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Tailing the Komets

New coaching candidates

This is in tomorrow's paper.

The Fort Wayne Komets are continuing to pare their list of potential coaches as a possible front-runner has emerged.

Former Komets Bruce Ramsay and Steffon Walby have been told they are no longer being considered, but John Marks and Rick Adduono are, along with the previously identified Pat Bingham. There may be other potential candidates, but Komets General Manager David Franke declined to name them.

Marks, 58, has one of the top resumes in minor league hockey, and only became available when the East Coast Hockey League's Greenville Grrrowl suspended operations last week. He played 10 years and 657 games in the National Hockey League with the Chicago Blackhawks as a defenseman.

After retiring in 1982, Marks began his coaching career at the University of North Dakota, before coaching the Kalamazoo Wings and Indianapolis Ice in the International Hockey League. He was Kalamazoo's coach when the Komets upset the Wings in the 1991 playoffs and the next season when the Wings upset the Komets.

Since 1993, Marks has been coaching in the ECHL, first the Charlotte Checkers and in 1998 became the Grrrowl's first and only coach. He led Greenville, and former Komet Sean Venedam, to the Riley Cup championship in 2002.

The Grrrowl owners announced June 1 they were folding the team after losing $1 million last season.

Marks has a career record of 706-564-124.

Adduono, 51, retired as a player in 1982 and played 80 games in the World Hockey Association and four in the NHL. He coached in junior hockey until 1998 when he took over the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays. In three seasons he led the Stingrays to the Riley Cup in 2001.

The moved to the Greensboro Generals in 2002 and to the UHL's Port Huron Beacons in 2004-05 where his team had a 34-40 record. He originally moved the team from Port Huron to Roanoke Valley but left before last season started. He was coaching Pensacola of the ECHL this season, with a 11-16-3 record, when the team changed owners and the new owner hired his own coach in January.

Adduono has a 313-232-57 career record as a professional head coach.

Bingham, 37, coached previously in the UHL with Asheville and Adirondack. He was an assistant coach with the American Hockey League's Bridgeport Soundtigers last season. His career record is 215-123-9 as a head coach.

Franke said the Komets are still looking at naming a coach after next week's UHL meetings in Las Vegas. Management's goal is to have Greg Puhalski's replacement selected by July 1.

Posted in: Komets

Comments

Mark
Tue, 06/13/2006 - 8:04pm

I still think Pat Bingham would make an excellent coach in Fort Wayne...

Steve
Tue, 06/13/2006 - 8:11pm

I told a few people when the job opened up that John Marks would be a great canidate for the job in Ft Wayne.

Hit Somebody!!!
Tue, 06/13/2006 - 8:25pm

Is Gillis on the Komet Radar at all?

I like Marks and Bingham too. Adduono doesn't sound too thrilling. I vote for Super Fan....I mean Chief.

Tony E
Tue, 06/13/2006 - 8:27pm

Funny thing about John Marks ....
Marks coached Greenville for 8 years (2 more than Chief coached here).........
In 2001-02 he lead the team to the championship. 2 years later the team went an awful 14-53-5 for a total of 33 points!! Did the team fire him? Did he get run out of town?
Nope and the following 2 years they posted 83 and 93 points!
Would that ever have been allowed to happen in Fort Wayne? Just thinking out loud....

I wonder if there is any chance Greenville will get a team in the SPHL? The ECHL is going to have big problems when a succesful team (on ice) can't afford to stay in the league

Oh and as a final note.... guess who the starting goalie for much of that awful 14 win season and since has become a star in the UHL? I will give you the easy clue, ROCKFORD!

Pat
Tue, 06/13/2006 - 8:35pm

I thought that Ken Hitchcock was the Kalamazoo coach in 1992 when the Wings upset the Komets.

Blake
Tue, 06/13/2006 - 8:56pm

My bad, it was Bob Hoffmeyer.

Bob
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 1:35am

No one can accuse Marks of being a cardboard cutout....I remember one night when he brought the Indy Ice to town and he wanted to run across the ice to throttle the late Jim Amstutz after he said over the PA to "stick a fork in them" Back then, the PA guy sat at ice level between the penalty boxes. This guy was so steamed that he had to be restrained....if looks could kill! Anyways, if you want someone who is more....ehh....animated, then John Marks is worth consideration.

JR
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 4:01am

Hopefully the UHL goes to a hard cap; but gets rid of the vet rule. With all these teams folding and all these vets now available it would be a shame to let alot of these good players get away. I dont want it to turn in to the waiting for retirement league like the last years of the IHL so maybe up the rookie number to 4 to keep the league fresh.

Greg
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 5:03am

Some interesting names still being considered.

I would be interested to know if Gillis is interested now he's out of a job.

Jason
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 6:11am

Gillis and Adduano don't really interest me. I have seen there teams play and neither really seem to bring much more entertainment value to the team than Puhalski. Although, wasnt it Adduano who threw the sticks all over the ice in FW a couple of years ago.

I still like Bingham a lot and you really can't go wrong with John Marks either. I think either of those would be a good choice.

Greg
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 6:16am

I thought Gillis likes the physical play. Look at Danbury. Those guys played rough for two years.

JR
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 7:35am

Anyone else see the article on the NHL page of ESPN about the uhl and a team shutting down dut to mafia connections.....

Shutterbug
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 8:06am

It was indeed Adduano who threw sticks onto the ice on March 18, 2005. Then later in the game one of the Port Huron Players threw his glove into the stands.

Blake
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 8:18am

Paul Gillis has never come up so I doubt he's under consideraton.

Greg
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 8:35am

It would be interesting to find out why they took Ramsey off the list.

scoops
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 9:19am

Probably because Bruce doesn't have the resume or connections the other coaches have.
I think the Frankes already know now that Bingham or Marks will say yes in 2 or 3 seconds. Obviously these two are much better choices for the organization so why string Ramsay along for the ride? If everything was still undetermined I think he would still be in the mix to some degree.

Komet Fan
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 12:14pm

I think the reason Ramsey is off the list is due to his coaching debacle a couple years ago, I believe in Port Huron. Instead of being just a coach, he partied with the players too much and did not focus on coaching. That would be a very good reason to drop him from the list.

Komet Warrior
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 12:33pm

My friend told me that on Into the Board.net that Chicago may not be ready to play and that might make Coach Puhalski and its players free agents. Do you guys think we could get him back?

JungleMonkey
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 12:45pm

Komet Warrior... Can we trade you to Chicago for a fan to be named later? That way you can be with your favorite coach.

Greg
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 12:56pm

Komet Warrior-I doubt that Puhlaski would be a free agent. They would probably keep him on the payroll and he would scout for players for 07-08 if, and I stress if, what you say about Chicago not being ready is true.

JungleMonkey
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 1:00pm

Chicago isn't going to have a home game until November. That gives them an extra month to complete the arena. I think the arena will be ready, but the fly by night ownership is another issue.

Greg
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 1:03pm

It's Margeneau, what did you expect???

Blake
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 1:13pm

Ramsay is not off the list because of Port Huron but because of experience. That was blown out of proportion. It was one incident, and the rumors have spread it into a wildfire. I still think Bruce would make an excellent coach for the Komets someday. I could see him coaching Muskegon very soon.

Hoffman Estates is three weeks AHEAD of schedule on the building.

JungleMonkey
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 1:30pm

I'm just thankful he is off the list. Good luck in Muskegon.

My vote still goes to Bingham.

Blake
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 1:37pm

Rammer is a class act and he'll be a great coach for someone. No one will ever out-work him.

Charlie
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 2:27pm

Here is my two cents since I have not posted in awhile(not that anyone reads what I say anyhow LOL) but with the coaches Bingham would be the Ideal guy. He obviously has the connections the Frankes want plus the guy is only 37 which means if he is great he will be here a long time. The other guys are in their 50's (51,58) and probrably would be here only 3 or 4 years. I am sure the Frankes would want a younger proven coach which is what Bingham is. Its the same with Puhalski just a diffrent coaching style (what I mean is a young proven coach who will stick around awhile).

Sniper
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 3:21pm

I like Bingham as well. I disagree with Charlie though, being young and a good coach I would think would mean he would not be aroung long. If he is that good, he will get a call from a bigger league than the UHL. If we could get 3 or 4 years out of him and maybe a cup, it would be worth it.

Hit Somebody!!!
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 5:34pm

Let's trade Komet warrior for Enema Man and a signed Molly McButters centerfold.....er..I mean trading card! You have to be joking, right Komet Warrior? I am sure the fine folks of this blog would even chip in some cash to buy you a Chicago jersey with the name Guinn on the back of it so that you could wear it when they come to town next year. It would give the Jungle a nice bullseye when we are pounding Chief's team all over the ice. I for one can't wait to mark those dates on the schedule.

Tony E
Wed, 06/14/2006 - 5:35pm

And what a fine source of information ITB continues to be.

Greg
Thu, 06/15/2006 - 5:18am

The one thing I will say is that with Chief being around for as long as he was is something Komet fans have not been used to in a long time. I think Marks would do well and at this point if we took a vote Marks would get mine.

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