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.
