Congrats to former Wings assistant Spiros Anatsas, named ECHL’s Charlotte Stingrays coach

Of Red Wings alumni-related note:

Anastas named Stingrays head coach
August 7, 2018

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The South Carolina Stingrays, ECHL ECHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals and American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears, announced that Spiros Anastas has been named to the position of Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations.

Anastas, 33, becomes the eighth head coach in club history and replaces the outgoing Ryan Warsofsky, who accepted a new position as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers on July 23.

Anastas spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the AHL’s Detroit Red Wings affiliate Grand Rapids Griffins from 2012-14 and helped lead the team to the 2013 Calder Cup championship under head coach Jeff Blashill, who is now the head coach of the Red Wings. Most recently, Anastas served as the head coach for the University of Lethbridge men’s hockey team in Lethbridge, Alberta for four seasons from 2014-18. The University of Lethbridge hockey team competes as part of U Sports, the highest level of play at the university level within Canadian athletics.

Anastas, a native of Toronto, Ontario, played college hockey at Lebanon Valley College from 2006-10, where he was a forward and team captain. He began his coaching career with his alma mater, serving as an assistant coach during the 2010-11 season, before moving on to the University of Western Michigan where he was an assistant coach and video coordinator while working under former NHL head coach Andy Murray. During his only season with the Broncos, Anastas helped the team win their second Central Collegiate Hockey Association championship in program history and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Anastas also spent time as the General Manager of the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League before joining Grand Rapids.

While at Lethbridge, Anastas was also able to gain significant experience in international hockey, representing three different countries. Last year Anastas was behind the bench as head coach for Estonia at both the IIHF U20 and U18 World Championships. He also won a Silver Medal as the head coach for Hockey Alberta at the WHL Cup in October 2017 and won the 2017 U17 National Development Camp Tournament as an assistant coach for Hockey Canada.

In addition, Anastas has coached South Korea in four different World Championship tournaments. In both 2015 and 2016, he was the country’s head coach at the IIHF U18 World Junior Championship as well as an assistant coach at the IIHF World Championship. Both teams he coached for South Korea in 2015 won gold medals at their respective championships.

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, when MLive hired me to work their SlapShots blog, and I joined Kukla's Korner in 2011 as The Malik Report. I'm starting The Malik Report as a stand-alone site, hoping that having my readers fund the website is indeed the way to go to build a better community and create better content.