Texas Stars general manager Scott White announced on Monday that the team has named Jeff Truitt assistant coach.
Truitt brings a wealth of hockey experience to Texas, joining newly appointed head coach Jeff Pyle behind the Stars bench. He comes to the Stars after spending the 2010-11 season as an assistant coach with San Antonio, helping the Rampage post its best record in four seasons (40-33-4-5, 87 points).
In 2009-10, he served as the director of hockey operations for the Moose Jaw Warriors of the Western Hockey League (WHL). The Warriors finished with a 33-27-0-12 mark and made an appearance in the 2010 WHL Playoffs. Prior to his time in Moose Jaw, Truitt was an assistantn coach with the AHL’s Springfield Falcons in 2007-08 and served as head coach for the first 50 games of the 2008-09 season, posting a record of 16-27-6-1.
“We are pleased to add Jeff Truitt to our coaching staff here in Texas,” said White. “He has experience at the AHL level and has proven that he can work with young players. We expect him to play a key role in developing future Dallas Stars.”
From 1993-2007, Truitt enjoyed coaching success in the WHL with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and the Kelowna Rockets. He served as an assistant coach in Lethbridge from 1993-96, then moved on to Kelowna in the same capacity from 2000-04. The native of Rosetown, SK earned a promotion to Head Coach in Kelowna in 2004. He guided the Rockets to a WHL Championship and an appearance in the Memorial Cup in the spring of 2005. In three seasons with Truitt as the head coach, the Rockets posted a 113-76-18-9 mark with two postseason appearances. In his seven seasons with Kelowna, the Rockets won two WHL championships (2003, 2005), two WHL regular season titles (2003, 2004), made three consecutive trips to the Memorial Cup tournament (2003, 2004, 2005) and one Memorial Cup championship (2004). Truitt was also instrumental in helping Team Canada’s National Junior Team win a silver medal in 2004, as well as taking gold by winning the under-18 world juniors in 2004.
