Adler Stadtwerke Kitzbühel is now getting a new main trainer. The 67-year-old Canadian Robert “Rob” Daum will take over as head coach from Danny Naud with immediate effect. He should initiate the necessary turnaround in the last decisive games of the regular season in order to reach the Master Round and then have a successful playoff phase.
With Daum, a real coaching legend of Austrian ice hockey is coming to Kitzbühel. His CV reads impressively. After a stint as an assistant coach for the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL, the Saskatchewan-born hockey coach came to Austria for the first time in 2011. He held the coaching position at EHC Linz (Black Wings Linz) until 2017 and celebrated some successes with the Upper Austrians. In his first season he became champion with the Linzers. In the best-of-seven final series against the KAC, the team won impressively 4-1 after a home defeat. In the following seasons he and his team always reached the playoffs. It ended in the semi-finals four times in a row before he had to vacate the position of head coach at the end of the season after a quarter-final defeat in the 2016/17 season.
After a two-year stint with the Iserlohn Roosters in the DEL, he returned to Austria in 2019. He coached Villacher SV twice in total and made it into the postseason three times in three seasons. After a two-year absence, he is now returning to coaching and is now taking over command of the Kitzbüheler Adler, close to the Villach eagles. “I can hardly put into words how excited I am about this opportunity. Coaching has been my passion all my life and still is. My long-term vision for the team is to make each and every player better. From a sporting perspective, we want to reach the playoffs and be successful there,” explains Daum.
Sports director Wilfrid Wetzl is pleased about the new addition to the coaching position and justifies the change with the recent decline in form. “Since mid-November, we have seen a downward trend in terms of play and tactics, as well as a style of play that is not physical enough. In December, we only got ten points from nine games and fell out of the top five. This was not only due to the incredible number of injured and sick players, but also had to do with our style of play. We believe that Rob Daum, with his great experience, is the right man to get the most out of our young team and put them on the road to success “We have a top team and still have a lot to do this year,” explains Wetzl.
The team now has a few days until the first game against SG Cortina Hafro on Saturday, January 17th to get to know the new coach and internalize his philosophy. We caught up with Rob Daum for a more in-depth interview, which you can read here.
www.dieadler.at, Pic: VSV/Krammer
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