After Marco Sturm departed for the NHL early last month, it appears the Ontario Reign have now zeroed in on their next head coach. Indications are, Andrew Lord will likely be hired as the team’s new bench boss. In doing so, he would become the fourth man to lead the Reign since LA’s top affiliate moved to Southern California from Manchester in the summer of 2015 — following in the footsteps of Mike Stothers (2015-20), John Wroblewski (2020-22), and Sturm (2022-25).
Prior to Sturm taking over the Reign, Chris Hajt and Craig Johnson unofficially served as co-coaches during the back half of the 2021-22 season, guiding the club to their second-best regular season (.669 points percentage, 91 points, 41-18-19 record). That team also had the best power play in AHL history, converting at 27.5%.
Who is Andrew Lord?
Most recently, he’s coming off his first season as head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads (QMJHL).
While only managing 19 wins during their 64-game regular season slate, Lord did coach his team into the second round of postseason action. That alone had to be considered a success considering he was brought in after the previous coach was terminated when losing in the first round (2024), just one year after seeing the Mooseheads play in the league’s 2023 championship final. Last summer, the team also traded away many of their veteran players, leaving Lord a group of young players to help mold and develop this past season.
Just over a year ago, he arrived in Halifax after being named the ECHL Coach of the Year. This came after leading the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to a record of 44-23-5 and winning the league’s South Division championship. It was there where he built ties to the Kings organization, as that organization serves as LA’s ECHL affiliate. Lord was the head coach there for four seasons, posting back-to-back 40+ win seasons before leaving. He also was a finalist for the Coach of the Year award following his first season in Greenville (2021).
Lord began his coaching career overseas as he was wrapping up his days as a player, serving as a player-coach with the Cardiff Devils (EIHL), During his time there, the team won three Conference titles, a pair of Elite League titles and two playoff championships.
The native of Vancouver skated in the BCHL before eventually playing four years of college hockey at R.P.I. as a right winger. Now 40 years old, he also was a member of the Wheeling Nailers (ECHL) and Oklahoma City Barons (AHL) before moving abroad. In total, he played over 450 games as a pro over 10 seasons.
He is now prepping to take over a Reign team featuring a fresh batch of incoming Kings prospects — including Kenny Connors, Koehn Ziemmer, Jared Wright, Otto Salin, and Kirill Kirsanov.
Joining Lord behind the bench should be Hajt and Brad Schuler, who are expected to remain with the Reign.
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