Column: Wolves hope to reverse fortunes with off-season rebuild

The Sudbury Wolves off-season rebuild has taken a couple of impressive steps forward over the past few weeks.

As suggested in this space last month, the Wolves made it official by making Dave Matsos the team’s new head coach.

Yes, he managed just five wins after taking over in January, but the team’s work ethic changed under Matsos, and the players responded with him behind the bench.

With that in mind, Matsos had the interim tag lifted from his title and he was given a vote of confidence in the form of a two-year contract extension.

There is no doubt one of the first requests of the new head coach was the addition of some full time coaching help.

Management responded by hiring former NHL defenseman Drake Berehowsky as an associate coach.

Berehowsky played over 500 games in the NHL after being drafted tenth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1990. He went on to play 12 seasons in the NHL with Toronto, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Phoenix, Nashville and the Edmonton Oilers.

Since his playing days ended in Europe in 2006, Berehowsky turned to coaching and is no stranger to the Ontario Hockey League. As well as playing in the league, he also was an assistant coach with the Barrie Colts and Brampton Battalion over a three-year period.

Then it was off to the pros as Berehowsky served as an assistant coach with the Peoria Rivermen of the American Hockey League from 2009 to 2012.

Then he got his first head coaching job with the Orlando Solar Bears of the East Coast League before moving back to junior hockey as head coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes with the Western Hockey League.

Berehowsky is a fan of analytics, and is known as a coach who pays attention to detail and tracks such stats as defensive and offensive zone time, puck control and where goals are scored from.

He will also be in charge of the Wolves defense that will go into the 2015-16 season as one of the youngest in the OHL.

The Wolves also added to the organization by way of the CHL Import Draft by using the third overall pick selecting one of the top-rated forwards in the draft, 6-2, 200 pound Dmitri Sokolov.

Sokolov is rated as a top-10 pick in the first round of next year's NHL Entry Draft and is described as a "gifted goal scorer with outstanding offensive instincts."

The Wolves have had their eye on Sokolov for some time, and really became focused on him after his appearance for Russia at the Under-17 World Challenge tournament in Sarnia last November.

He led Team Russia to a gold medal victory in the tournament, and also led Team Russia in scoring with six goals and three assists for nine points in six games.

Sokolov really became a priority for the Wolves when European scout Dan Cuomo attended the World Under-18 Tournament in Switzerland in April.

He called him one of the best forwards at the tournament and was very exciting to watch.

Cuomo says there is no question in his mind that that Wolves fans are going to enjoy watching Sokolov perform at the Sudbury Arena.

Stew Kernan is the radio and television voice of the Sudbury Wolves, and the news director at KiSS 105.3 and Q92.