Paul Adey introduced as Belfast Giants new head coach

In front of a packed W5 hall within the Odyssey Complex, the Belfast Giants Ice Hockey team announced Paul Adey as their new Head Coach.

Adey, a legend in Nottingham comes to the Odyssey after coaching the previous campaign of top Italian League Val Pusteria (Brunico) to a first place. Prior to last season, Adey coached in Switzerland with Ajoie for two seasons and previous to that with Italian sides Ritten, Cortina, and Val Gardena.

During Paul’s career, he played an amazing eleven seasons with the Nottingham Panthers. He is the all-time leading scorer in the Panthers’ history with 869 goals and an outstanding 1609 points total during his lengthy stay in Nottingham. The Panthers have officially retired his number 22, and it was in Nottingham where his coaching career began in 2001.

Adey, who hails from Montreal in Quebec, Canada – home country to so many outstanding hockey players – was inducted into the British Ice Hockey’s Hall of Fame. He was behind the Panthers’ bench for the final two seasons of the Ice Hockey Superleague and the first two of the Elite Ice Hockey League before moving on to coach in Italy.

Giants’ GM Todd Kelman has been consumed with finding the right man for the job for the past four weeks and as expected interviewed a number of candidates before deciding on Adey.

“I started with a list of about 30 potential coaches and narrowed it down to eight people that I thought were worth interviewing. I interviewed some people over Skype, some over the phone and some in person if they were available to fly in. Paul came over last week to speak with me and after meeting with him, I was certain he was a perfect fit for us.

“I then called all his references, and found some of my own contacts that I knew had played for Paul or worked with him. All the reports on him came back very positive.

“He has a reputation amongst his players as being very diligent and ensuring his teams are always well prepared. Guys love playing for Paul and the players I spoke to had excellent feedback for me on their experience playing for him.

“I also spoke to team owners, presidents and general managers that he worked with who also had excellent things to say about him. The one thing that kept coming up was that he is a very hard worker and will always make sure his teams are well prepared.

“He understands the game very well and the system he has outlined to me that he wants to play is a high tempo, exciting brand of hockey that I know our fans are going to love watching.”

Adey is excited to be joining the Giants, an organisation that he played against in his final year in the Superleague when he was with the Sheffield Steelers.

“Belfast is a first class organisation and they have a tradition of winning that I am excited to be a part of. I am looking forward to the pressure of coaching in Belfast and I believe we will build a team to compete for every trophy up for grabs this season.”

Adey becomes the seventh Head Coach in the Belfast Giants franchise history taking over the reigns from the recently departed Doug Christiansen who played under Adey in Italy back in 2007.

(Image: Michael Cooper)