The Ontario Reign will have a new voice leading them behind the bench next season in Andrew Lord, who will get his first chance to coach in the American Hockey League. While he’ll be new for fans, he’s a familiar face for many within the organization from his time leading the LA Kings’ ECHL affiliate in Greenville, South Carolina.
In fact, his familiarity with Ontario General Manager Richard Seeley dates back even further, with both having finished up their playing careers in the United Kingdom’s Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) before getting into coaching.
Seeley’s time in the EIHL came as a member of the Belfast Giants during 2010-11. He eventually returned to North America and became the Head Coach of the Manchester Monarchs, who at the time were the Kings’ ECHL affiliate, from 2015-18. Seeley, who was originally drafted by LA in 1997 and played in Manchester when the Monarchs were the team’s AHL affiliate, got a chance to observe Lord do a job he once held for four seasons.
At the “AA” level, most clubs have their head coach double as a GM, making final decisions on roster transactions, team travel and hockey operations staff in addition to anything else that might come up.
Seeley served as both a boss and a mentor for Lord during his time leading Greenville, someone who not only communicated information about transactions, but also helped with the rest of the job and lending an ear as someone who had been through that before. Now they’ll be working together again in an even closer capacity.
“There was some relationships from the UK, he knew some of the same people and we all have the same friend connection group,” Lord said of how he first met Seeley this week while appearing with Jesse Cohen and Paige Capistran on All The Kings Men, the Official Podcast of the LA Kings. “The relationship has been there for a really long time and in Greenville there was a ton of communication. There’s a lot of things that come with the ECHL level. It’s all-encompassing and fortunately for me he coached at that level years ago so he was a good mentor in a lot of ways with roster management and how to deal with all the player movement, so it wasn’t just about the players being sent down, it was also about helping me be a better coach and managing our situation in Greenville.”
That situation in Greenville certainly saw more wins than losses for Lord and the Swamp Rabbits. His four seasons serving as Head Coach and GM produced four consecutive playoff appearances, a combined record of 155-94-39 and both an All-Star appearance and ECHL Coach of the Year award in 2024.
Much of that success came at a time when the Reign didn’t have a coaching opening. Lord only had two years of ECHL coaching experience when Ontario last had a vacancy and Marco Sturm was brought on. Even the team’s assistant coaches, Chris Hajt and Brad Schuler, have both been longtime members of the staff and were with the team even before Sturm made a change in 2022 when he left his role as an assistant with the Kings to take the helm for Ontario.
The stability of the Reign staff has led to many great relationships over the years and the throughline for all of that is Hajt, who was recently promoted to Associate Coach. He’s entering his ninth season with the Reign and was also previously an assistant in Manchester when the Monarchs won the Calder Cup in 2015. Schuler is beginning his seventh season with Ontario, while Goaltending Development Coach Adam Brown, now in his third season with the Reign, has the most previous experience with Lord when he served as Greenville’s goaltending coach for two of his ECHL seasons (2021-23).
The familiarity of everyone on the staff should allow the coaches to pick up their relationships where they left off before Lord left the affiliation to join the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s (QMJHL) Halifax Mooseheads last summer.
“Overall, the affiliation was incredible,” Lord said reflecting on his time with Greenville. “From when it was announced that we’d be with LA, I think Rich in particular has been great and it’s been fun having a real level of comfort. Obviously there’s new things, but there’s a lot of stuff that I’m already really used to, especially all the relationships throughout the organization.”
Without an opening to move up to in the Kings organization, Lord made the decision to join a young Mooseheads team last summer. That gave him even more experience as a head coach at the junior level with an elite franchise.
Halifax presented a new challenge in that the team was going through a rebuild, giving Lord a roster that had more 16-year-old players than any other in the league. 48 points in the standings after 64 games was enough to get them into the postseason, clinching the 16th and final spot available.
Lord’s group then found a way to outlast the top team in the Western Conference, the Drummondville Voltigeurs, prevailing in a Game 7 on April 8 by scoring one even strength goal despite being out-shot 38-23 in the game.
Those types of experiences will be what he leans on as he moves to the next chapter of his coaching career. The 40-year-old knows who he is as a coach though, and emphasizes many of the same important foundational strategies the Kings preach to its players.
“I think I’m completely aligned, and I think that’s a big reason why I’m here,” Lord said. “Even from my days in the UK, those staples of my fundamentals as a coach and the teams I’m a part of, the details, the structure, being really well-prepared against your opponent, being defensive-minded, even our most skilled players have to defend and buy-in to a team game. When you get your best players playing the right way it’s really dangerous. I think it’s right in line with the organization and that’s why I have a real comfort with this position and we as a staff can really continue to help players and help the Kings.”
As for the organization’s priorities at the AHL level, which include both developing players for the NHL and putting a winning product on the ice that local fans in the Inland Empire can support and be proud of, Lord said he feels they go hand-in-hand together.
Under Sturm, who was hired last month to be the head coach of the Boston Bruins, both of those things were prioritized. The outgoing coach often explained that young players would have to earn their ice time; nothing would be handed to them until they proved they were ready for the responsibility. It seems based on Lord’s comments that nothing will change in that regard while he’s in charge.
“I do think there are some spots potentially nowadays where it’s just purely development and ice time and winning doesn’t matter and I really disagree with that,” Lord said. “You have to learn how to win and you have to learn how to do things when it’s hard. Anyone can play well when they’re fresh or when they’re not a little sick or injured. It’s really about those hard days and how much competitive spirit you can bring forward. Developing isn’t just skillset, it’s the mental toughness, it’s when you get scratched or maybe you get eight minutes of ice time in a game, can you conduct yourself the right way to your teammates and have a good honest conversation with the coaching staff behind closed doors and then come out the next day and be the best version of yourself. I think all those things have to be learned.”
The next three months of preparation will be critical for Lord as he gets ready to lead a young group in Ontario that could have as many as six first-year North American professionals. But he’ll have a veteran staff around him and potential returners from last year’s leadership group like captain Joe Hicketts, top center Glenn Gawdin and goaltenders Pheonix Copley and Erik Portillo as well as Jacob Doty, the team’s longest-tenured skater who is returning for his seventh year in Ontario.
Lord’s full interview and comments from his appearance on All The Kings Men can be found below.