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The St. John's native has been an assistant coach with the Sea Dogs since last November, helping the team win the Memorial Cup in June.
This will be Crickard's first stint as a head coach at the Canadian Hockey League level. His previous work also includes stints as an assistant coach with the OHL's Ottawa 67's and WHL's Kelowna Rockets. The Rockets won the WHL title in 2015 before falling in the Memorial Cup final to the Oshawa Generals.
The move comes as no surprise after Georgie said he was leaning towards hiring an internal candidate as the squad's next head coach. Gardiner MacDougall has returned to his role with the UNB Reds and assistant Stefan Legein has moved on to the WHL's Spokane Chiefs.
With Crickard promoted and Legein no longer with the team, the Sea Dogs have two assistant coach vacancies. Saint John begins training camp on Monday, Aug. 15.
The Sea Dogs have had a carousel of head coaches since the 2019-20 season, including Josh Dixon, Jeff Cowan, Greg Gilbert, Gordie Dwyer, MacDougall and now Crickard. It will be interesting to see what Crickard can do with a squad that's going to take a big step backwards before returning to contention in a few years.
Crickard is the 11th head coach in Sea Dogs franchise history.
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