The Ontario Reign have named Andrew Lord as the fourth Head Coach in the team’s AHL history. Lord, a former ECHL Coach of the Year award winner with the Reign’s ECHL affiliate, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, joins the LA Kings’ AHL affiliate after spending the 2024-25 season as the head coach of the Halifax Mooseheads in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).

“We are excited to welcome Andrew to the Kings and Reign family as the head coach of the Ontario Reign,” said Reign General Manager Richard Seeley. “At just 40 years old, Andrew has over 10 years of coaching experience in both Europe and North America and has shown the ability to create a winning culture in a variety of different environments. Andrew’s familiarity with our organization as head coach of our ECHL affiliate in Greenville will serve him well as he continues to develop the LA Kings prospects here in Ontario and his passion and work ethic will help further the strong culture in place with our existing staff.”

A native of West Vancouver, British Columbia, Lord oversaw a Halifax team that was the youngest playoff qualifier in the QMJHL a year ago and guided them to an upset of the Drummondville Voltigeurs, the league’s Western Conference regular season champion, in the first round.

The year prior, Lord completed his fourth season in Greenville with a 44-23-4-1 record. The team’s win total and point total (93) were both the highest during his time with the Swamp Rabbits, who finished first in the South Division. They also set a team franchise record by earning 30 wins in just 42 games, faster than any other club in team history. Lord was selected as a coach for the 2024 ECHL All-Star Classic, earning the honor by attaining the highest points percentage in the Eastern Conference prior to the Christmas break. At the conclusion of the season, he was honored with the league’s John Brophy Award which recognizes the ECHL Coach of the Year.

“I am extremely excited and feel very fortunate to be a part of such a great organization,” Lord said. “I want to thank both the LA Kings and Ontario Reign, specifically Ken Holland, Glen Murray and Richard Seeley for this incredible opportunity. I cannot wait to get started and do my part to carry on the great tradition of excellence and development put in place by former and current staff and players.”

Lord’s Greenville teams qualified for the postseason in all four of his campaigns, which included back-to-back 40-win seasons in 2022-23 and 2023-24. In total, Lord compiled a 155-94-39 record in 288 games, a 0.606 points percentage, and reached the 2021 Eastern Conference Finals.

Prior to joining the Swamp Rabbits, Lord led the Cardiff Devils of the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) for six seasons from 2014-20. During that time, which included four years as a player/coach, Lord was the winningest coach in Devils history, leading them to an overall record of 221-75-22 while earning the league’s Coach of the Year award twice in 2017 and 2018.

Cardiff won nine separate titles under Lord’s guidance, including three Conference championships, two Challenge Cup championships, two League titles and two Playoff championships. The Devils also qualified for the Champions Hockey League in four straight seasons (2017-20), a high-level tournament featuring the top teams across Europe. There Lord helped them earn impressive wins over HC Davos (Swiss A) in 2017 and Vaxjo (SHL) in 2018 before finishing 3-3 in the group stage in 2019-20 with wins over Mountfield HK (Czechia) and the Moser Medical Graz99ers (Austria).

Before entering the coaching ranks, Lord played professionally for 10 seasons in the AHL, ECHL EIHL and Germany’s Second Bundesliga, totaling 462 games. 216 of those contests were with Cardiff, where he scored 173 points. He also completed a four-year career at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the NCAA from 2004-08.

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Photo Credit: Halifax Mooseheads