Late Friday

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Gregg Drinnan

Friday, August 1, 2008

Late Friday . . .

Former WHL D Stewart Malgunas, who worked as an assistant coach with the Prince George Cougars under head coaches Ed Dempsey, Lane Lambert and Mike Vandekamp, has left the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings. Malgunas resigned as the Spruce Kings’ associate coach Friday, the same day that club president Darcy Buryn told the Prince George Citizen that Dempsey, the junior A team’s head coach, would be back to complete his two-year contract. That comes after an investigation by the club’s board of directors into Dempsey’s coaching style. Jason Peters of the Citizen has the entire story – including the fact that Malgunas aspired to be the club’s head coach – right here.

D Chad Erb, 20, of the Brandon Wheat Kings was involved in a trade this week. His MJHL rights went from the Neepawa Natives to the OCN Blizzard. The Natives got D Marcel Fontaine, 20, for Erb and D Devon Speiss, 17. Erb is one of five 20-year-olds on the Wheat Kings' roster at the moment.

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Malgunas walks away from Spruce Kings

Written by JASON PETERS
Citizen staff

Friday, 01 August 2008

Dempsey staying on as head coach, general manager Stewart Malgunas wanted to be head coach of the Prince George Spruce Kings. But, on Friday, he resigned as associate coach of the local B.C. Hockey League team.
Also on Friday, Spruce Kings president Darcy Buryn told The Citizen that current head coach and general manager Ed Dempsey -- whose coaching practices have been under investigation by the club -- will be kept on for the final year of his existing two-year contract. Buryn also did not rule out an extension of Dempsey’s contract.
“Yeah, definitely,” the 38-year-old Malgunas said when asked if he aspired to be head coach of the Kings at some point in the future. “I’ve paid my dues -- five years now as an assistant (in the Western Hockey League and the BCHL) and it didn’t really look like it was going to happen. I need to take care of my family. We’ve got some business options out there right now and it’s time to move on.”
Malgunas was tight-lipped about any possible relation between his decision to quit and the team’s decision to keep Dempsey behind the bench for the 2008-09 season.
“That’s a tough one -- I don’t know how to really answer that,” Malgunas said. “I’d rather not comment on that, actually.
“I just don’t think the timing is right for me with the Spruce Kings right now. There are a few issues that I’ve elaborated with Darcy on that I thought needed to be addressed, and things just weren’t working out. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. I’m sad to leave the organization and I wish them all the best.”
Malgunas is a former Spruce Kings defenceman who went on to skate in the National Hockey League for the Philadelphia Flyers, Winnipeg Jets, Washington Capitals and Calgary Flames. He was hired by the WHL’s Prince George Cougars as an assistant coach in May of 2003 and worked alongside Dempsey until the latter was fired in October of the same year. Dempsey resurfaced with the Kings, and Malgunas joined the BCHL organization on a volunteer basis as an assistant coach in November of 2006 shortly after he and head coach Mike Vandekamp were removed as coaches of the Cougars.
Buryn met with Malgunas on Friday afternoon. Buryn didn’t directly link Malgunas’s resignation with the team’s decision to keep Dempsey under contract following the conclusion of the internal investigation into Dempsey’s coaching practices.
“I think the pressure we were under as an organization this summer, it was hard on a personal level on a lot of people that were involved,” Buryn said. “Whether that had any bearing on Stew’s decision, I’m not sure. Part of the good chat that Stew and I had (Friday) was that coaching is a difficult career path. If you want to be a coach, you’ve got to be willing at some point to go where opportunities are. But if your goal is to be the coach of a particular hockey team....
“I have no doubt that Stew’s got a lot of passion for the Prince George Spruce Kings, and if an opportunity presented itself in the future -- depending on where these other endeavours take him -- he may want to continue a coaching career. Hockey has been a big part of his life for a long time and he has made a decision to step away from it for a while to pursue some other things. Where he winds up in the hockey world will be interesting to see.”
The Dempsey investigation was sparked this spring by allegations of misconduct by former players, including ex-captains Brayden Penner and Ryan de Vries. Buryn confirmed it has now been completed.
“We’ve wrapped up our internal review,” he said. “We had a player come forward with some concerns and so, as we would do for any player who has given lots to our organization, we looked into it and spent a lot of time talking to a lot of people. I think at the end of the day (we) found what it comes down to is difference of opinion over coaching styles or motivational techniques. And you’re going to have those things in junior hockey, those differences of opinion. As part of that review we also heard from a lot of people with a lot of good things to say about our program and about the progress we’ve made in our goal to be as competitive as any other team in the B.C. Hockey League.”
Buryn said any possible extension of Dempsey’s contract will be related to performance.
“I think we’ve made some big strides over the last few years, building on what other people have done and continuing to move the Spruce Kings organization forward,” Buryn said. “And Ed has been a big part of moving that forward.
“I talked to Ed before he went on holidays, and we’re fine going into this season with the one year left and (we’ll) let the contract play itself out as the season goes forward.”
Buryn said the search for a Malgunas replacement will be Dempsey’s responsibility.
Malgunas will still be the head instructor at the Spruce Kings summer hockey school, which starts on Tuesday and runs through Aug. 22.
“I’ve got 220 kids signed up for hockey school and I don’t plan on letting those kids down,” he said. “After that, my duties with the Spruce Kings will be over.”

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