Coming off a Calder Cup win, the Charlotte Checkers have a new head coach
The Carolina Hurricanes have named a new Charlotte Checkers head coach and didn’t have to look long or far to find him.
The Canes announced Wednesday that Ryan Warsofsky, an assistant on the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup champions this past season, had been promoted to head coach of the Checkers.
Warsofsky, 31, replaced Mike Vellucci, who has left the Canes organization to become head coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the American Hockey League. Warsofsky will be the youngest head coach hired in the AHL since 2000, according to the Checkers.
“We’ve been very impressed with Ryan since he joined our organization,” Canes general manager Don Waddell said in a statement. “He was a big part of the Checkers’ championship season last year and we’re excited to have him take over as head coach.”
Warsofsky, a former defenseman, helped the Checkers lead the AHL in penalty killing and finish second in goals-allowed per game in dominating the AHL last season.
Warsofsky joined the Checkers last July after spending two seasons as head coach and director of hockey operations for the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL. He had an 88-44-10-2 record with the Stingrays, who reached the Kelly Cup finals in the 2016-17 season.
Warsofsky played college hockey at Sacred Heart and Curry College and was later an assistant coach at Curry College.
Warsofsky is the brother of David Warsofsky, a defenseman in the Pittsburgh Penguins system.
This story was originally published July 10, 2019 at 11:00 AM.
