Salmon Arm Silverbacks’ GM moves to the Grizzlies

Rylan Ferster

Rylan Ferster, who resigned from the Salmon Arm Silverbacks on Wednesday,surfaced Friday as the next general manager and head coach of the Revelstoke Grizzlies.

“We are extremely excited as an ownership group to have Rylan join our Hockey Club,” Troy Mick said in a statement released Friday morning. “This will help us continue our goals of developing hockey players to the next level and produce a team that all of Revelstoke can be proud of and continue the winning tradition.”

A Saskatchewan native, Ferster re-joined the SilverBacks organization in October 2007 after he was fired by the Victoria Salsawhen a 39-victory regular season only translated to winning one just playoff round. With the Silverbacks he spent two seasons as Head Coach and three as General Manager.  The club finished with a record of 92-56-7-7 over that span, including a fourth-place finish in the Interior Conference during the 2009/10 season.  Ferster was also a member of the coaching staff for the club’s first three seasons where he led the 2003-2004 team to the League Finals.  That same year, Salmon Arm finished first overall in the BCHL with 42 wins.  2008-2009 was another successful year as Ferster coached the roster to 40 wins and onto the Interior Finals versus the rival Vernon Vipers.  In addition, Rylan has represented the SilverBacks on an international level the past two years with Team Canada West at the World Junior “A” Championships.  During his first appearance at the tournament, Ferster was an Assistant Coach.  Last year, Team Canada appointed Ferster as the Head Coach.  Each roster skated to silver medals.

This past season the Silverbacks finished fourth in their division:

2009 – 2010 Final Standings

BCHL Interior DivisionGPWLTOTLPts.
1Vernon6051603105
2Penticton6048804100
3Westside6038181380
4Salmon Arm6029253364
5Quesnel6022320650
6Trail6020321748
7Merritt6022360246
8Prince George6018371441
9Williams Lake6010491021

You can read more about Ferster’s career in this Vancouver Province story and in the Spruce Kin Crusaders blog.