THUNDER BAY – Larry Wintoneak’s history with the Superior International Junior Hockey League goes back to its founding days.
The veteran coach was behind the bench of the Dryden Ice Dogs in 2001-02, the league’s inaugural season, winning the very first Bill Salonen Cup in a sweep of the Borderland Thunder.
He’s hoping to recreate that magic 23 years later, named on Tuesday as the new head coach of the Kam River Fighting Walleye, who parted ways with first-year coach Dwight Lee after 10 games and a 5-5-0 start to the 2024-25 campaign.
Wintoneak, who won two Allen Cups as a player with the Thunder Bay Twins, and also held the reins of the Thunder Bay Flyers in 1994-95 and 1995-96, before going on to coach in Flin Flon, La Ronge and Kindersley, Sask., said he’s looking for to the challenge of turning the Fighting Walleye into champions.
But it’s more than that, the 66-year-old said.
“You want to win the championship, obviously. But sometimes we put the outcome ahead of everything else and I understand that.” Wintoneak said, after taking to the ice with the Walleye for the first time in a practice session at the Norwest Arena.
“It’s your livelihood. You’re feeding your family. You’re paying your bills. But after a while you get more relaxed and you become more of a partner. You’re building a relationship with these kids and that’s what you want. You’re part of that family. I just think that winning is the ultimate goal, but to get there, it’s the process and that’s what you enjoy the most. That’s what you remember the most, is how we got there.”
Wintoneak said his experience, more than 30 years in coaching, is the biggest thing he brings back to the SIJHL.
“I’ve been in it for a long time and I think every year I’m a better coach. I think the experience and all the things that I’ve learned, I can help these guys develop. We’re developing hockey players, but we’re developing young men, as well,” he said.
“When they leave the community, they can have these memories here and say ‘I played for the Walleye.’ Whatever I can give and help them, that’s what I’m going to do.”
Fighting Walleye general manager Kevin McCallum said when Dwight Lee decided to hand in his resignation, the team took a long, hard look at the type of coach they wanted to bring in as a replacement. The conversation kept going back to Wintoneak.
One practice was enough to convince McCallum it was the right call.
“There was a different tempo, a different atmosphere right away,” he said. “And spending two seasons with Larry, I know what Larry can bring and what Larry will get out of his guys.”
“I went for breakfast with Larry in August and my gut told me that he might have been a pretty good candidate then, but we’d already offered the job to (Lee). Obviously, it didn’t work out. Having Larry come in, Larry demands the best, not only from our guys, but from everybody.”
McCallum said he expects to see a different competition level with the club, which is off to a 7-5-0 start, winning a pair this past weekend in Red Lake.
Wintoneak, who was an assistant coach with the Calgary Buffaloes midget AAA team before taking the Walleye job, said it will take time to get used to his new troops, adding it’s a different league that the one he left two decades ago.
“Everything’s changed. Everything’s faster. Everybody’s quicker. But the bottom line is, the game really hasn’t changed because still you have to compete. You’ve got to win races, you’ve got to win battles and you have to have the want and the will,” he said. “I don’t think that’s changed over the years.”
The Fighting Walleye and Wintoneak host the Ironwood Lumberjacks on Friday and Saturday.
