The first coaching change of the 2017-18 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League season took place Tuesday morning as the Yorkton Terriers terminated the contract of general manager and head coach Casey O’Brien.
O’Brien, 38, had been with the Terriers since August 2011 as an assistant coach and moved up to the general manager and head coach role in September of last year when Trent Cassan took an assistant coaching position with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen.
In his first season in charge of the Terriers’ bench, O’Brien had a 28-25-5-0 record to finish sixth in the league standings, which was their best record since winning the RBC Cup in 2014.
After being ousted in the quarter-finals in five games by the Estevan Bruins in the spring, the start to this year had been a tough one for the Terriers.
Following a pair of losses at the Civic Centre over the weekend, they had a 3-12-2-0 record and were in 11th place in the standings.
“The timing was just so terrible, but we have to put the team first. We felt it had to be done,” Terriers president Dave Baron told Stefanie Davis of Yorkton This Week Tuesday while making reference to the fact that O’Brien’s wife is currently recovering from a heart attack she suffered earlier this month.
“Can Casey coach? Yes. Do we have players who can play? Yes. But the synergy just wasn’t there.”
Assistant coach Mat Hehr will be stepping in as the interim general manager and head coach until a replacement is hired.
The last in season coaching change in the SJHL took place last October when the La Ronge Ice Wolves parted ways with Shawn Martin after they started the season with a 2-12-0-1 mark.
