Spokane Chiefs name Leigh Mendelson Assistant Coach

Spokane, WA — The Spokane Chiefs have announced that Leigh Mendelson has been named Assistant Coach. Mendelson served in the same capacity for the Omaha Lancers of the United States Hockey League (USHL) last year and helped them win the Anderson Cup as regular season champions and Clark Cup as playoff champions.
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r“This is a great opportunity,” Mendelson said. “Its exciting to get the chance to not only work in the WHL but to be in a successful environment like the Chiefs organization,” Mendelson said.
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r“We’re thrilled to have Lee in place as our assistant coach,” Chiefs Head Coach Hardy Sauter said. “One of the perks of having his experience from different junior to pro leagues is that we should get a fresh perspective on things, which we already have seen.”
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rMendelson has extensive coaching experience at different levels of the game, from junior to pro to international. Mendelson has coached in the USHL and the North American Hockey League (NAHL) as well as the East Coast Hockey League with the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies as an Assistant Coach.
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rMendelson also spent two seasons in Europe coaching in both the Dutch EreDivisie with the Heereveen Flyers and the Finnish SM-Liiga with the Pelicans Lahti.
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r“Because of my varied experience with junior, minor pro and over in Europe, I hope to provide a different viewpoint for Hardy and help keep the success going,” Mendelson added.
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rHis post in Omaha last season was a return to the Lancers where he had spent the 2000-01 season as their Associate Head Coach/Recruiting Coordinator for their Clark Cup and Junior A National Championship team.
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rMendelson has also coached with USA Hockey with the National Team Development Program as the Assistant Coach for the under-18 team in 2002-03 and the under-18 silver medal winning team at the 1999 IIHF Four Nations tournament held in the Czech Republic.
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