experience have been primarily in Canadian major junior hockey. His specialty is running the offense according to a very knowledgeable NHL scout. “He is an offensive-orientated coach with strong work on the power play side of the game.” He was the Head Coach for seven consecutive seasons in Canadian major junior hockey. His first was with the Kootenay Ice (Cranbrook, BC) of the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 2010 till 2012. He also served as the top dog with the Erie Otters (OHL) for parts of five seasons from (2012-2017). Knoblauch’s seven seasons as a head coach with these two teams earned himself a record of 298-130-16-13 in 457 regular-season games (.684 points percentage). In his first season with the Kootenay Ice (which just relocated to Winnipeg) in the 2010-11 season, Knoblauch guided the team to 46-21-1-4 (97 points) in the Central Division. They finished third behind Red Deer and Medicine Hat and saw the team win the WHL Championship knocking off Portland (OR) Winter Hawks in five games. The Ice won 16 of their 19 WHL playoff games. The following season the team finished fourth behind Edmonton, Calgary, and Medicine Hat and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual Memorial Cup champions, the Edmonton Oil Kings. He is the second Wolf Pack head coach to come from the Kootenay program. The other was the Wolf Pack’s third coach, Ryan McGill. He was in Hartford for three years (2002-2005). Ironically, Knoblauch played for McGill in Edmonton, and Kootenay (which relocated from Edmonton) while McGill succeeded Knoblauch in his second tour of duty in Kootenay when Knoblauch left for the OHL. McGill is currently an assistant coach with the Vegas Golden Knights. Knoblauch would then have four full seasons with the Erie Otters (2013-2017) who posted a 204-58-7-3 record (.768 winning percentage) while he was there. Erie went on to win at least 50 games in all four seasons, thus becoming the first team in the history of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL is comprised of the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League) to post four consecutive 50-win seasons.

He first arrived in Erie in 2012-13 replacing former New Haven Nighthawk player and head coach, Robbie Ftorek. The team finished dead-last in the OHL before they had those four consecutive fantastic campaigns. The following season the Otters finished third in the OHL Midwest Division before falling to Guelph in the OHL semifinals. In 2014-15 Erie won the Midwest Division with a record of 50-14-2-2 with Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome, and Alex DeBrincat on the team. They would go on to lose to Oshawa four-games-to-one in the semis. In 2015-16, they fashioned 52-14-1-0 record yet lost to the Dale Hunter coached London Knights in the semifinals. His last junior campaign in the 2016-17 season he had current Wolf Pack player, Darren Raddysh, on the team. The Otters won the OHL title beating the Mississauga Steelheads four-games-to-one to capture the John Robertson Cup but they lost in the Memorial Cup Final to the host Windsor Spitfires 4-3. Knoblauch received the Matt Leyden Trophy as the OHL’s Coach of the Year in 2015-16, and he was named to the OHL’s Second All-Star Team coach in 2013-14. He won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy for having the OHL’s best regular-season record in back-to-back seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17). Over those seven junior seasons he was responsible for developing a lot of high end young talent in the NHL, including Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Alex DeBrincat (Chicago), Sam Reinhart (Buffalo), Dylan Strome (Chicago), Andre Burakovsky (Colorado), Anthony Cirelli (Tampa Bay), Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay), Connor Brown (Ottawa), and Travis Dermott (Toronto). Knoblauch is a native of Imperial, Saskatchewan. He was Assistant Coach with Kootenay for three seasons (2007– 2010) before being elevated to their head coach. He began his coaching career as an Assistant Coach with the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) for one season in 2006-07. In addition, Knoblauch has coached in several international tournaments. He served as an Assistant Coach with Team Canada at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping the Canadians earn a silver medal. Knoblauch also served as the Head Coach for Canada-Red at the 2015 World U-17 Hockey Challenge. Knoblauch was selected by the New York Islanders in the seventh round, (166th overall), in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. He played parts of four seasons of major junior hockey in the WHL (1995-1999) with the Red Deer Rebels, Edmonton/Kootenay Ice, and Lethbridge Hurricanes, where his head coach was former New England Whaler, Bryan Maxwell. He followed that with five seasons (1999-2004) of Canadian college hockey at the University of Alberta (CWUAA). Knoblauch, a forward, registered 117 points (38 goals, 79 assists) in 102 games with the Golden Bears as he helped the school win a CIAU National Championship in his first season in 1999-00 beating the University of Moncton 6-2 to win the David Johnston University Cup. He played just one year of minor pro hockey in 2004-06 with the defunct Central Hockey League, Austin Ice Bats. The team that was started and co-owned originally by ex-Whalers, Paul Lawless, and Blaine Stoughton when it was in the now-defunct Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) that merged with the Central Hockey League in 2001. He also played four playoff games for the defunct Asheville (NC) Smoke (UHL) after his last junior season. (Portions of a Rangers press release were used in the formation of this story) Read the full article

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CANTLON'S CORNER: LAWLESS IN THE HOUSE

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings HARTFORD, CT - Dull is a word that would never be associated with former Hartford Whaler, and New Haven Senator, the swift-skating winger, Paul Lawless. Standing in the dugout at Dunkin’ Donuts Park, Lawless was holding court at the Whalers Alumni weekend last week that was presented by the Hartford Yard Goats of the Eastern League. “This is over-the-moon exciting. I couldn’t make last year’s (reunion), but it's amazing how time flies by and we haven’t seen each other in a long time and it's great to be back in Hartford where my pro career started and it's obvious we all miss the Whalers.” When Lawless got drafted by the Whalers in the Forum in Montreal in the first round, 14th overall, his first interview was with the legendary voice of hockey on the CBC Hockey Night in Canada in the 1960’s and 1970’s, Dick Irvin. “His first question was, 'Do you know the name of the state that Hartford is in?' I paused a second or two... I said I think, Connecticut? So, I passed a geography test on national TV." Lawless calling card when he was drafted was his very good first step and speed. He was selected out of the Windsor Spitfires (OHL) where he had 49 points in 68 games and wound up in the NHL at the young age of 18. He was the can’t-miss prospect in his second junior year where he had 36 points in his first 33 games. He was recalled, but he was brought up way too early. It ended up costing him something he still regrets nearly 40 years later. “That year, I had been picked to play for Team Canada at the (World) Juniors tournament. My agent, Bill Watters at the time, decided I should take the call-up to the Whalers rather than stay back and play for Team Canada. The Whalers were in last place that year. I wasn’t going to make a difference that year, and it was a learning experience, but for the rest of my life it was a real disappointment for me and I’ll never forgive him for that,” Lawless said. That season, in 49 games with the Whalers, Lawless had six goals and 15 points and was a minus-31 The change in his life was so rapid, that looking back on it now with the wisdom of age he knows it was too much.

 (Courtesy of Gerry Cantlon - L-to-R, Chuck Kaiton, Lawless, and Don Nachbaur) “At 16, I was playing major midget (Wexford OPJHL). At 17, playing major junior in Windsor, and then 18 in the NHL, was way too much, too quickly.” His hockey passport would include quite a few stops in several spots along the way. “Like any other player in this game, it's normal for this business for things to happen and change because some stops it doesn’t work out.” After being sent back to play his last year of junior, and then a full season in the old IHL in Salt Lake City tallying 97 points. Lawless spent three seasons with the Whalers. His best season was 1985-86 with 22 goals and 57 points in 60 games. The next season, Lawless was dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers and then to the Vancouver Canucks. He then migrated to Milwaukee (IHL) the following year and got into a few games with the Maple Leafs over two years before making his first foray to Europe with HC Davos (NLA). Lawless registered 29 points in 16 games and then went on to HC Lausanne of Switzerland plus five games in Italy with HC Bolzano. “I never knew why Toronto sent me down. It didn’t make sense to me, so I realized I had to start looking at other avenues,” Lawless said. He spent just three games in Newmarket, then the smallest market in the AHL, playing in what was a local community rink before departing for Switzerland for three years. While there he amassed 176 points in 79 games with HC Lausanne (NLB) and HC Davos. In the NHL, Lawless played just 236 games and in the old IHL, he played in 380 where he put up 466 points. In 1992-’93, Lawless landed back in Connecticut via Austria where he played for EC Graz. While there he tallied 46 points in 29 games before the expansion Ottawa Senators showed interest. Before he would head there, he had to first play a 20-game PTO contract with the struggling misfit hockey team called the New Haven Senators before a recall and an NHL deal. “Well, my agent then, Larry Rauch, talked to Mel Bridgman (his one and only NHL season in management) and we made an agreement. I would get called after 20 games with an NHL deal.” Things didn’t quite go as planned. On a very bad New Haven team, Lawless was unstoppable. He kept them alive with his 22 points in the 20 games he needed to play in. However, when he spoke to his agent around game 16, he was told they had no intention of calling him up and they would only offer him another 20-game deal. Lawless was having none of that. He told Rauch to seek a deal with Cincinnati in the old IHL where his Whaler buddy, Blaine “Stash” Stoughton, was a coach. They made a deal and the contract was signed. Lawless left New Haven on his own terms, not on Ottawa’s. In game 20, Lawless played in the game’s opening shift; then at the first whistle, 37 seconds in, he skated over and unloaded on the referee with a profanity-laced tirade. Lawless received a ten-minute misconduct and a game misconduct. The Senators head coach, Don MacAdam, was speechless. As his team's best player, Lawless had just been tossed. MacAdam was totally blindsided. Lawless went into the locker room, took a quick shower, cleaned out his locker, and left a note on the eraser board saying, “Been nice playing with you boys. See you at another rink real soon!” “It was a memorable exit," Lawless said with a laugh while in dark shades that protected his eyes from a very bright sunny day in the Connecticut capitol. "A little pre-planning was involved.” He went on to play 29 games with the Cyclones where he tallied 29 goals and 54 points. All totaled, Lawless had 124 points with three teams in three different leagues that year. “The next year, I signed my biggest contract ever with the Cyclones. I had two more good years (96, and 85 points) and I really did fall in love with Cincinnati. Then with Stash as a coach, there and then, it was off to my next adventure.” Lawless would have his number 13 retired by Cincinnati. That adventure took him to Austin, Texas where he became an owner with Stoughton in an upstart hockey league called the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL). It spanned most of Central and West Texas and extended hockey along I-5 into Louisiana, and Mississippi in truly non-traditional hockey markets like Lafayette, LA, and Biloxi, MS.

The Austin Ice Bats, owners of the best logo, was born. “I heard Stash, who was retired at that time, and a fellow former Senator, Brad Trevling (now Calgary’s GM), were involved in a group starting a new league, so I said let's take a look at it. We knew Austin was a good, solid market as far as population, but we needed a rink and didn’t have one, so we created one out at an old rodeo arena (Luedecke Arena seated 6,400) that never had a rink of any kind there. The locker room for the first year was a trailer.” Lawless said. Lawless would play thirty games the first season with 46 points and coached the team the last 14 games and into the playoffs. It took a lot of work to make it a reality. “We were able to go out and raise the money and put a team there and it was a great success. I’m really proud of the Ice Bats. It was so much fun. I played a little bit to keep it alive, but I was 36 at the time. The knees were getting creaky. I thought this was a great transition for me, and it worked out fine for me." The WPHL lasted six seasons before merging with the Central Hockey League in 2001. Under different ownership, the Ice Bats lasted until 2011. After the IHL folded, Lawless went back to the Cyclones, who were then in the ECHL, along with six other teams, they merged with the AHL. LAwless was a part owner, head coach, and Director of Player Development, at different times before exiting the hockey business in 2004. Austin is now home to one of the stronger AHL franchises, the Texas Stars, four hours away from their parent organization, the Dallas Stars, but it was the Ice Bats that got things started. Lawless, who resides in Scottsdale, Arizona, recently sold his ticket agency business and will likely relocate to Florida in the next year. Who knows perhaps Lawless gets a hockey team in Florida who could be called the Chiefs? “I don’t think so,“ Lawless said with a laugh. “I want to get back toward the East Coast and look forward to being back next year." Read the full article