The Raiders announced Conor Yawney (pictured) as their new assistant coach following the departure of Keaton Ellerby. (Amarillo Wranglers/X)

By Logan Lehmann

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The Prince Albert Raiders welcomed a new face behind the bench on Thursday, announcing Conor Yawney as their new assistant coach.

“I’m really excited to make the next step in my career,” Yawney said.

“I’m not from the area, but I have family up in Northern Saskatchewan. I know a little bit about Prince Albert, I attended a rookie camp there a number of years ago. I’m familiar with the league, and I’m just excited to make the next step and help these players develop into professional players.”

Yawney brings experience as both a coach and former player.

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He played two seasons with the Corpus Christi Ice Rays of the North American Hockey League (NAHL) from 2016 to 2018 before retiring from pro hockey. He went to school and earned his degree before pursuing a career in coaching in 2022, starting off with the Omaha Mastery 16U and 18U AAA programs.

The last season, he made the jump to coaching in the NAHL standing behind the bench for the Amarillo Wranglers.

“Being a coach for the defenceman, a lot of my time was spent reading the rush, getting players to read the play and be in good positions,” Yawney explained. “Those were big things for me, just teaching them and making them aware of where they are in a game; is there five minutes left, 17 minutes left, are you up by one or down by two. That dictates how you handle different scenarios, and those are major things that I try to get them to learn.”

Raiders General Manager Curtis Hunt said he sees a lot of the same qualities that other Assistant Coach Ryan McDonald displays.

“What did we see in Ryan when he joined us in the bubble; a young man who is passionate about the game, keen to learn, enough confidence to challenge and make us older guys who have been around better and consider a different thought process,” Hunt said. “I see another young guy like that in Conor.

Raiders Head Coach Jeff Truitt said he’s happy to bring Yawney on board.

“He’s a young guy with a tremendous work ethic. He knows the game, he’s been around it his whole life. He spent time with the LA Kings as an intern and learned an awful lot there. Here’s a young guy with a lot of experience along the way, and it’s exciting to have him.

“Everything here starts with our culture and starts within our room. He’ll learn that from myself, Ryan, and the players. He’ll learn our style of play as well. He’s familiar with some of the background of our team, but he’ll get more and more familiar with the way we do things. We know that he’s going to bring some ideas on how to develop our game a little bit more. It’s a community effort, but when you have a guy with his foresight and how he knows the game, he’s going to bring a lot to our team.”

Yawney will replace Keaton Ellerby, who spent the last two seasons with the club.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com