The Seattle Thunderbirds announced last Thursday, July 20, that the team has signed Kyle Hagel as one of the team’s new assistant coaches. The announcement came about a week after the T-Birds announced that Matt O’Dette is set to take over the head coaching reins for the upcoming season.
Hagel, a native of Hamilton, Ont., joins the T-Birds after finishing his hockey career last season with the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League. He got his start at the NCAA ranks playing at Princeton University for four years. Form Princeton, he moved on to play 12 years of professional hockey. Hagel played in 450 professional games in both the ECHL and the AHL (American Hockey League). During his career he played as both a forward and a defenseman. Hagel registered 29 goals, 71 points and 1,221 penalty minutes in his pro career.
Hagel comes from a family of professional hockey talent. His brother, Marc, also an alumnus of Princeton University, just completed his seventh professional season with both the Binghamton Senators and the Iowa Wild of the AHL.
From looking over his career, Hagel, certainly brings a lot of grit to the table. Never producing overwhelming offensive numbers, it seems like Hagel worked more along the lines of a fourth line energy player. Along with his grit, he also brings a bit of versatility to the mix, playing both as a forward and defenseman in his professional career.
With the signing of Hagel, the T-Birds still have a lot of work left to do. With the news that Tyler Alos will not be returning to the team this season as he pursues a non-hockey related opportunity, there is still one position on the bench left to fill. Alos was a member of the Seattle Thunderbirds for three seasons, and part of a fourth season but was forced into an early retirement due to injuries. The next season, Alos was added to the coaching staff, and for the past four seasons he helped the T-Birds go from being the leagues basement dwellers to WHL Champions.
Hagel certainly seems like a good fit for the T-Birds. His physical style meshes well with the hard-checking, in-your-face system Seattle has implemented over these past few seasons. With one more coaching job to fill, I fully expect the team to make another announcement within the coming weeks as to who the next assistant coach will be.
