PWHL Vancouver hires B.J. Adams, Brendon Knight as assistant coaches
One of the new teams in the PWHL has finalized its bench for the inaugural season.
On Monday, Vancouver announced that it has hired B.J. Adams and Brendon Knight as the team’s new assistant coaches, joining head coach Brian Idalski behind the bench.
The team also hired goaltending coach Joey Ali, Kathy Pippy as special advisor to general manager Cara Gardner Morey, Andrew Boucher as video coach and Shannon McAulay as head strength and condition coach.
Morey states the crew hired will help make the expansion franchise one of the premier franchises in the league.
“We have assembled a seasoned and accomplished Hockey Operations staff, with experience across the board at all levels of professional hockey and women’s hockey,” Morey said in a release. “I’m very proud that our players will get to work with such knowledgeable coaches and mentors who have led and supported many teams and athletes to success at the highest levels.”
Adams joins Vancouver after briefly serving as the head coach and general manager of the ECHL’s Allen Americans. He was let go 32 games into the 2024-25 season after the team struggled out of the gate. The Scarborough, Ont. native worked behind the bench of the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters for eight seasons, spending over a season as the head coach before he was fired in January of the 2022-23 season.
Adams was also an assistant coach for the men’s program at Canisius College, helping guide the team to an Atlantic Hockey championship in 2012-13.
Knight had been working in the NCAA ranks for over two decades. He served as both an assistant coach and associate head coach for the women’s team at Syracuse for 10 years, coaching the team to two College Hockey America titles and a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. He also served as head coach for Hamilton College, an NCAA D-III program, from 2006 to 2012, as well as being an assistant at Utica University during the 2022-23 campaign.
The St. Luc, Que. native was also the head coach the U.S. women’s team at the 2023 FISU Winter Universiade.