Matt Thomas (born October 25, 1975) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

coach and is currently an assistant coach with the

Providence Bruins The Providence Bruins are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL), and are the primary development team for the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play at the Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rh ...

in the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

Career

Following in his brother, Arts footsteps Matt Thomas started his college career as a player for

RIT Rit is a brand of dye A dye is a colored substance that chemically bonds to the substrate to which it is being applied. This distinguishes dyes from pigments which do not chemically bind to the material they color. Dye is generally applied i ...

during a period where the team was at the top of the

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

ranks. The Tigers finished as national runners-up in his sophomore season and continued with two more strong campaigns (including Thomas being captain in his final year), before Thomas ended his playing days and turned to coaching. Thomas stayed with RIT for one season as an assistant before moving on to Division I, signing up with

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

in the early 2000s. Thomas arrived in

Orono, Maine Orono () is a town in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. Located on the Penobscot and Stillwater rivers, it was first settled by American colonists in 1774. They named it in honor of Chief Joseph Orono, a sachem of the indigenous Penobscot ...

, just after

Shawn Walsh William Shawn Walsh (June 21, 1955 – September 26, 2001) was the head ice hockey coach for the University of Maine Black Bears. Career Walsh was a third-string goalie for Bowling Green State University. As a sophomore, he decided to concentrate ...

was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer and helped the team through the difficult period when Walsh died the following year and the team was turned over to Tim Whitehead. Thomas remained under Whitehead for one year before heading to the professional ranks, serving as an assistant for the

Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies The Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies were an ECHL hockey team in Atlantic City, New Jersey from 2001 to 2005. The team's venue was the historic Boardwalk Hall, which seats 6,979. In 2001, the franchise played its inaugural season in Atlantic City ...

in the

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The E ...

for two seasons before being promoted to

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

and director of hockey operations for the 2004–05 season. After the 42-win debut, Thomas was offered a position with the Fresno Falcons and moved west to take the job. Thomas continued his success in the ECHL with a 43-win, 100-point season, ending with Fresno reaching the conference finals in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. Thomas was able to get the Falcons to reach the playoffs in each of the following two seasons, but in 2008–09, with the

economic downturn In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, Fresno announced that they would cease operations 30 games into the season, ending Thomas' tenure with the team. Thomas did not remain unemployed for long as his former team, since having relocated, offered him the chance to turn around their season and Thomas agreed to take over as head coach for the Stockton Thunder. With the Thunder, Thomas was able to get the team back on the right track and make the playoffs is his half-season behind the bench. The next year he reached the conference finals for the second time and was finally able to get into the championship series in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

. With his success at the minor professional level, Thomas was offered the chance to improve the NCAA Division I

Alaska-Anchorage The University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) is a public university in Anchorage, Alaska. UAA also administers four community campuses spread across Southcentral Alaska: Kenai Peninsula College, Kodiak College, Matanuska–Susitna College, and Pri ...

, which had not had a winning season in 20 years and agreed to take over from the departed

Dave Shyiak Dave Shyiak (born November 4, 1966) is a former Canadian ice hockey player and coach. He was part of Northern Michigan's national title run in the 1991 tournament. Career The Brandon, Manitoba native began his college career as a freshman unde ...

. The Seawolves then produced their first above-.500 record since joining the

WCHA The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college athletic conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's ice hockey-only conference. From 1951 to 1999, it operated a ...

. The following year saw the team produce 10 fewer wins and the program trended downward, finally bottoming out in 2018 with a record of 4–26–4. After his contract expired, Thomas left the program to return to professional hockey. On 7 August 2018, he returned to the ECHL and was announced as the new head coach of the

Cincinnati Cyclones The Cincinnati Cyclones are a professional ice hockey team based in Cincinnati, Ohio. The team is a member of the ECHL. Originally established in 1990, the team first played their games in the Cincinnati Gardens and now play at Heritage Bank Cen ...

. In his first season in Cincinnati, he led the team the regular season title and won the

John Brophy Award The John Brophy Award goes to the ECHL coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success as voted by the coaches of each of the ECHL teams. The John Brophy Award has been awarded since 1988-89 ECHL season, 1989. The award is named a ...

for ECHL coach of the year. Prior to the start of the 2021–22 season, head coach Thomas was hired by the AHL's

as an assistant coach.

Career statistics

Head coaching record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Matt 1975 births Living people RIT Tigers men's ice hockey players Alaska Anchorage Seawolves men's ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey coaches Ice hockey people from British Columbia People from Maple Ridge, British Columbia