Ontario, CA - The Ontario Reign of the ECHL, proud affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings, announced today that they have hired Karl Taylor as Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations.
The Reign held a press conference today at the Hilton Ontario Airport Hotel as team executives welcomed Taylor as the first-ever head coach of the Ontario Reign.
Taylor joins the Reign after having spent the past three seasons (2005-08) with the Reading Royals of the ECHL where he served in the same capacity. While with the Royals, Taylor compiled a regular season record of 112-82-22, leading the team to the Kelly Cup playoffs in two of his three seasons behind the bench. Last season the Royals advanced to the North Division Finals of the American Conference where they took on the eventual Kelly Cup Champion Cincinnati Cyclones in a seven game series. In 2006, Taylor was selected to coach the American Conference in the ECHL All-Star Game.
“My family and I are extremely excited about this new coaching opportunity,” Taylor said. “We cannot wait to move to California. It is going to be a great place to coach and it is a first-class organization. It will be a fresh start with a new club and I look forward to building this team from the ground up.”
"We could not be more pleased than to have a coach of Karl's caliber to build our hockey team from the ground up,” Executive Vice President of Business Operations Justin Kemp said. "He has proven himself in the ECHL with consistently strong teams in Reading and completely fits the mold of hard work and professionalism we are working to build here in Ontario. He is a class act that will not only be a tremendous asset to our product on the ice, but to the entire community off the ice as well."
The 37-year-old, North Bay, Ontario, Can. native received his bachelor's degree in physical education in 1995 from the University of New Brunswick where he spent two years (1997-99) as the assistant coach. After working as a volunteer assistant coach for Fredericton in the American Hockey League during his final year at UNB, he obtained his first head coaching position where he spent three seasons (2000-03) with Red Deer College in Alberta. Prior to coaching in Reading, Taylor helped rebuild the men's ice hockey program at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Can. During his time at Waterloo he led the team to back-to-back playoff appearances and was named Ontario University Athletics West Coach of the Year in his second season with the team when they went 13-8-3.
During his days as a player, Taylor was honored with numerous awards. As a team captain at UNB for three seasons, the University presented Taylor with the Alumni Merit Award for academic and athletic excellence as well as the Mark Jeffrey Award for leadership, dedication and commitment to the team. He was also selected to the UNB Athletics Ring of Distinction for his outstanding athletic performance during his University career.
During the summer, Taylor also works at the Los Angeles Kings Rookie Development Camp. He and his wife, Beverly have two children, Malcom, 3-years-old and Kate, 2-years-old.
