Keith Cassidy is accustomed to getting the most out of young teams, and that's what he'll be asked to do with the Estevan Bruins.The Bruins' executive announced Thursday that they have hired Cassidy, 36, as their new head coach and general manager.Cassidy owns an impeccable coaching record in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, reaching the league final in four of his five seasons there, including an RBC Cup appearance in 2006-07 with the Selkirk Steelers.
He last coached in 2009-10 when he took the Winnipeg Saints to the MJHL final. He spent the past year taking care of his advertising specialty business in Winnipeg in preparation for a full-time return to coaching."I don't rant and rave, right off the bat. I think I'm a pretty level-headed individual," Cassidy said of his approach to coaching.
"I try to do the most with what's available and get the most out of the players we have in the position we're in."Bruins president Jeff Pierson said Cassidy represented everything the club was looking for in its next bench boss and GM.
"There's three things that stood out to us. Number one, his coaching record. It speaks for itself. He knows how to win. "Second of all, along with that winning, he was able to do it with younger hockey clubs. He's obviously very good at developing hockey players. Thirdly, his business background was the icing on the cake."In four years with Selkirk and one with Winnipeg, Cassidy's teams never won fewer than 34 games and reached the league final in his last two seasons despite modest expectations.
The Steelers lost to the Portage Terriers in the MJHL final in 2008-09."Everybody said that if we made the playoffs, that would be a success," Cassidy recalled.The next season, he took over a Saints team that had been gutted after loading up for an unsuccessful playoff run.
With only two 20-year-olds, the outlook was bleak."Everyone's question was if we're not a contender at Christmas, can we be traded? We were a contender at Christmas."Cassidy said his success stems in part from the fact that he matches systems to his players, not the other way around.
"There were years where we were run-and-gun, top of the league, outscored other teams by 100 goals, and there were other years where we were more focused on the defensive side of things because of the personnel we had," he said."That's key to the way I approach things. You have to look at your personnel and establish a plan that fits with their abilities. I'm pretty adaptable that way. There's no one set of ideas on how to play the game.
"Estevan will be Cassidy's first gig as a general manager, although he said he performed all the duties associated with the role in Winnipeg.Among the adjustments to be made in moving across the border to the SJHL is the lack of a bantam draft here. But as Pierson pointed out, most of the recruiting groundwork has already been laid for Cassidy by Bruins director of player personnel Rick Oakes and the rest of the scouting staff.
"With the strong recruiting we have in place already, I think he just complements it," Pierson said."Even though we lose the nine 20-year-olds, the returning players offer a lot. He isn't coming into a complete rebuild. It isn't like he has to find a whole new top line."Pierson said the board is excited that Cassidy will be able to focus exclusively on the Bruins, whereas previous coach Karry Biette was forced to work another job.
"The hockey club can move forward now. It turned out to be a fairly lengthy process and it's nice to have this chapter over with so we can move ahead."
