Former St. Catharines Falcons coach now at the helm with Niagara IceDogs

The Niagara IceDogs, which play out of the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, didn’t have to look far for a new head coach.

This morning (July 8), they announced Daniel Fitzgerald was selected to the position, the sixth in team history.

But with a new IceDogs’ owner, Brantford’s Darren DeDobbelaer, it turns out that Fitzgerald was already in his system. You see, DeDobbelaer owns and operates the Brantford Bandits of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, as well as the Ontario Junior A Hockey League’s Brantford 99ers.

Fitzgerald is landing in St Catharines as the now-former head coach of the Brantford 99ers.

That said, he has more ties to the Garden City than anyone else in the organization. It wasn’t all that long ago that he was head coach of the St. Catharines Falcons. Prior to that, he was at the helm with the Cambridge Winter Hawks and the Dundas Blues, both of the GOJHL.

For his part, Fitzgerald said he was excited to be back in St. Catharines and that “I can’t wait to get to work with our players and staff as we develop a winning culture.”

“IceDogs fans are known as some of the best fans in the entire OHL and it is a privilege to go to work in front of them every night. I look forward to immersing myself in the Niagara community as part of this world-class organization.”

He also had praise for the IceDogs’ new ownership. “I’d like to thank Darren and Michele DeDobbelaer and Wayne Gretzky for providing me with the opportunity to coach in the best development league in the world.”

The IceDogs will have further staffing announcements in the coming weeks.