Former NHLer Vitali Yachmenev has been hired as an assistant coach to begin the 2024-25 season.
Yachmenev replaces Josh Dale who has joined the North Bay U18 AAA Trappers as that team’s new head coach.
As a player, Yachmenev put up more than 200 points in two seasons of junior hockey in North Bay and helped the North Bay Centennials capture an OHL championship in 1994.
Yachmenev went on to play eight seasons in the NHL for the Los Angeles Kings and Nashville Predators before finishing off his playing career in the KHL. In his rookie season in LA he played on a line with NHL legend Wayne Gretzky.
Yachmenev also brings with him seven years of coaching experience from the Kontinental Hockey League in Russia and spent a portion of a season as an associate coach with the Powassan Voodoos in 2018.
Yachmenev is very familiar with the Voodoos organization. Not only did he help as an assistant coach for a portion of the 2017-18 season, he also had his son Tomas play 3 seasons with the Voodoos.
Vitali, who resides in North Bay, is married to his wife Tina and they have two kids, Tomas and Paulina.