Hershey Bears Take ECHL Bakersfield Condors Head Coach Troy Mann for 2014-15 Season

Head Coach Troy Mann is leaving the ECHL Bakersfield Condors to accept the head coaching position in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Hershey Bears. Hershey is the AHL affiliate of the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals.

Mann, 44, earns the promotion after a memorable lone season at the helm of the Condors, posting a 36-30-0-6 record and taking the team into the conference finals for the first time in team history. The Condors went 35-20-0-5 after Thanksgiving to overcome a poor start and post one of the best records in the league for the rest of the season.

The New Brunswick native returns to the AHL, this time as the head coach of the team with which he spent four campaigns, from 2009-13. Mann was an assistant coach with the Bears during that time, winning a Calder Cup in 2010 and helping the club post 180 victories in four seasons. The 2013-14 Condors season was the first as a head coach for Mann since 2007-08, when he coached the Columbia Inferno. In each of his last two seasons as a head coach, he has guided his ECHL clubs into the third round of the playoffs. He was the first Condors head coach to have played for the team, having spent part of the 2000-01 season with the team.

“Thank you to Jonathon Fleisig, the Edmonton Oilers, Matt Riley, John Olver and the entire Condors staff for providing me with the opportunity to work in Condorstown,” said Mann. “It has been a pleasure to be a part of one of the premier organizations in the ECHL. It is bittersweet to depart, but this is an opportunity that I have been working towards my entire coaching career. I wish the organization nothing but the best moving forward.”

Condors’ President Matthew Riley said in a statement, “Troy is on the fast track. He is a great coach and a great person. We wish we could have had him here longer of course, but we’re grateful we could be a part of his journey, and in just one season he has had a tremendous impact on our organization. We wish him and Lori all the best.”

Mann has left for Pennslyvania and will be introduced on Thursday officially as the Head Coach of the Hershey Bears.