It’s been almost two months since the Sudbury Wolves were eliminated from the playoffs, a sixth seed that gave the Oshawa Generals a good fight in the first round.
Just as the organization was finally starting to stand straight and stable on their skates, General Manager Barclay Branch left for Flint and now the team has come to a mutual agreement to part ways with Head Coach, David Matsos.
Matsos was brought in in 2013 as an assistant coach and was later named interim head coach before being promoted to head coach for the 2015-16 season.
This past season was by far the most successful, but was the first under a new ownership group and Matsos was entering his final year of his deal.
“He’s gone through a change in ownership and he performed this year with us as our head coach, looking to the future he was looking for an extension. When you agree to have those discussions, you’ve got that stability which I completely understand, you also agree that if we can’t come to an agreement, then obviously we’ll just go our own way,” said general manager and vice-president of hockey operations, Rob Papineau.
“Through that process we had some discussions back and forth and in the end we weren't able to come to an agreement so we agreed to go our own way."
Now the Wolves will have to find themselves a head coach, which Papineau hinted wouldn't be a hard task.
“With change of title, a lot of people started to just inquire. (They are) very excited about what’s been going on in Sudbury in the last year and the changes that have been happening here and a lot of people were reaching ou wanting to be part of that. That’s a real positive thing for the organization, but as we started to go down that road and have different discussions we evaluated everything,” said Papineau.
That means Papineau may have already had candidates or a candidate in mind.
“Through the whole process I didn’t really have to go looking, a lot of people have been coming to try to find Sudbury, which is exciting in its own right. People like what’s been going on up here in the last year and it’s created a bit of a buzz through the hockey circles,” said Papineau.
“Since last night it’s just compounded, there are a lot of people who want to be part of the Sudbury Wolves,” said Papineau.
He said he will make a decision “soon.”
The Wolves will hold an announcement Thursday morning to name their new bench boss.
Papineau wouldn’t go into specifics on where the negotiations between the team and Matsos went wrong, or how close the two sides were, but did speak highly of the man who found a home in Sudbury.
“David is an amazing person, very high-quality individual. So as the season ended, I think it’s fair for him to say for the future and stability for my family, he loves Sudbury and he’d like to talk about committing to something more long term.”
Papineau said it would have been too hard for the sides to carry on after failed talks.
“When you have those discussions, if you come to that agreement, then great, you move forward. But if you can’t come to that agreement it makes it tough to move under the current status quo,” said Papineau.
Matsos responded when we reached out to him, but did not want to comment on the situation at this time.
