Senators name Clouston head coach

The Binghamton Senators, in conjunction with the Ottawa Senators, announced today that Cory Clouston has been named head coach of the American Hockey League club.

Clouston replaces Dave Cameron, who returned to the Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors of the Ontario Hockey League after coaching the B-Senators for three seasons.

Clouston, a native of Viking, Alta., has been head coach of the WHL’s Kootenay Ice for the past five seasons, and was named the league’s coach of the year in both 2004-05 and 2006-07. He earned a .637 winning percentage with 209 wins, 110 losses, 24 overtime losses and 15 shootout defeats over the span of 360 regular-season games, and his teams made the playoffs in each season, advancing as far as the conference final in 2004-05.

Before his move to bench boss for the Ice, Clouston had served as assistant coach there from 1999-2002. Prior to joining the Ice, Clouston was the general manager and head coach of the Grande Prairie Storm of the Alberta Junior Hockey League (1995-99). He has also participated in Hockey Canada’s national teams program, serving as assistant coach when Canada’s national under-18 squad won the 2005 U-18 Junior World Cup, and then as head coach of the team that also took gold in 2006.

Clouston, 37, played four years at the University of Alberta and was a member of the 1991-92 Golden Bears team that won the Canadian Interuniversity Sport men’s hockey championship. He earned a bachelor’s degree in recreation administration while playing for the Golden Bears.

The third coach in franchise history, Clouston follows Cameron and newly named Ottawa Senators head coach John Paddock, who was Binghamton’s first head coach in 2002-03 and 2003-04. During the NHL lockout, Paddock served as co-head coach with Cameron.