Edmonds joins Augsburg Panthers(Updated)

European hockey website's claim Edmonds is the new head coach of the Augsburg Panthers of the DEL hockey league in Germany. Photo by Chris Dawson.

BayToday.ca has official confirmation from Randy Edmonds that he has taken the job as head coach of the Augsburg Panthers. He said a verbal deal was done but they just needed to work out some details before it could be made official.

"It's a great organization I'm going to, 11 import players on every team, most if not all of them come from the american league (AHL)," Edmonds said in a phone interview with BayToday.ca.

However, Edmonds still has a window of opportunity to stay in North America. He says they have agreed that between June 15th and July 1st, he can still pursue work in North America, but after July 1st it's officially done.

Two german hockey websites including the Augsburg Panthers team website reported earlier today that Randy Edmonds had taken the job as head coach with the German pro franchise.

BayToday.ca told you about this story last week, but Edmonds claimed the website we got the information from was only a European Hockey rumor mill website, and that the announcement was premature. He say that he had a contract offer from the DEL franchise and that he would make his final contract decision on June 1st.

Augsburg plays in the DEL, or top professional league in Germany, a league last season which included former North Bay Centennials Andy Delmore, Colin Beardsmore, Len Soccio and Thomas Dolak.

Edmonds contract with the Skyhawks expired at the end of April but he says he's very proud to have coached the local team in his hometown.

"We told people we would go young and go local and not only did we do that but we won a championship and it was fun and kids had fun and that was the best thing," Edmonds said about his only year with the Skyhawks.

The North Bay native coached three different Swedish professional clubs for more than a decade before returning home last fall.

To see the Augsburg Panthers team website story translated into english by google.ca please click here.