After the departure of head coach Marco Sturm, the Ontario Reign had been searching for a new head coach to take the bench for next season. Yesterday, the club, a part of the Los Angeles Kings, announced that they hired Andrew Lord as the new bench boss.
Lord, 40, will be entering his twelfth season as a coach, but this will be his inaugural season in the American Hockey League. He previously spent last season in the Québec Maritime Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) as the Halifax Mooseheads’ head coach, when he brought the team to the second round of the playoffs. The Mooseheads finished the regular season in 16th place with a record of 19-35-10, compared to 42-19-7 during the 2024 season.
Familiarity With The Kings
Before Lord went to coach in the juniors, he spent four seasons in the ECHL with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, the team affiliated with the LA Kings. In his final season with the team during 2024 as general manager, director of hockey operations, and head coach, Lord led the Swamp Rabbits to a fourth-straight playoff run and a South Division title to close out the regular season; they finished the regular season with a 44-23-4 record, the best record in years.
However, the great record wouldn’t propel them far in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, as the team lost in six games against the Orlando Solar Bears. During that season, Lord was also named a coach for the ECHL’s 2024 All-Star Classic in Savannah and named Coach of The Year on top of that with the John Brophy Award. Furthermore, he also broke records for his club by attaining 30 regular season wins in just 42 games, faster than any club in team history.
After a four-year tenure with Greenville and in the “Coast,” Lord accumulated a 155-94-39 record in 288 games, with the best postseason appearance being the Eastern Conference Finale during the 2021 season.
Before Going Coastal
Prior to joining Greenville back in 2021, Lord was head coach for the Cardiff Devils of the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) in the United Kingdom, where he became the winningest coach in team history with a record of 221-75-22 from 2014-20. He spent the first four seasons as player/coach before finishing the last two as head coach and director of hockey operations. In that campaign, Lord led the Devils to nine titles, including three conference championships, two league titles and two playoff championships. He completely reshaped the Devils’ winning mentality and identity.
Lord was also a player in the AHL and ECHL from 2008-12 before going overseas. He accumulated 165 ECHL games, earning a tally of 42 goals and 62 assists; and appeared in 39 AHL games with one goal and seven points recorded.
Expectations For Next Season
Lord will work with assistant coaches Brad Schuler and Chris Hajt and goaltending coach Adam Brown. Never fear, he is pretty familiar with the structure and system in Ontario and under the Kings. He was present during Kings’ training camps, rookie and development camps, and the Reigns’ training camps during his tenure with the Swamp Rabbits. So it’s safe to say he knows how the organizations are run and what they expect out of him. Lord always ran his teams with a winning mentality, and the Reign are looking for that in a coach to get farther in the Calder Cup Playoffs.
ITR 47: Then There Was Nothing – Inside The Rink
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