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Former ECHL Coach/Player Gordon
Named Outstanding Coach In AHL

April 10, 2008

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League has announced that former ECHL player and coach and current Providence Bruins coach Scott Gordon has been named the winner of the outstanding coach award for 2007-08.

Gordon becomes the third former ECHL coach in a row to capture the honor, joining Mike Haviland and Kevin Dineen, who won in 2006-07 and 2005-06, respectively. ECHL coaches have won the award seven times in the last eight years including four consecutive years from 2001-04 with Claude Noel (2004), Geoff Ward (2003), Bruce Cassidy (2002) and Don Granato (2001). The first former ECHL coach to win the award was former Wheeling and current Carolina Hurricanes head coach Peter Laviolette in 1999.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the AHL, marking the seventh consecutive season that it has had affiliations with 20 or more teams in the AHL. In the last six seasons the ECHL has had more call ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with more than 2,300 call ups involving more than 1,200 players. In each of the last three seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL in the same season. The AHL has 10 former ECHL coaches who are head coaches and 14 others who are assistant coaches while almost 500 players with ECHL experience have played in the league this season.

Gordon played for Johnstown in 1988-89 and on January 30, 1990 he became the first ECHL player to play in the National Hockey League when he made his debut with the Quebec Nordiques against the Buffalo Sabres. Gordon returned to the ECHL with Nashville in 1992-93 and Knoxville in 1993-94.

Gordon was named head coach of Roanoke in the ECHL in 1998-99. In his first season the Express finished first in the Northern Conference with a 38-22-10 record, advancing to the Kelly Cup Playoffs where they lost in the conference finals. In his second season Roanoke went 44-20-6 and set team records for wins (44) and points (94) while finishing atop the Northeast Division standings and again advancing to the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

In his fifth season as head coach, Gordon has led Providence to the regular season points championship with 113 points (54-16-7). It is the second regular season title for the Bruins, who have been in first place in their division every day since Oct. 28.

The 45 year old, who was a member of the United States team at the 1992 Olympics, joined Providence as an assistant coach in 2000 and became the head coach on Mar. 19, 2003 when Mike Sullivan was promoted to Boston. Gordon has a 220-153-33 record in 406 games with Providence.

Former ECHL players won the CCM/AHL Player of the Month award in November (Martin St. Pierre), December (Pascal Pelletier) and January (Grant Stevenson). Trevor Smith, who played in the ECHL with Utah this season, was the Rbk Edge/AHL Rookie of the Month for January while John Curry, who played this year for both Las Vegas and Wheeling, was the winner in December. The Rbk Hockey/AHL Player of the Week award was won eight times by former ECHL players.

For the 18th year in a row in 2007 there was a former ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion as Hamilton had a record 12 players with ECHL experience on its roster.

ECHL Coaches Winning AHL Coach of the Year Award
2008 - Scott Gordon
2007 - Mike Haviland
2006 - Kevin Dineen
2004 - Claude Noel
2003 - Geoff Ward
2002 - Bruce Cassidy
2001 - Don Granato
1999 - Peter Laviolette

ECHL
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary in 2007-08, the ECHL is the Premier ‘AA’ Hockey League and the third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League.

ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in four states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league with 25 teams playing 900 games in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08.

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the NHL in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

There have been 355 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including 99 in the last three seasons. There have been 210 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past seven seasons.

There are 15 coaches in the NHL who have ECHL experience including former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette, who is head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, and former Mississippi coach Bruce Boudreau, who is head coach of the Washington Capitals.

The ECHL is represented for the seventh consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team in 2007 with Anaheim assistant coach Dave Farrish, players Francois Beauchemin and George Parros and broadcasters John Ahlers and Steve Carroll.

The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 18 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.

In each of the last two seasons there have been more than 225 players who have played in both the ECHL and the AHL and there were over 800 call-ups involving more than 500 players. In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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