After 356 games, a 189-134-25-8 record and some of the best seasons in Warriors history, general manager Alan Millar announced Monday afternoon that the Western Hockey League team had relieved Hunter of his head coaching duties and replaced him with associate coach Mark O’Leary.
“I met with Tim this morning, he’s a good man, a good coach and a good hockey guy. But it’s time,” Millar said during a press conference in the Warriors dressing room. “We just feel that it’s time to turn the page and turn our team over and look at a new direction.
“Tim deserves a lot of credit, he’s certainly heightened our program in terms of our experiences with Hockey Canada and the World Junior Hockey Championship, we obviously had a number of 40-plus-win seasons and our best regular season in our history with 52 wins with him at the helm… And I look at some of the players who have developed and moved on, you look at a couple years ago when three 20-year-old signed pro contracts in Tanner Jeannot, Jayden Halbgewachs and Brayden Burke and Tim certainly deserved a lot of credit for his leadership and what he’s done for our hockey club.”
But in the end, Millar explained, it all came down to the current situation with the team, both coaching- and record-wise.
The Warriors are in the first year of a major rebuild and currently have an 11-22-2-0 record, second last in the Eastern Conference. That, in addition to Hunter being in the last year of the current contract, made Millar decide to pull the trigger on what he described as one of the hardest decisions he’s ever had to make as a general manager.
“Over the course of the last number of weeks and days and last night and even this morning I’d come to the decision that I was not going to renew Tim in the summer or offer him a contract,” Millar said. “I felt it was only fair to him, I have too much respect for him to string him along for the next 30 games in what has turned into a very, very difficult season. This allows Tim to move on and gives him lots of time to find another opportunity in the game and I’m very confident that he will.”
There’s no question Hunter leaves the team with an incredible legacy under his belt.
Former Moose Jaw Warriors head coach Tim Hunter.Hunter joined the team in the 2014-15 season and leaves the franchise as the all-time leader in coaching wins and second all-time in games coached. The Warriors made the playoffs from 2016-19 with Hunter at the helm. He also served as the head coach of Team Canada at the World Junior Championships in 2019 and was an assistant coach in 2017 and 2018, when Canada last won gold prior to this past weekend.
Through it all, O’Leary was an assistant coach, having joined the team in 2012-13 and bring promoted to associate coach in for the 2018-19 campaign. He served as head coach for 35 games when Hunter was at the World Juniors, posting a 24-6-4-1 record in that time.
O’Leary will serve as head coach effective immediately and is expected to sign a multi-year deal once all the x’s and o’s are settled.
O’Leary made his first act as head coach of the Warriors to thank Hunter for his mentorship over the years with the team.
“For me, Tim has been a big part of why I’m in the position I’m in today,” O’Leary said. “I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for me in terms of challenging me to be a better coach and push the status quo, always looking for new things, and there’s certainly a lot of things I’ve taken from Tim in the small details of the game.
That said, the opportunity to take over a young and growing team is one he’s looking forward to.
“I’m really excited about the opportunity, I know we’re a young group but there’s a lot of things to be excited about moving forward and really can’t wait to get started. We’re not going to change things here overnight, but I’m really excited about the opportunity moving forward with the staff we have with (assistant coach) Scott King and the group we have in the room.
I love being in Moose Jaw, I met my wife here and her family his from here, this is my home and I’m really excited moving forward with this team and do something big.”
The Warriors players haven’t been informed of the decision, with O’Leary planning to meet with the captains on Tuesday morning before practice and the team prior to taking the ice.
The Warriors are back in action on Wednesday night when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
