By GREGG DRINNAN
Daily News Sports Editor
The Kamloops Blazers are poised to introduce Barry Smith as their newest head coach.
An official announcement is to be made today, 1 p.m., in the Sports Action Lounge at Interior Savings Centre.
Craig Bonner, the Blazers’ general manager, wouldn’t confirm the hiring. However, a source familiar with the WHL team and its search for a coach told The Daily News on Wednesday morning that the Blazers and Smith had come to terms on a contract.
“This may have taken longer than what some people would have liked,” Bonner said. “But I feel good about it because we have pursued every available person out there.”
Smith, 47, is a veteran coach who spent the last five years as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks. That included the lockout season of 2004-05.
Smith and fellow assistant Mike Kelly, who were considered the Canucks’ second and third assistant coaches behind Rick Bowness, were fired by new general manager Mike Gillis on May 22.
With Kamloops, Smith replaces interim head coach Greg Hawgood, who came on board Nov. 8 after the Blazers’ new ownership group fired GM/head coach Dean Clark. Hawgood, who has one year left on his contract, interviewed for the head-coaching position and may be kept on as an assistant coach.
Smith and Hawgood do have some history together – Smith was an assistant coach with the IHL’s Kansas City Blades in 2000-01; Hawgood played 46 games there that season.
Smith was one of the first candidates interviewed by Bonner, who came away most impressed. It seemed that Smith set the benchmark and it wasn’t reached by anyone else. On top of that, it’s believed that Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault, former Canucks head coach Marc Crawford and former Canucks general manager Brian Burke all called Bonner to make pitches on Smith’s behalf.
Smith, who will be the 14th head coach in franchise history, has been a candidate for previous WHL head-coaching positions, including with the Spokane Chiefs when they hired Bill Peters prior to 2005-06.
A native of Stambaugh, Mich., Smith, a defenceman, attended the U of Alaska/Anchorage before embarking on a pro career that includes stops in the Atlantic Coast league and in the British Hockey League. His pro stats, as listed at hockeydb.com, show him with seasons in which he totaled 230, 191 and 139 penalty minutes in 56, 23 and 25 games, respectively. In one of those seasons, 1987-88 with the BHL’s Oxford City Stars, he had 160 points, including 109 goals, and 191 penalty minutes.
During a 10-season career in Europe, he served for six seasons as a player-coach.
He retired as a player and began a coaching career in 1992-93 with the ECHL’s Erie Panthers, with whom he spent four seasons, the last one as head coach. In 1996-97, he worked as the head coach of the USHL’s Waterloo, Iowa, Blackhawks, a junior A team. Until today, that has been his only junior coaching experience.
After a season in Waterloo, he was an assistant coach for three seasons with the ECHL’s Baton Rouge Kingfish.
Smith signed on with the Canucks on Aug. 23, 1999, and was an assistant coach with three AHL teams – the Syracuse Crunch, Kansas City Blades and Manitoba Moose – for one season each before moving up to the big club for 2003-04.
Smith and his wife Carolyn, who live in Whitefish, Mont., in the offseason, have three sons – Maxl, Gage and Hutton.
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Bonner said that he did explore the possibility of hiring Don Nachbaur, who has one year left on his contract as head coach of the Tri-City Americans.
“Don Nachbaur is not the next head coach of the Blazers,” Bonner said.
Nachbaur has a son who is an up-and-coming player and Bonner heard that he may want to play in Canada. Upon hearing that, Bonner approached Tri-City general manager Bob Tory to see if there was anything to that.
“I was just feeling him out to see if there was any chance that we could move forward,” Bonner said. “The bottom line was that there wasn’t. (Nachbaur’s) under contact there. I think it’s my job as the general manager to pursue every possibility and that’s what we did.
“The reality is that he wasn’t available.”
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