(Photo Supplied: Curtis Hunt (left) with Mitch Vanderlaan (middle) and board member Len Clarke (right) . Fort McMurray Oil Barons / FACEBOOK)
Curtis Hunt has tendered his resignation as Head Coach & GM of the Fort McMurray Oil Barons the club announced today.
Hunt informed the Oil Barons executive on Wednesday.
“The Oil Barons would like to thank Curtis for his contributions over the past year and wish him the best in his future hockey endeavours, ” said Northern Alberta Athletic Association (NAAA) and Oil Barons President Dave Fitzgerald in a press release on the club website. “The Oil Barons will now begin a recruiting effort to find a new coach and general manager.”
Hunt came to the club after the Oil Barons decided to let go of long-time Coach Gord Thibodeau at the beginning of the 2014-2015 season, an important one for the MOB as they’d host the Western Canada Cup.
He came to the club with lots of experience having been behind the bench of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators as an Assistant Coach in 2008-2009 and spending eight years as a Head Coach in the WHL along with one year as the bench boss of the AHL’s Binghamton Senators.
“At this point we don’t have a timeline for finding a new coach but we will get together as an executive and as a board and discuss the next steps for finding a new head coach and general manger.
Under Hunt’s guidance the Oil Barons finished with a record of 31-23-6 with 68 points, fourth in the North division.
“I thought Curtis did a good job with us he was here for one year and in the time here there was definitely some transition from the beginning of the year to where we ended at the end of the season,” said Fitzgerald. “It was definitely a progress along the way and you could see within the team that there were improvements.”
Fitzgerald adds that Hunts resignation came as a surprise.
The club doesn’t have a timeline for a replacement.
A call to Curtis Hunt was not returned.
