The Newfoundland Growlers have yet to hit the ice, but already the ECHL expansion team has gained some star power.
Sources tell The Telegram retired NHLer Ryane Clowe is set to become the first coach of the Growlers, who will begin play in the ECHL in October.
Clowe, who was just inducted into the Hockey Newfoundland and Labrador Hall of Fame last weekend, joins the Growlers after a two-year stint as an assistant coach with the National Hockey League’s New Jersey Devils.
Clowe will be employed by the Toronto Maple Leafs, who will be affiliated with the Growlers next season. That arrangement was made official during a news conference last week in St. John’s.
Clowe is said to have a close relationship with Lou Lamoriello, the man who gave him his first coaching job in New Jersey, and the former Maple Leafs’ general manager.
Clowe, who got his minor hockey training in Fermeuse before moving to Mount Pearl as a teen, is one of the most recognizable faces in Newfoundland hockey following a 10-year NHL career.
His 561 career NHL games are fourth-most amongst Newfoundlanders who have played in the NHL.
During a four-year span between the 2008-09 and 2011-12 seasons with the San Jose Sharks, the 35-year-old Clowe was one of the league's most effective wingers, bringing a combination of toughness, leadership and scoring to the Sharks, averaging 20 goals, 54 points and 94 penalty minutes.
After getting traded to the New York Rangers and later signing as a free agent with the New Jersey Devils, Clowe's playing career was cut short in 2014-15 due to concussions.
After officially retiring from the game, Clowe spent the last two years as an assistant on John Hynes’s coaching staff in New Jersey.
A sixth round draft choice of the Sharks, 175th overall, in 2001, Clowe played four years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League following his midget hockey days with the St. John’s Maple Leafs.
