Canucks add Conacher, Jerrard, Baumgartner to Utica

The Vancouver Canucks on Monday announced the hiring of Pat Conacher as director of hockey operations and Paul Jerrard and Nolan Baumgartner as assistant coaches for their new American Hockey League team, the Utica Comets.

Conacher, who scored 63 goals and had 139 points in 521 NHL games as a player, has been an assistant with the Phoenix Coyotes and coached in the minors with the Utah Grizzlies and San Antonio Rampage. He coached the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League for the past two seasons.

He also has a connection in Utica, having scored 27 goals and 97 points in 108 games during three seasons with the AHL Utica Devils.

Jerrard joins the Comets after spending eight seasons with the Dallas Stars organization as an assistant coach, the last two on Glen Gulutzan’s staff in Dallas following six seasons with the Stars’ primary development affiliates. He has also been an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche as well as with the AHL's Hershey Bears and Lowell Lock Monsters.

Baumgartner played with six NHL teams, including the Canucks, during a 17-year professional career before serving as an assistant last season with their previous AHL affiliate, the Chicago Wolves.