Ottawa Senators general manager Bryan Murray announced on Monday morning that Cory Clouston will take over as head coach for the balance of the 2008-09 season, replacing Craig Hartsburg.
An announcement on Clouston’s replacement in Binghamton is forthcoming.
Clouston is in his second year as bench boss of the Binghamton Senators, Ottawa’s American Hockey League affiliate. He becomes the 16th current NHL head coach who is a former AHL head coach.
Clouston, whose first game behind the bench will come on Tuesday, Feb. 3, when the Senators host the Los Angeles Kings, will meet individually with Ottawa’s coaching staff to determine their roles.
Clouston, 39, was named head coach of the B-Sens on July 19, 2007. He completed his first professional season with Binghamton in 2007-08 and holds a 59-48-12-8 all-time AHL record, including a mark of 25-16-3-3 this season.
Prior to joining the Senators’ organization, Clouston spent five seasons as head of the Western Hockey League’s Kooteney Ice, where he also served as assistant coach from 1999-2000 to 2001-02.
A native of Viking, Alta., Clouston had a career regular-season record of 209 wins, 110 losses, 24 overtime losses and 15 shootout defeats with Kooteney. Kooteney made the playoffs in each of his seasons behind the bench, advancing as far as the conference final in 2004-05. Clouston was named both the WHL and Canadian Hockey League coach of the year for the 2004-05 season, notching 47 wins, 15 losses, seven in overtime and another three by shootout, for a 104-point season. Clouston was also named WHL coach of the year in 2006-07.
In addition to his junior hockey experience, Clouston has participated in Hockey Canada’s national team program, serving as assistant coach for the national under-18 2005 Junior World Cup gold medalists and head coach for the 2006 team that also took home gold.
