TORONTO — Kris Knoblauch of the Erie Otters won the Matt Leyden Trophy on Tuesday as the Ontario Hockey League’s coach of the year.
Knoblauch guided the Otters to an OHL-best 52-15-1-0 record, earning a second straight Midwest Division crown along with the club’s first Hamilton Spectator Trophy as regular season champions since 2001.
"I don’t think anyone’s ever won this award without a general manager or scouting staff gathering a lot of talent, but also more importantly is having good leadership within your room," Knoblauch said. "I think our older players who have been with us a long time, Nick Betz and Devin Williams, or our captains like Dylan Strome, they are probably more responsible for the team having the success that we had this year."
Knoblauch helped the Otters became the first team in OHL history to amass three consecutive 50-win campaigns. The 2015-16 Otters tied the 2013-14 franchise mark of 52 wins in a season, and set a new franchise record with 27 road wins surpassing the 2014-15 mark of 23. Since joining the Otters midway through the 2012-13 season, Knoblauch has accumulated a record of 166-68-7-4 for 343 points and a winning percentage of .700.
"This is a well-deserved honour," said Otters general manager Dave Brown. "Kris is a great teacher, excellent mentor and exceptional communicator and I think the results speak for themselves with what he has accomplished during his tenure with the Otters."
Before joining the Otters, the 37 year old from Imperial, Sask., served behind the bench for the Western Hockey League’s Kootenay Ice as an assistant coach from 2007-10 before taking over head coaching duties from 2010-12 and winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup as WHL Champions in 2011. He began his major junior coaching career in 2006-07 serving as an assistant coach for the WHL’s Prince Albert Raiders.
Knoblauch’s playing career included four years in the WHL from 1995-99 before competing five seasons with the University of Alberta from 1999-2004 winning a Canadian university national championship in 2000. Knoblauch was a seventh round pick of the New York Islanders in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft.
The Matt Leyden Trophy will be formally presented to Knoblauch at the OHL awards ceremony on June 7 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. He will be the OHL’s nominee for Canadian Hockey League coach of the year to be announced on May 28 at the Memorial Cup.
