Chiefs add two assistants, one of whom is former star

The Spokane Chiefs hockey team made Kevin Sawyer the first former player to rejoin their ranks as a coach, naming the franchise’s all-time leader in penalty minutes as one of two new assistant coaches.

Also named to the Western Hockey League franchise’s coaching staff on Thursday was Rikard Gronborg, a former defenseman who played collegiately at St. Cloud (Minn.) State and professionally in Sweden.

“The experiences that both Rikard and Kevin bring are going to be invaluable additions to the Spokane Chiefs,” Coach Al Conroy said in a statement issued by the team. “We didn’t know where things were going to take us at the start of the process, but we’re very impressed with the people that we added. I think we got the cream of the crop.”

Sawyer, 30, played in Spokane from 1992-95 and logged 989 penalty minutes in 176 career games. He was team captain in his final season. Sawyer recently concluded his National Hockey League career with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, where he played from 2000-2003.

“My best memory of playing for the Chiefs was just being a Chief,” Sawyer said. “Junior hockey is the best time that I had in the game. Professional hockey is a business, but in juniors it’s about developing players and growing up and becoming a man.”

Sawyer’s wife is from Spokane and he had hoped to return to the city.

Gronborg, 36, is originally from Sweden and came to the United States to play NCAA Division I hockey at St. Cloud State. After a professional playing career in the Swedish Elite League, he began his coaching career.

He was first a graduate assistant at his alma mater, then moved on to become associate head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.

Gronborg was America West Hockey League (AWHL) coach of the year in 1998-99 in the first of his three seasons with the Great Falls (Mont.) Americans, where his teams compiled a record of 112-48-12 and won two regular-season titles.

Gronborg led the Central Texas Blackhawks of the AWHL to a record of 40-16-2 in the 2002-03 season.

The Chiefs also announced that goaltending instructor Dennis Sproxton and athletic therapist Darcy Bishop will return in their same capacities.