Last Cents coach excited about OHL return to North Bay

It may have been some of the toughest times in his coaching career, but Mike Kelly still has fond memories of the community of North Bay where he coached from 1998 to 2002.

The now Head Coach and GM of the St. John’s Sea Dogs of the QMJHL was thrilled to hear the news that the Ontario Hockey League was once again going to call North Bay home.

“I was really happy for the community,” said Kelly in an interview with BayToday.ca on Tuesday.

“The Battalion team that’s moving in - everyone in organization from front office and hockey side - will be pleasantly surprised the warmth they are shown by community."

Kelly was the last coach of the North Bay Centennials before they were moved to Saginaw in the fall of 2002. Since then Kelly has been an NHL assistant coach in Vancouver for 2 seasons before joining the Sea Dog’s franchise in 2009. He took over as head coach in the summer of 2012, replacing former NHLer Gerard Gallant.

The Sea Dog’s are fresh off back to back QMJHL championships but this year the club is rebuilding.

His son Ryan, who started playing hockey in Timbits in the Gateway city, now man’s the blue line for Dad’s team in PEI.

“For me the main focus was hockey so, but I just know our family thoroughly enjoyed it being such a small warm community,” Kelly said about moving to North Bay.

“I do know the last 3 or 4 months coming back from the World Juniors was the most difficult time in my coaching career. I had to manage a lot of raw emotion in the community and I had the benefit of seeing what our ownership tried to do for 3 and 1/2 years and how they were hurting and the fans were hurting. It was a really difficult time to manage through."

However, Kelly is optimistic that North Bay will never go through a situation like this after getting this second chance at the OHL and the current Brampton franchise and its players will be comfortable in the North.

“I would suspect it would seem that won’t be as difficult a move into North Bay. It’s a smaller warm community and that’s probably, apprehension from any players is just the unknown but once they get settled they will think it’s a great move.”