DENVER-
Joe Sacco, a longtime assistant in the Colorado Avalanche minor-league system, will be head coach of the team’s new AHL affiliate in Cleveland.
Sacco will be joined by assistant coach Sylvain Lefebvre when the Lake Erie Monsters play their first season starting this fall.
The Monsters are owned by Dan Gilbert, who also owns the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. He is chairman and founder of the online home mortgage lender Quicken Loans Inc.
Sacco, 38, served as an assistant coach with the Avalanche’s previous AHL affiliates in Lowell, Mass., and Albany, N.Y. The Lake Erie Monsters assignment will be his first as a professional head coach.
Sacco played in 738 NHL games with Toronto, Anaheim, New York (Islanders), Washington and Philadelphia.
“Joe has been a key part of this organization’s development efforts over the last two seasons as an assistant coach in the American league, which has prepared him for this new challenge,” said Francois Giguere, the Avalanche general manager and executive vice president.
This will be the first coaching job for Lefebvre, 39, a former Avalanche defenseman. He appeared in 945 NHL games with Montreal, Toronto, Quebec, Colorado and New York (Rangers). He was on the Avalanche club that won the Stanley Cup in 1996.
The Lake Erie Monsters will play at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland and will practice at a new training facility at Iceland USA in Strongsville, Ohio.
