By Carl Chimenti –
The Saginaw Spirit announced Saturday that they have fired general manager and head coach Todd Watson after four-plus seasons.
Assistant general manager Jim Paliafito was named as the new general manager. Greg Gilbert, who has head coaching experience in the NHL with the Calgary Flames and also in both the American Hockey League and the Ontario Hockey League, will take over behind the bench.
Under Watson, the Spirit had 154 wins, 115 losses, 20 overtime losses, and 13 shootout losses. They were 12-18 in the playoffs under his direction.
Spirit President and General Partner Craig Goslin said the team was not responding and a leadership change needed to be made.
“We recognize the many accomplishments that Todd has had here in Saginaw and we certainly have nothing but respect for his dedication and hard work,” Goslin said. “Both Mr. Garber (Spirit owner) and myself felt it was necessary to make a change now to salvage the season. The team was just not responding to Todd, and right, wrong, or indifferent, when you are the head coach the buck stops here. It was an extremely tough decision to make.”
According to what Goslin said on the Spirit’s pre-game show on 100.5 FM, he had asked Paliafito to begin search for a top-tier hockey coach earlier during the week.
“Our thoughts were that if we could find a top-tier hockey coach we would replace Todd now and if we didn’t, we would continue in our current direction,” said Goslin on WSGW. “Jimmy did find a top-tier guy, a guy we feel is the cream of the crop, a guy who we feel is one of the best junior coaches and like I said we know that Todd is a top-tier coach, but for some reason that message was not getting through.”
Watson was in his fifth season with the Spirit, the longest-serving coach in club history and at the top in wins. He has been general manager for the past two seasons, and in 2009-10 had signed a five-year extension with the Spirit. This was Watson’s first head coaching position at the OHL level after his previous stint with the Plymouth Whalers, as an assistant coach under Mike Vellucci.
Watson led the Spirit to their first-ever division title last season, with the Spirit losing to the Windsor Spitfires in the semifinals – their longest postseason run in team history.