The Nanaimo Buccaneers are making a change behind the bench.
The city’s junior B hockey club announced Thursday that Curtis Toneff has been hired as coach and general manager. He replaces Dan Lemmon, whose contract expired at the end of the 2016-17 season.
Toneff, who is from Nanaimo, resigned as assistant coach of the B.C. Hockey League’s Trail Smoke Eaters to take a full-time job with the Buccaneers.
“This is the right choice for me in my coaching career…” he said. “Anytime you can return to your hometown, especially in the hockey world, you take a lot of pride in it.”
He has experience with the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League as he was previously an assistant coach of the Campbell River Storm, helping that team win league, provincial and Western Canadian championships.
Brenda Levesque, who owns the team with her husband Phil, said they’re “at the point where we’re looking to try and free ourselves up a bit and we need someone who could be more hands-on and more available.”
The idea is that Toneff’s roles will extend beyond hockey operations and over time, the GM will pick up more of the business operations duties.
Toneff takes over effective April 15 and will be tasked with invites and organization surrounding the Buccaneers’ spring camp at the end of May. He said in putting together a roster, he wants a lot of locals, players who have a desire to win and guys who want to be leaders.
“I’ll take the heart and the character over the flashiness; I think that’ll take you further come playoff time,” the new coach said. “I want a hard-working bunch, but at the same time, an exciting team to watch. A team that plays fast and plays in your face and I think that’s what the Buccaneers already kind of are.”
Brenda Levesque said Lemmon was a great coach who did everything asked of him, and it wasn’t easy to make a change after a franchise-best season in 2016-17.
“It was very tough. Our team was very close this year and close to Dan,” she said. “We had to look at the overall picture on how to run the business and make those steps to move ahead.”
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