Former Red Deer Rebels head coach Steve Konowalchuk has taken on another leadership role.
On Monday the St. Louis Blues announced they hired Konowalchuk as the new head coach of their American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate Springfield Thunderbirds.
The 51-year-old from Salt Lake City, Utah spent last season as the associate head coach of the Colorado Eagles, the Colorado Avalanche's AHL affiliate. He helped lead the Eagles to a 40-25-7 record in the regular season.
Before that, he spent two seasons as the Rebels head coach from 2021-23 but resigned from the team in May 2023 due to personal reasons.
He produced an 86-36-3-3 regular season record and two playoff series wins in Red Deer. This included at least 40 wins with the Rebels in back-to-back seasons which hadn’t been done since 2001-03.
“It was a very good experience and an enjoyable two years,” Konowalchuk said in an article back in 2023 shortly after stepping down from the Rebels.
“I met some friends in Red Deer, the community was awesome, and I think we had two very successful seasons. Disappointed you can’t win it all but I enjoyed working with the players and hopefully they learned something on and off the ice.”
His coaching career began in 2009 in Colorado where he served two seasons as an assistant coach for Avalanche.
Two years later he was named head coach of the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds where he spent six seasons and won the 2017 WHL championship.
He also served one season as an assistant coach with the Anaheim Ducks before he took on the role in Red Deer.
Konowalchuk also had a long playing career in the National Hockey League. He was drafted by the Washington Capitals in 1991 and went on to play 14 seasons in the NHL.
He played in 790 career NHL regular-season games. The majority came with the Capitals but also played two seasons with the Avalanche.