CANTLON’S CORNER: KNOBLAUCH NAMED NEW HARTFORD WOLF PACK BENCH BOSS 

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – The New York Rangers finally named a new head coach, on Monday after a 15-week search to replace the fired Keith McCambridge.

Kris Knoblauch becomes the seventh coach in team history, but no assistant coaches were named. Also, no quotes were released in the statement from either Pack GM Chris Drury, Rangers GM Jeff Gorton, or Team President, John Davidson, regarding the hire, which comes off as a bit unusual.

Knoblauch, 40, joins the Rangers organization after being released by the Philadelphia Flyers after two years (2017-19) as an assistant coach as part of the team’s organizational purge. Knoblauch’s 13 seasons of coaching experience have been primarily in Canadian major junior hockey.

His specialty is running the offense according to a very knowledgeable NHL scout. “He is an offensive-orientated coach with strong work on the power play side of the game.”

He was the Head Coach for seven consecutive seasons in Canadian major junior hockey. His first was with the Kootenay Ice (Cranbrook, BC) of the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 2010 till 2012. He also served as the top dog with the Erie Otters (OHL) for parts of five seasons from (2012-2017). Knoblauch’s seven seasons as a head coach with these two teams earned himself a record of 298-130-16-13 in 457 regular-season games (.684 points percentage).

In his first season with the Kootenay Ice (which just relocated to Winnipeg) in the 2010-11 season, Knoblauch guided the team to 46-21-1-4 (97 points) in the Central Division. They finished third behind Red Deer and Medicine Hat and saw the team win the WHL Championship knocking off Portland (OR) Winter Hawks in five games. The Ice won 16 of their 19 WHL playoff games.

The following season the team finished fourth behind Edmonton, Calgary, and Medicine Hat and lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual Memorial Cup champions, the Edmonton Oil Kings.

He is the second Wolf Pack head coach to come from the Kootenay program. The other was the Wolf Pack’s third coach, Ryan McGill. He was in Hartford for three years (2002-2005). Ironically, Knoblauch played for McGill in Edmonton, and Kootenay (which relocated from Edmonton) while McGill succeeded Knoblauch in his second tour of duty in Kootenay when Knoblauch left for the OHL. McGill is currently an assistant coach with the Vegas Golden Knights.

Knoblauch would then have four full seasons with the Erie Otters (2013-2017) who posted a 204-58-7-3 record (.768 winning percentage) while he was there. Erie went on to win at least 50 games in all four seasons, thus becoming the first team in the history of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL is comprised of the Ontario Hockey League, Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and Western Hockey League) to post four consecutive 50-win seasons.

He first arrived in Erie in 2012-13 replacing former New Haven Nighthawk player and head coach, Robbie Ftorek. The team finished dead-last in the OHL before they had those four consecutive fantastic campaigns.

The following season the Otters finished third in the OHL Midwest Division before falling to Guelph in the OHL semifinals.

In 2014-15 Erie won the Midwest Division with a record of 50-14-2-2 with Connor McDavid, Dylan Strome, and Alex DeBrincat on the team. They would go on to lose to Oshawa four-games-to-one in the semis. In 2015-16, they fashioned 52-14-1-0 record yet lost to the Dale Hunter coached London Knights in the semifinals.

His last junior campaign in the 2016-17 season he had current Wolf Pack player, Darren Raddysh, on the team. The Otters won the OHL title beating the Mississauga Steelheads four-games-to-one to capture the John Robertson Cup but they lost in the Memorial Cup Final to the host Windsor Spitfires 4-3.

Knoblauch received the Matt Leyden Trophy as the OHL’s Coach of the Year in 2015-16, and he was named to the OHL’s Second All-Star Team coach in 2013-14.

He won the Hamilton Spectator Trophy for having the OHL’s best regular-season record in back-to-back seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17).

Over those seven junior seasons he was responsible for developing a lot of high end young talent in the NHL, including Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Alex DeBrincat (Chicago), Sam Reinhart (Buffalo), Dylan Strome (Chicago), Andre Burakovsky (Colorado), Anthony Cirelli (Tampa Bay), Erik Cernak (Tampa Bay), Connor Brown (Ottawa), and Travis Dermott (Toronto).

Knoblauch is a native of Imperial, Saskatchewan. He was Assistant Coach with Kootenay for three seasons (2007– 2010) before being elevated to their head coach. He began his coaching career as an Assistant Coach with the Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) for one season in 2006-07.

In addition, Knoblauch has coached in several international tournaments. He served as an Assistant Coach with Team Canada at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championship, helping the Canadians earn a silver medal. Knoblauch also served as the Head Coach for Canada-Red at the 2015 World U-17 Hockey Challenge.

Knoblauch was selected by the New York Islanders in the seventh round, (166th overall), in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft. He played parts of four seasons of major junior hockey in the WHL (1995-1999) with the Red Deer Rebels, Edmonton/Kootenay Ice, and Lethbridge Hurricanes, where his head coach was former New England Whaler, Bryan Maxwell.

He followed that with five seasons (1999-2004) of Canadian college hockey at the University of Alberta (CWUAA).

Knoblauch, a forward, registered 117 points (38 goals, 79 assists) in 102 games with the Golden Bears as he helped the school win a CIAU National Championship in his first season in 1999-00 beating the University of Moncton 6-2 to win the David Johnston University Cup.

He played just one year of minor pro hockey in 2004-06 with the defunct Central Hockey League, Austin Ice Bats. The team that was started and co-owned originally by ex-Whalers, Paul Lawless, and Blaine Stoughton when it was in the now-defunct Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL) that merged with the Central Hockey League in 2001.

He also played four playoff games for the defunct Asheville (NC) Smoke (UHL) after his last junior season.

(Portions of a Rangers press release were used in the formation of this story)