Letowski takes top job in Sarnia

Trevor Letowski is the new head coach of the Sarnia Sting.

The former NHLer took over the Ontario Hockey League team’s reins on Sunday after the club lost 7-3 to Plymouth.

The loss, the team’s sixth straight, led to the firing of coach and general manager Dave MacQueen, and caught Letowski, a nine-year NHLer who has served as an assistant coach in Sarnia this season, by surprise.

“I didn’t see it coming,” he told the Sarnia Observer’s Dave Paul. “(I) had a great releationship with ‘Mac’. I hold him in very high regard … but this is part of the business.”

Last summer Letowski told tbnewswatch.com that he had no aspirations of a head coaching career, though he told the Observer he entered the position with an open mind.

“People would ask me if my goal was to become a head coach, but my plan was to just take things day by day. There wasn’t really a goal or timeline in mind,” said Letowski, who as a player went to the world juniors as a member of the Sting.

Letowski’s first game as coach will come Thursday night at the RBC Centre in Sarnia when the Sting hosts the London Knights.