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pontcanna
06-22-2012, 06:12 PM
Habscheid vacating role as coach and gm of Victoria Royals

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM JUNE 22, 2012 3:02 PM

The Victoria Royals will have a new head coach and general manager next season.

The Western Hockey League club announced suddenly Friday afternoon that current head coach and GM Marc Habscheid is taking on a new position with GSL Holdings Ltd., parent company of RG Properties, the latter being the Vancouver-based company which owns the Royals and manages Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

“Marc Habscheid will be taking on a new executive role within GSL to assist GSL in developing other hockey related businesses,” said the club, in a release.

“At present, GSL owns Officepools.com [the world’s largest on-line hockey pool site], Planet Ice [the largest chain of private community rinks in B.C.] and Planet Youth Hockey [GSL’s charity youth program helping inner city kids].Marc will be involved in advising these existing businesses as well as assisting in developing new hockey related business opportunities. In taking on this new role within GSL, Marc will be relinquishing his responsibilities with the hockey team.”

The release quotes Habscheid: “I am very excited about this new role, it is a great business opportunity. I have been fortunate to have coached at every level of hockey, and I welcome the opportunity to use my knowledge of the game to work with GSL in their hockey related businesses.

Graham Lee owns GSL, RG Properties and the Royals.

“I thank Marc [Habscheid] for his contributions to the team,” said Lee, in the release.

“I have been speaking to Marc for a while about this and am looking forward to working directly with him to advance our other hockey related businesses.”

GSL/RG said it will be announcing the new Royals head coach and GM within the coming week.

Former NHLer Habscheid, the veteran mentor who won a Memorial Cup coaching the Kelowna Rockets and who coached Canada to a silver medal at the world junior hockey championships, guided the Royals to a seventh-place finish last season in the WHL's Western Conference.

The Royal were swept 4-0 by the Kamloops Blazers in the first round of the playoffs.

Habscheid is set to address the media later this afternoon.

pontcanna
06-23-2012, 01:02 AM
Habscheid era comes to an end in Victoria

BY CLEVE DHEENSAW, TIMESCOLONIST.COM JUNE 22, 2012

Marc Habscheid has vacated the head coaching and general manager positions with the Victoria Royals, saying it was a mutual decision between himself and team owner Graham Lee.

“He [Lee] is the boss and I respect him . . . it’s the right time,” said Habscheid, who will remain with Lee’s company in a non-Royals capacity.

Lee was adamant when asked if Habscheid was being pushed out the Royals door by being kicked upstairs.

“No, absolutely not,” said Lee.

“This was a mutually-discussed decision.”

Habscheid concurred.

“Graham and I talked about it and it’s a two-fold family and business decision,” he said.

“Now seemed like the perfect time. I can spend more time with the family. I will have weekends to myself . . . I haven’t had them for awhile. And I can learn the business and tech side of the company. I did the same thing with Hockey Canada, helping set up initiatives during my time there.”

The Western Hockey League Royals announced suddenly Friday afternoon that Habscheid is taking on a new “executive role to assist GSL in developing other hockey related businesses.”

GSL Holdings Ltd. is the parent entity of RG Properties, the latter being the Vancouver-based company which owns the Royals and manages Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. Lee owns GSL, RG Properties and the Royals.

The company owns Officepools.com, the world’s largest on-line hockey pool site, Planet Ice, the largest chain of private community rinks in B.C., and Planet Youth Hockey, a GSL charity program helping inner city kids.

Habscheid called the non-ice role “very exciting and a great business opportunity.”

Former NHLer Habscheid, the veteran mentor who won a Memorial Cup coaching the Kelowna Rockets and who coached Canada to a silver medal at the world junior hockey championships, guided the Royals to a 24-41-7 record and seventh-place finish last season in the WHL’s Western Conference.

The Royals, the former Chilliwack Bruins playing their first season in the capital since transferring from the Fraser Valley, were swept 4-0 by the Kamloops Blazers in the first round of the playoffs.

Lee said he will be announcing the new Royals head coach and GM within the coming weeks.

“That person will be coming in with a clean slate . . . the timing is good,” said Habscheid, who added his son, 20-year-old defenceman Zach Habscheid, will not be returning to the Royals.

A big question is whether Lee will keep it as a combined head coach/GM position or divide the jobs and hire two people.

“We’re open to that,” said Lee, about the possibility of a separate head coach and GM.

“We’ll see what the candidates look like. There’s quite a bit of interest among people out there in coming to Victoria. There are a lot of good candidates. We’re keeping an open mind.”

The Edmonton Journal speculated in April that Doug Soetaert, released last season as GM of the Everett Silvertips, might take on that role in Victoria. Other possibilities may include Kris Knoblauch, let go last month as head coach of the Kootenay Ice after leading them to the 2011 WHL title, or former Victoria Cougars WHL junior player Eric Thurston, former head coach with the successful University of Alberta Golden Bears CIS program. And current Kamloops Blazers assistant and former Moose Jaw Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak is highly regarded within WHL circles.

Lee said he is in the interviewing stage and no decisions have been made.

“It won’t be done before the European draft [on Wednesday],” he said.

“It may take a couple of weeks.”

Lee said he would not hire anybody away from existing positions.

“All the people we are looking at are currently not with jobs,” he said.