Clark out; Hawgood in

From The Daily News of Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007 . . .

The new owners of the Kamloops Blazers have made their first move in
reshaping the WHL franchise.
Dean Clark, who was in his fifth season with the club, has been dismissed as
general manager and head coach.
Former Blazers defencemean Greg Hawgood will be named head coach today.
Hawgood, who doesn’t have any coaching experience at this level, has been
managing the Ice Box Arena.
An interim director of hockey operations will be hired in the near future.
The Daily News also learned late last night that the Blazers are expected to
announce today that defenceman Keaton Ellerby, who turned 19 on Monday, has
been traded to the Moose Jaw Warriors for right-winger Brady Calla, 19, who
is a Kelowna native.
Calla, 6-foot-0 and 195 pounds, has 10 points in 14 games this season. In
219 career regular-season games, he has 105 points, including 36 goals.
Majority owner Tom Gaglardi made the announcement of Clark’s firing at a
hastily called news conference late Wednesday afternoon in the Blazers’
boardroom.
Kirk Fraser, the radio voice of the Blazers, and Dennis Coates, the team’s
alternate governor, also attended the news conference.
The firing comes with the Blazers, who have played without much enthusiasm
in losing four straight games, about to open a three-game weekend. They meet
the Chiefs in Spokane on Friday, return home to face the Chilliwack Bruins
on Saturday and then play the Giants in Vancouver on Sunday.
The Blazers hold a 6-9-1-1 record and are ninth in the 10-team Western
Conference, three points behind the Seattle Thunderbirds. Eight teams will
qualify for the playoffs.
The decision to fire Clark, who is signed through the 2008-09 season with a
club option on 2009-10, was made Tuesday morning.
“We unanimously decided it was time to make a change,” Gaglardi said
referring to partners Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla, Mark Recchi and Darryl
Sydor, all of them ex-Blazers who now are in the NHL.
Those five purchased the Blazers over the summer and officially took over as
owners on Oct. 25.
“It’s unfortunate,” Gaglardi said. “This is a difficult decision. It was a
decision that was unanimous among our ownership group. It was a decision I’m
not sure I was prepared to make unless there was unanimity among our
ownership group. The fact is that there was.”
Gaglardi said the interim director of hockey operations “will take over a
portion of Dean’s job and the interim head coach will take the other
portions.”
Gaglardi added that Shane Zulyniak, the assistant GM and assistant coach,
and assistant coach Andrew Milne will be retained and, Gaglardi said,
“leaned on heavily, certainly during the transition period for the interim
head coach.”
Zulyniak and Milne are signed through 2008-09.
Assistant coach Steve Gainey also remains in place.
“I don’t know,” Clark, the 10th winningest coach in WHL history, said when
asked what went wrong. “If I had an answer, things would be different.
Ultimately, the team didn’t play well.
“We had the great preseason and everybody expected things to be better.
There were a lot of one-goal games. . . . You score a goal here or there. .
. . Confidence is a funny thing.”
Asked if he felt relieved, disappointed or frustrated, Clark responded: “All
of the above.”
Was he surprised?
“No, not at all,” he said.
Gaglardi, when asked about Clark’s contract and buyout terms, replied: “I’m
not going to comment on that.”
Gaglardi and Clark met in mid-afternoon.
“I think Dean would admit his disappointment as to the recent performance of
the club,” Gaglardi said. “I think he’s as disappointed as anyone.”
Clark said he feels worst of all “for the kids.”
“I wish the players all the success,” said Clark. “They’re good kids;
they’re good players. They will be good. It was a matter of time before we
figured it out.”
Clark and his wife, Darilyn, were celebrating daughter Kaitlyne’s fifth
birthday yesterday.
“Are we celebrating?” Clark said. “Absolutely.”