Sunday, October 16, 2022

Former Vernon Laker Naylor No Longer With Blizzard:

Former Vernon Lakers forward Darren Naylor is no longer the Head

Coach/GM of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League OCN Blizzard.

Naylor was named Head Coach/GM June 22nd 2022. Naylor was suspended last season by Hockey Canada for breaking the Coach's Conduct Policy and has not been reinstated. The Blizzard hired and named Doug Johnson new Head Coach/GM in August 2022.

Here is the press release from flinflononline.com,


Naylor spent the past four seasons with the Nanaimo Clippers as Head Coach/GM, Vice President and Director of Hockey Operations.

Naylor and associate coach Colin Birkas were placed in administrative leave on February 11th 2022 after the BCHL announced an investigation into alleged breaches of the league’s code of conduct. In a social media post on March 9th 2022 the league stated “the investigation has been partly completed but is still ongoing. To ensure fairness in the process, the BCHL has determined that Colin Birkas can return to the coaching staff of the Clippers.” Naylor will remain on administrative leave until at least May 31st 2022.

Naylor played three seasons in the COHL, CHL, SUHL, PHL, WCHL & NAL from 1993-1996 with six different teams, before retiring from professional hockey in 1996. Naylor was a Scout and been coaching since 2005. Naylor was Head Coach/GM of the PIJHL Delta Ice Hawks from 2016-2018 before joining the Nanaimo Clippers in 2017.

Naylor played parts of one season in Vernon with the 1989-90 Vernon Lakers. Naylor was traded to Vernon during the 1989-90 season. The Lakers were Naylor's third team in his final season of Junior hockey. In 20 games with the Lakers, Naylor collected (8-goals-27-assists-35-points).

The Vernon Lakers were around from 1980-1995 before changing their name to the Vernon Vipers in 1995.

Darren Naylor's Player/Coaching Profile,

2 comments:

Bob McInnes said...

He never coached for OCN. But now he's available to be hired. I hope not in Vernon.

Anonymous said...

Naylor is a crook. And a horrible coach! I won’t be suprised when Vernon hires him because mediocrity starts at the top down so he fits the mould