KHL team Metallurg Magnitogorsk is attempting to hire a North American coach, the club said Thursday.
The coach would replace Fyodor Kanareikin, whose contract expired Monday.
“The question about a head coach for this team of stars should be resolved in the near future – the management of the club hopes to sign a contract with a coach from North America,” the club said in a statement on its website.
The new coach’s assistant will be Ilya Vorobyov, a former Metallurg player who served as assistant coach at Lokomotiv Yaroslavl this season as the team played junior hockey after the entire roster and coaching staff died in a plane crash.
The KHL has an American coach in Lokomotiv’s Tom Rowe, who was signed last month after several years as an assistant coach and scout for the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes.
This season, Kanareikin led Metallurg to a 4-1 defeat to eventual Gagarin Cup finalist Avangard Omsk in the KHL Eastern Conference semifinal in March.
