Jared Bednar, head coach of the Lake Erie Monsters, of the AHL has announced the hiring of Steve McCarthy as assistant coach. Lake Erie is the AHL affiliate of the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets. Bednar led the Monsters to a 15-2 record during the playoffs, and the first Calder Cup Championship in club history and the first by a Blue Jacket AHL affiliate, this past season.
McCarthy, 35, joins the Monsters coaching staff after retiring as a player following his 16th professional season in 20115-16. He split last season between the ECHL’s Kalamazoo Wings and Lake Erie. Selected in the first round, 23rd overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1999 NHL Draft, he registered 17 goals, 28 assists and 168 penalty minutes in 302 career NHL games with Chicago, Vancouver and Atlanta. The Trail, BC native also spent the 2010-11 season with TPS Turku in Finland’s Liga and 3 seasons with Zurich SC in Switzerland from 2011-14 and in 2012 scored the winning goal in the seventh game of the championship final with just 2.5 seconds left in the game to capture the league title.
McCarthy joined the Smoke Eaters in 1996 as a 15 year old and scored 25 goals and 52 assists for 77 points. The 98/99 season saw Steve move on to the Edmontom Ice of the WHL and and then to Cranbrook the next season when the team became the Kootenay Ice. He spent the next three years with the Ice and was named team captain in the 99/2000 season. In 2000/01 he was named team captain of the World Junior hockey team and led the team to a bronze medal finish in the World Championship.
The Trail Smoke Eaters congratulate Steve on his appointment to assistant coach of the Lake Erie Monsters and wish him the best of luck in his coaching career.
