Vancouver Warriors dismiss Gill & Toth due to 6-12 regular-season record
Chris Gill, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jordan Leigh)
On Friday, Vancouver Warriors’ General Manager Dan Richardson confirmed that, “Head Coach Chris Gill and Assistant Coach Kaleb Toth will not be returning to the team for the 2022-23 season.”
Gill, who was officially announced as the team’s new head coach soon after it was confirmed that the franchise had been purchased by Canucks Sports & Entertainment (June 2018), guided the group to a 15-34 record during three regular seasons, including this year’s 6-12 finish.
Toth had been hired during the 2020 season, replacing Rory McDade as the club’s offensive bench coach. Curtis Hodgson, the team’s defensive coordinator, was untouched in yesterday’s somewhat surprising coaching changes.
Mitch Johns, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jordan Leigh)
The franchise, which had been based in Langley (BC) before the Canucks moved them to Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, spent time in Everett (WA), San Jose (CA) and Albany (NY). Prior to their relocation to Langley, the then-named Washington Stealth had appeared in the NLL Cup Finals in three of four seasons, but have struggled severely since. Over the last eight NLL seasons, one of which ended prior to the postseason due to the pandemic, Vancouver has qualified for the playoffs just once.
This past season’s six-win record sunk the Warriors to dead last in the West Conference.
“If we found a way to get more wins I’d still be there,” Gill told The Province. “Wins and losses are what matters.
“It was an honour to be a part of that team. I got a chance to coach some really special athletes. I’ll be watching the now from afar. There are more draft picks coming. The team is in a good position to succeed. I wish I could still be a part of it.”
While the franchise’s renewed commitment to maintaining high draft picks has been largely seen as a positive since Richardson & Gill took over, so had the team’s sharp start to this past season, which was soon derailed after losing arguably their top player, Mitch Jones (foot injury), for what turned out to be the remainder of the year.
With 16 points in just three games, a healthy & healed Jones has successfully returned to the floor with the New Westminster Salmonbellies of the Western Lacrosse Association.
Keegan Bal and Chris Gill, Vancouver Warriors (Photo: Jaclyn McKee)
During the 2022 season, Vancouver’s goal production (199) actually ranked second highest in the West behind only the conference-leading San Diego Seals (202), their power-play efficiency tops in the conference and third best in the NLL (51.4%). Warriors’ forwards Kyle Killen (44) & Keegan Bal (43) finished fourth and fifth in NLL goal scoring, both players setting career highs in that all-important stat. Although the team had an impressive eight players hit double-digit goal totals, the 24-goal gap between Bal and the team’s next highest scorer was significant. Jones had 12 goals in just four games prior to the freak injury that sidelined the star for most of the 2022 campaign.
“At the end of the day, 6-12 wasn’t enough of an improvement from previous years,” Richards told The Province. “Ownership and senior management felt we should have had a better record.
“We want to get better. We need to get better. There’s no argument. We could have been 9-9, 8-10, but we weren’t. We’re in the entertainment business, but we’re also in the result business.”
Who could the group’s next head coach be?
Since the Canucks took over, Richardson has invested heavily in local talent. Gill & Toth, who were former Cup-winning teammates with the Toronto Rock, were both B.C. based, as is Hodgson.
Rob Williams, Calgary Roughnecks 2019 (Photo: Candice Ward)
Some WLA coaches not connected to any current NLL bench include: Rob Williams (Maple Ridge), who won an NLL Cup with Calgary recently and is also involved in the Arena Lacrosse League, Mike Simpson (Victoria), who was the head coach of the Minnesota Swarm during their expansion season (2005), former Colorado Mammoth bench boss Rod Jensen (Langley), and although his resume doesn’t read quite as long, Nanaimo’s new head coach, Tewanee Joseph, had actually served as an executive VP with the Stealth.
Currently trying to win an NLL Cup with Colorado, Pat Coyle’s assistant Jason Bishop impressed many this past season leading a reinvigorated Mammoth offense. The club’s defensive coach, Andrew McBride, a former respected captain in the league, has been mentioned by many as a potential future HC in the NLL, having spent the past four seasons guiding the Denver-based team’s D.
Former NLL players that currently serve as head coaches in the British Columbia Junior A Lacrosse League include: Peter Tellis (Coquitlam), Kyle Goundrey (Delta), Russ Heard (Burnaby) and Rich Catton (New Westminster).
Most NLL head & assistant coaching positions are owned by coaches from Ontario, many of which previously played in the league. In fact, the British Columbia-based Curt Malawsky (Calgary Roughnecks) and Alberta-born Jimmy Quinlan (Saskatchewan Rush) are the only head coaches in the league not from the province of Ontario. Colorado’s Coyle, who grew up playing lacrosse in Ontario, has been a mainstay in B.C. for many years though.
Since the NLL started voting for a Coach of the Year (Les Bartley Award) in 2001, only one B.C. coach has ever won. Victoria’s Chris Hall tied with Derek Keenan for the honour in 2010. It was the season he led the Stealth, now Warriors, to the franchise’s first and still only NLL Cup victory.
Note: All coaching positions confirmed through WLA & BCJALL team websites.