OHL's Otters name Butler as new head coach
Published
The Erie Otters named Stan Butler as their 10th head coach in franchise history on Thursday.
Butler, 66, coached the Brampton/North Bay Battalion from 1998- 2020, reaching the Ontario Hockey League playoffs 18 times and leading his team to the J. Ross Robertson Cup finals twice.
The East York, Ont., native's 22-season with the Battalion organization is the longest single-team tenure in OHL history.
Butler is third all-time in OHL Games coached with 1,558 behind long-time Ottawa 67's head coach Brian Kilrea and North Bay Centennial's long-time coach Bert Templeton and four all-time with 747 wins behind Kilrea, Templeton, and London Knights coach Dale Hunter.
"Stan is one of the CHL's elite coaches, and we hope to create a bright future in which we can all share and celebrate in," Otters general manager Dave Brown said in a statement. "Stan has a wealth of knowledge in terms of player development, in-game execution, and understanding of what it takes to get things done in terms of win and advancing players to the pro level."
Butler became the third coach in Hockey Canada history to coach Team Canada in back-to-back years at the World Junior tournament, leading them to a bronze-medal performance in 2001 and a silver-medal performance in 2002. He most recently coached the Canadian under-18 national team to an eighth straight gold medal at the 2015 Ivan Hlinka Tournament.