Wranglers expand their coaching staff

Nick Christensen

Thursday, July 1, 2004 | 9:13 a.m.

At first glance, three assistant coaches might seem like too many for a minor league hockey team.

But with assistants Joe Frederick and Jeff Sharples both working full-time jobs in addition to their coaching duties, Las Vegas Wranglers coach Glen Gulutzan decided to add a fourth member of the coaching staff.

Drew Schoneck was named an assistant coach and assistant general manager earlier this week, a move that Gulutzan said he had hoped make a year ago.

"To be perfectly honest, he was a person I offered position a year ago. He chose to play one more year," he said. "After this year he was interested in the position, and I felt like it was a good time to bring him in."

Although he played five professional seasons -- the last three with the Fresno Falcons -- Schoneck has three years' experience coaching major junior hockey in Canada. That was one of the things that convinced Gulutzan to offer the job to his former teammate in Fresno. Schoneck also played two seasons of professional roller hockey.

"Drew's a guy I played with for two seasons, a guy that comes with three years' coaching experience in highest levels of junior in Canada. It's a profession Drew wants to pursue and eventually become a head coach," Gulutzan said. "I know him, Joe Frederick knows him. We thought he's a great guy to come in here. He's going to handle a lot of the paperwork side of hockey, as well as on-ice stuff."

Schoneck's best year as a defenseman was 2002-03, when he had 35 points in 66 games with the Falcons. His defensive expertise, as well as his ability to handle some day-to-day front office functions, are what made him so valuable to Gulutzan.

"He's a defenseman, so that helps me out, just like Jeff helped me out last year. He's got a lot of coaching experience with some high-level coaches in Canada, so he can help me with the X's and O's part of game," he said. "By hiring a 9-to-5 guy, it will take a lot of workload off of myself and make it a little bit easier for me to concentrate more on coaching."

But Long Beach made him an offer to play near his family in Southern California, and it was an offer he couldn't refuse.

"I ended up deciding to play. Gully had room for me, and I had a good relationship with Gully. Nothing against Las Vegas, it's just much easier and more convenient for me to play here," he said. "Driving back and forth and being away from the family made it difficult. If I'd have to go through that again I don't think it'd be worth doing. Now that I can stay right here and stay with the house, I still love to play game."

Gulutzan made special arrangements to accommodate the 31-year-old veteran.

"He's an unrestricted free agent as of September 1, so no matter what I did contractwise, if he didn't want to sign with me, all he had to do was wait until September 1 and he could go wherever he wanted," Gulutzan said. "It's a lot easier on him and his family. His wife had a great job there, so instead of making him draw out his contract until September I let him go as a free agent because that's where he wanted to play."