(L-R) Todd Reid (Director of Hockey Operations), Derek Smith (Coach/GM) of the Trenton Golden Hawks Photo: Christian Bender & Tim Bates of OJHL Images)
Quinte’s two Junior A hockey teams filled their coaching vacancies over the weekend.
One looked near. The other looked far.
The Trenton Golden Hawks found their man in their backyard.
Derek Smith leaves Wellington to take over the dual role as coach and general manager of the G-Hawks.
The 38-year-old Belleville native, with nine pro seasons behind him including time with the Ottawa Senators and Calgary Flames, takes over Trenton after four seasons with Wellington. He succeeds interim GM Todd Reid who remains with the G-Hawks as Director of Hockey Operations.
Smith began coaching in the Ontario Junior Hockey League in 2017-18 and was in the role with the Wellington Dukes for two years, followed by two years as Head Coach. He added the General Manager title 2022-23.
Smith says, “My time in Wellington was incredible. The fans, the volunteers and the players were all tremendous. To ownership there, thank you for giving me an opportunity. I will remember my time there forever.”
“I am very excited to be joining another tremendous hockey program in Trenton. The Hawks’s history of winning is one of the best in Canadian junior hockey. We have every intention of continuing that tradition with a great core of players returning.
We will have two major priorities. The first is winning. The second is to have a strong development program, bringing in the best local players and helping them get to the next level in hockey and education. We believe these two priorities can go hand and hand.”
It was announced earlier in the weekend that Kent Lewis would replace Smith with the Duke.
Lewis makes the cross-Canada trek to the Ontario Junior Hockey League to take over the dual positions of Director of Hockey Operations and Head Coach.
Lewis has spent the last 20 years behind the bench of teams in the British Columbia Hockey League where he has won multiple Coach of the Year Awards. He had a .629 winning percentage in more than 1000 games at the Junior A level.
There is a separate story on Kent Lewis on quintenews.com.
