Legein joins Spokane staff

Vincent Ethier/CHL

The Saint John Sea Dogs' coaching staff has a couple of big holes to fill as training camp inches closer and closer.

The team still doesn't have a head coach with Gardiner MacDougall returning to the UNB Reds. On Thursday Saint John lost another member of their coaching staff with assistant Stefan Legein making the move to the Western Hockey League.

Legein, who had been an assistant coach with the Sea Dogs since the 2018-19 season, has joined the Spokane Chiefs as an associate coach.

“I am extremely honoured to be joining the Chiefs family — it means a lot to be in a place that has such good people from top to bottom,” Legein said in the news release. “With that, I’d like to thank Mr. Brett, Mark (Miles), Matt (Bardsley) and Ryan (Smith) for giving me the opportunity to join a long list of great coaches that have been in Spokane. In speaking with Matt and Ryan, the objectives of the team, as well as my personal beliefs, lined up perfect and I couldn’t be more excited for the opening of the 2022-23 season.”

✅ Coaching staff: complete! Welcome to Spokane, Stefan Legein!

📰 https://t.co/5y8llDxNHU#GoChiefsGo pic.twitter.com/pLM2E9gxyj

— Spokane Chiefs (@spokanechiefs) July 28, 2022

Legein, who was a well known player in his junior career, joined the Sea Dogs after working with the Ontario Hockey League's Mississauga Steelheads as a video coach.

“We are very excited to have Stefan join the Spokane Chiefs organization to work with Ryan, Dustin (Donaghy) and our players,” Chiefs general manager Matt Bardsley said. “His experience and strengths as a player as well as a coach will be a great addition to our team in our goal of maximizing the players’ development while achieving team success. We would like to thank the Saint John Sea Dogs organization for allowing us to speak with Stefan during this process. Finally, we would like to welcome Stefan along with his wife Shannon, and their three children Emerson, Delilah and MacKinnon to the city of Spokane.”

With MacDougall (who replaced the fired Gordie Dwyer) and Legein gone, assistant coach Travis Crickard is the only member of Saint John's bench staff set to return. Rocky Thompson, who worked with the Sea Dogs as a Memorial Cup advisor, has joined the Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant coach.

Crickard has only been with the Sea Dogs since last November.

Goaltending and video coach Brian Fleming, who has stepped behind the bench to work as an assistant coach from time-to-time over the years, also remains with the club.

In an interview with the Telegraph-Journal (paywall) last week, Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie gave the impression that the team is leaning towards an internal candidate to take the head coaching reins. 

"Our preference, based on the experience that we had with this group down the stretch and everything we have been through as a group is to look internally to a candidate who has been involved with the team," Georgie told the T-J. "That is our preference right now."

Sea Dogs training camp begins Aug. 15. The team's first pre-season game is Aug. 18 in Fredericton.