For the second straight offseason, the Prince Albert Mintos are in search of a new bench boss.
In a social media post on March 17, the team announced that Doan Smith had stepped down from his role as the team’s bench boss.
Minto general manager Kalen Wright says the team was thankful for what Smith brought during his tenure, but are seeking a candidate who will be in the role for multiple years.
“Doan was only here for a year. With his work situation with Global (Sports Academy) not returning to PA, he had a decision to make. It just didn’t work out for him to come back which is unfortunate. This will be the fourth coach in six years we’ve had, and third time I’ve gone through a hiring process now. It’s not ideal by any means, and that’s why I kind of want to get it right this time around, and not that we didn’t get it right, but someone that’s going to be around for a decent amount (of time).”
Smith replaced Tim Leonard behind the Minto bench, who retired from coaching at the end of the 2023-24 season.
With the offseason now approaching, the Mintos will set their sights on recruiting talent for next year’s team. Wright says having a coach in place sooner rather than later is important to help the team be able to successfully sign recruits.
“They have questions about who the coaches are all the time. They want to know what their role is under that coach and all that. Recruiting is a big one. You don’t want to be that team that’s always looking for a coach. We understand this is a developmental league, we develop players and coaches and the league itself develops refs so everyone moves on at some point, but ideally in a perfect world you have someone in that three to five year range so you can actually build year after year on stuff.”
In terms of the rest of the coaching staff, the organization has not indicated if assistant coaches Frank Fazio, Brian Glynn or Braxx George will return for the 2025-26 season.
Wright says he has had discussions with all three, but the final decision will be made once a head coach is named.
“I’ve had discussions with all of them now, and after a couple of weeks, we let the season settle, and see where their minds are on everything. I don’t want to speak for them, but most of them want to return if they can in some capacity. The main thing is getting a head coach in place, and then we’ll go from there. I can’t make any promises to who is going to be back. If we bring in the head coach, and he has someone he’s comfortable working with, we might have to go in a different direction.”
The Mintos begin spring camp on April 27-18. Wright indicated the team hopes to have a coach named prior to that date.
Subhead: Raider prospect Sivertson captures SMAAAHL title with Pat Canadians
The Regina Pat Canadians captured the SMAAAHL league title on Thursday night, defeating the Moose Jaw AAA Warriors by a 3-1 final score.
Regina captured the best-of-five series three games to one and captured the league title losing only a single game the entire postseason.
Raider prospect Jonah Sivertson played a key role for the Pat Canadians with 16 points (10G, 6A) in 10 playoff games. Sivertson began the season with the Raiders and was reassigned to the Pat Canadians.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
