The Sudbury Wolves have named Scott Barney as their new head coach.
“We are very happy to name Scott Barney as our next head coach,” said Wolves VP and General Manager Rob Papineau, in a press release.
“He has had tremendous success as both a player and as a coach. His record of development over the past six seasons has been outstanding. He is a young coach who brings great knowledge, communication skills and the demonstrated ability to teach junior age players.
“His ability to do what he did in Humboldt was truly impressive and inspiring. We are excited for our players and fans to get the opportunity to get to know Barney and his commitment to Sudbury and the team."
“We are confident that under Scott’s leadership, the Sudbury Wolves will reach new heights and achieve great success,” said Sudbury Wolves CEO and team owner Dario Zulich.
Barney, an alumnus of the OHL, played four seasons with the Peterborough Petes after being selected in the first round, ninth overall during the 1995 OHL priority selection. Through his first season with the Petes, they reached the Memorial Cup and won the OHL championship. In Barney’s final season in the OHL, he was named captain of the Petes.
Barney was drafted 29th overall by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1997 NHL draft. He missed his first three seasons due to a back injury but went on to play 27 NHL games which was the start to a long pro career in North America, Europe and Asia.
In September of 2018, Barney accepted his first coaching job in Humboldt to help rebuild the team following the tragic accident. In January of 2019 Barney was promoted to head coach of the Broncos and has been with the hockey club for the past six seasons.
During his time with the Broncos, Barney has had great success developing junior players and accumulated a record of 169 wins, 71 losses and 15 overtime losses for a winning percentage of 0.692.
Under his guidance the team’s powerplay performed on average at 25 per cent and the penalty kill at 82.1 per cent. More recently Barney was named head coach of Canada West for the 2023 World Junior A Hockey Challenge, where he led the team to a gold medal.
“Barney was a guy being highly sought after by teams in the WHL so we are very happy he chose to accept our job and move back to Ontario,” said Sudbury Wolves general manager Rob Papineau.
“We conducted a very thorough search which included the consideration of 45 applications. In the end, Barney just stood out at the top. We would like to thank all the applicants. We now shift our attention to finalizing the remainder of our staff which Barney will play a large part in."
Season Memberships are on sale now. Fans can secure their seats by visiting the Sudbury Arena Box Office or by purchasing tickets online at greatersudbury.ca/tickets.
