The Detroit Red Wings have turned to another former OHL coach to fill out its new coaching crew.
Red Wings Vice-President and General Manager Steve Yzerman announced Monday that the NHL club had hired Jay Varady as an assistant coach. Varady will join another former OHL bench boss, Windsor native Bob Boughner, behind the Detroit bench under recently-named head coach Derek Lalonde.
Varady coached the OHL Kingston Frontenacs for the 2017-2018 season, compiling a 36-23-6-3 record for 81 points and guiding the Frontenacs to the OHL Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in team history.
Jay Varady, new assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings. Photo courtesy Detroit Red Wings/NHL.
The Illinois native played two seasons with the Dubuque Fighting Saints of the USHL, then had three seasons of college hockey at Union. He began his coaching career at Union as a volunteer assistant, then had assistant coach gigs in the NAHL and the Western Hockey League before joining Ducs d'Angers in France in 2011 as their head coach. In his second season there, Varady guided Ducs d'Angers to the league playoff final. From France, he returned to the USHL as the head coach and GM for the Sioux City Musketeers from 2013 to 2017. The Musketeers won the 2017 Anderson Cup for the best regular-season record and reached the Clark Cup Finals, earning Varady the USHL Coach of the Year Award.
After his stop in Kingston, Varady went to the NHL and spent four seasons in the Arizona Coyotes organization, including three seasons as head coach of Arizona's AHL affiliate, the Tucson Roadrunners, winning one Pacific Division title. During his Arizona tenure, Varady served one season as an assistant coach for the Coyotes.
