Keefe named OHL's top coach (update)

The job done by Soo Greyhounds Coach Sheldon Keefe hasn't gone unnoticed.

In a conference call on Friday afternoon, the Ontario Hockey League announced that Keefe has been named the recipient of the Matt Leyden Trophy as the league’s coach of the year.

Keefe led the Greyhounds to a 54-12-0-2 record, tops in the OHL. The team set a new franchise record for points in a season with 110, breaking the old mark of 109 which was set by the 1984-85 team

Keefe credited the Greyhounds staff in working to find an edge to win games.

“As a staff here in Sault Ste. Marie, we’ve really worked hard to find every edge we can to be successful,” Keefe said. “I’ve spent a lot of time, exhausting all the resources that were available trying to find others that could help us. That pursuit of information and knowledge has really helped us. Most importantly is that I’m surrounded by other people that do the same. The organization is filled with people that are constantly sharing information and working to make each other better and that’s worked its way through to our players.”

Keefe is the first Greyhounds coach to win the award since Craig Hartsburg (2001-02). Terry Crisp won the award twice as coach of the Greyhounds (1982-83 and 1984-85).

“Coming into the Greyhounds organization, I could tell on day one how much passion Sheldon has for the game,” Greyhounds General Manager Kyle Raftis said in a prepared statement. “Sheldon’s commitment, maturity and relentless approach to coaching and development not only pushes our players to grow each day, but it inspires the entire organization.”

The team loaded up at the OHL’s trade deadline, acquiring Justin Bailey from the Kitchener Rangers, Anthony DeAngelo from the Sarnia Sting as well as Nick Ritchie and Connor Boland from the Peterborough Petes in January.

“One of the biggest challenges that we’ve had as a group is going through the process here of, last year being somewhat of a young and inexperienced team that was overachieving for the most part but really had its eye towards this season and here we are with a number of elite players and that number grew beyond the trade deadline,” said Keefe.

“With that, when you have such a talented group of players, you have a lot of expectations for themselves of what they should be getting out of the team in ice time and opportunity. Balancing that and working with each player to make them understand what we need from them or how they’re going to be used and keeping them on board. That’s been a challenge and it doesn’t come easy. That’s what you want as a coach. You want to have great players. You’re certainly not going to complain about having to deal with too many good players. That’s been a fun process and dealing with the personalities that come with it was a good learning opportunity for me and I believe I’ve grown as a coach having gone through it.

The other nominees for the award included Jeff Brown (Ottawa 67’s), Stan Butler (North Bay Battalion), Greg Gilbert (Saginaw Spirit), Kris Knoblauch (Erie Otters) and D.J. Smith (Oshawa Generals).

Smith won the award last season.

The award is voted on by the OHL’s member teams. The initial round of voting sees teams vote for the top coaches within their own conference. The top three nominees in each conference are declared the finalists and a second round of voting is conducted where teams are permitted to vote for any of the six but are not allowed to vote for their own candidate.

The Greyhounds are currently awaiting the start of the OHL’s Western Conference final where they will face the Erie Otters.

(Photo courtesy Terry Wilson/OHL Images)