The Grand Falls Rapids have announced that GREG LELAND will be the team’s new head coach heading into the 2022-2023 season. Leland was the assistant coach of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of the QMJHL for the last two campaigns. He succeeds Nick Tremere who was behind the bench last season for the Rapids after taking over the head coaching position from Brad MacKenzie.
Leland, a Quispamsis native, has a very impressive resumé as a high-level hockey coach. From 2007 to 2015, he was a member of the Saint John SeaDogs organization as an assistant coach, in which he was part of Gerard Gallant’s two Presidents Cup teams along with a Memorial Cup championship in 2011.
This is not his first stint in the Maritime Junior hockey League as he was at the helm of the Campbellton Tigers from 2016 to 2020 where he was the GM/Head Coach, in which he was named Coach of the Year in the 2018-2019 season.
He was also an Assistant Coach with Team Canada East who captured a silver medal at the 2019 World Junior A Challenge in Dawson Creek, BC.
Leland has also served as Head Coach for Team Atlantic on two occasions at the World U17 Challenge in Winnipeg and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba.
Leland was a successful head coach at the Midget AAA level, a position he held with Saint John from 1995 to 2007. He was also a volunteer assistant coach with the Saint John Flames of the American Hockey League during the 2001-2002 season.
The Rapids organization has stated that Leland will begin his duties in late August for the start of the 2022-2023 season.
Welcome to the Rapids team Greg!
Patrick Thibault