The Owen Sound Attack will have a new coaching staff behind their bench next season.
Attack general manager Dale DeGray announced Friday morning interim head coach Darren Rumble left the organization to pursue other opportunities closer to home, and the team did not renew the contract of assistant coach Sean Teakle.
The duo handled coaching duties for the Attack for most of the 2023-24 season, after former head coach Greg Walters was dismissed just seven games into the campaign.
The Attack ended up going 29-30-6-3 and finished seventh in the Western Conference, before being swept by the Saginaw Spirit in the first round of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs.
DeGray thanked Rumble and Teakle for their contributions to the organization. The Attack GM says the team decided to start from scratch with its bench after a disappointing season.
“I think the whole year … anybody that watched us more than a few games probably walked away with the same feeling that I have, there was disappointment,” DeGray says. “Disappointment in the way the game was played. Our lack of success. To me, that’s something I don’t think we’re accustomed too.”
“It’s a very hard thing thing to do,” DeGray continues. “But as I said to Sean and Darren, we’re going to start from scratch. We’re going to build it up. We’ll start over and put some people in place that we believe will take it in the direction that we see fit.”
DeGray says the search for a new coaching staff is underway, but the team isn’t close on any new additions yet. He plans on hiring a head coach first before bringing in assistants to fill out the bench.
“Do I have some people in mind that I hope reach out, maybe I’ll reach out to them? Yes, absolutely I do. But time will tell and we’ll see once this gets out, the interest that individuals will have in taking over,” DeGray says.
Rumble, 55, spent one season with the Attack. He was hired as an assistant ahead of the 2023-24 campaign, and was then appointed the interim head coach after the dismissal of Walters.
Teakle, 34, was behind Owen Sound’s bench as an assistant coach for two seasons. During the 2023-24 season he ran the Attack power play, which was the league’s second-best unit throughout the regular season and on a short list of teams over the past two decades that finished with a success rate of more than 30 per cent.
Teakle says he enjoys the relationships he built with the players in Owen Sound and is pursuing other opportunities to coach in the OHL.