New Head Coach-Mike Williamson

[Hitmen1]

Here is the press conference from yesterday. I will update the thread tomorrow with more details on his coaching history.

http://flames.nhl.tv/team/console.jsp?catid=11&id=45183

[Brandonite]

This move makes NO sence to me what so ever! Portland has been the biggest joke of the WHL for the past 5 years and Williamson has been right in the thick of all of it. The Hitmen IMO could have gotten a much more suited guy for the position.

[tigsfan0809]

I was always wondering why they haven't promoted Joel Otto. He's been behind their bench for a few seasons now, and after Lowry had such great success last season, why they'd look outside the organization for a coach. Unless he told the team that he wasn't interested......

[Hitmen1]

Kisio said that Joel didn't want the job. He is at a place in his life where he comes to work and goes home to his family, Joel very rarely travels with the Hitmen. By the sounds of it, Joel hasn't committed to returning for the upcoming season.

[Hitmen1]

This move makes NO sence to me what so ever! Portland has been the biggest joke of the WHL for the past 5 years and Williamson has been right in the thick of all of it. The Hitmen IMO could have gotten a much more suited guy for the position.

I agree with your last sentence. Based on the interviews with Kelly Kisio and Ken King at the entry draft, I was expecting a fairly big name coach coming in, a coach with some NHL experience. Williamson has an okay career coaching record hopefully he can improve on it with the Hitmen.

1999-00 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head‡ 24 7 15 2 0 0.333
2000-01 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 72 37 27 5 3 0.569
2001-02 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 66 36 25 5 0 0.583
2002-03 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 72 19 40 8 5 0.354 Lost in round 1
2003-04 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 72 34 29 6 3 0.535 Lost in round 1
2004-05 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 72 35 27 5 5 0.556 Lost in round 1
2005-06 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 72 32 32 0 8 0.500 Lost in round 2
2006-07 Portland Winter Hawks WHL Head 72 17 52 0 3 0.257 Out of Playoffs

[AlanC]

This move makes NO sence to me what so ever! Portland has been the biggest joke of the WHL for the past 5 years and Williamson has been right in the thick of all of it. The Hitmen IMO could have gotten a much more suited guy for the position.

Portland has been the biggest joke for the last THREE years, not five. And Williamson was fired after the first of those three years, so he has nothing to do with the abysmal records the last two seasons.

The problems in Portland have nothing to do with the coach. The G.M. was a few years past his prime, the scouts weren't finding any talent, and the owners at the time were a bunch of buffoons so the team was unable to convince some players to come to the team. No coach could have been successful with what the Hawks were putting on the ice two and three years ago.

Williamson's Hawks teams were above .500 five years out of seven (how many coaches with 7+ years can say that?) and made it to the WHL finals in 00-01. He captained the team as a player, and he also spent several years as an assistant to Brent Peterson (surely one of the best coaches the WHL has seen in the last 20 years) and won the 1997 Memorial Cup as that assistant.

I think his resume is pretty good and likely one of the best amongst the coaches out there who were available. How many teams out there have coaches who are only 36 years old but have seven and a half years of experience in the WHL and have won a Memorial Cup? I think it's a good hire....much better than hiring John Van Boxmeer, who was the other name linked to the Hitmen job.