News release
8 February 2007
Elmira, NY The Elmira Jackals announced today that Paul Gillis has been named Head Coach and will grab the reins starting with practice on Thursday afternoon.
Paul Gillis brings a wealth of experience and a history of winning hockey to the Elmira Jackals as he begins his 13th season as a head coach and his 9th year in the United Hockey League. In twelve seasons as a head coach in the UHL, American Hockey League and Ontario Hockey League, Gillis has a career record of (455-304-25-42) in 836 games; a career 55.9% winning percentage.
During his 8-year UHL tenure, Gillis has been behind the bench for the Quad City Mallards, the New Haven Knights and the Danbury Trashers. The Toronto, Ontario native has a career UHL coaching record of 358-184-62 in 604 games, a career 64.4% winning percentage, which ranks 2nd All-Time in the UHL in wins and games coached. Perhaps even more impressive than his vast number of wins is the fact that Gillis has led each and every UHL team into the playoffs. In his first season in the UHL, Gillis took the 1997-98 Quad City Mallards to the Colonial Cup Championship, beating the Flint Generals in the Finals in 7 games. Since then he has taken Quad City to the Finals twice in 1998-99 & 2002-03.
Last season as the Head Coach of the Danbury Trashers, Gillis led the 2nd year franchise to their first ever Eastern Division regular season title and their first appearance in the Colonial Cup Finals, Gillis fourth career trip to the Finals.
Due to some recent health issues Robbie Nichols will step aside from his coaching duties effective immediately and return his focus towards running the Jackals and First Arena; Kris Waltze will continue in his capacity as the Jackals Assistant Coach. Nichols hopes his relief from coaching will be better for the team, for his physical well being and also will allow him to concentrate on his duties as General Manager of the team and the Arena.
Well before he began his career in coaching, the 43-year old Gillis had an enormously successful career as a player in the National Hockey League. Gillis was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the 2nd round (#34 overall) of the 1982 NHL Entry Draft, while playing for the Niagara Falls Flyers and the North Bay Centennials of the OHL. At just 20 years of age he made his NHL debut with Quebec during the 1982-83 season and the rest was history. He spent parts of 9 seasons with the Nordiques, going to the Stanley Cup playoffs four times, being named an assistant captain and earning Quebecs Player of the Year award for the 1988-89 season. The next year, 1989-90, Inside Hockey magazine named Gillis one of the 21 most underrated players in the NHL. In 1990-91, Gillis was traded to the Chicago Blackhawks, where he played parts of two seasons. He finished his decorated 11-year professional hockey career with the Hartford Whalers and retired from playing after the 1992-93 season. During those eleven seasons as a pro, Gillis accumulated 282 points (105 goals, 177 assists) and 1,715 penalty minutes in 684 career games played. Of those numbers, he posted 242 points (88 goals, 154 assists) and 1,498 PIMs in 624 career games in the NHL. In 1993-94 Gillis stayed on with the Whalers organization and got his start in coaching as an Assistant Coach for Hartford.
Gillis becomes the 6th Head Coach in the history of the Elmira Jackals franchise and for the second time in his coaching career Gillis is coming to a hockey organization as a midseason replacement; he was brought in to right the ship for the OHLs Windsor Spitfires during the 1995-96 season. His first order of business is running the teams practice, scheduled for Thursday at 1:30 pm on the First Arena Main Rink. Coach Gillis will be available to the media after the conclusion of his first on-ice practice as a Jackals employee.
Gillis and the Jackals will not have a long grace period, as they will host the Chicago Hounds on Friday, for the first of two games this weekend at First Arena. Face off is scheduled for 7:35 pm in Elmira, with Round Two set for Saturday night at the same time.