The Moose Jaw Warriors have announced that head coach Tim Hunter has been relieved of his duties and he will be replaced by associate coach Mark O’Leary.

O’Leary is in his eighth season as assistant coach with the team. He’s taken over as head coach when Hunter has been at the World Junior Hockey Championships, leading the team to a 24-6-4-and-1 record.

“It’s been a whirlwind here today, and kind of a mixed bag of emotions in terms of how it’s gone,” said O’Leary. “For me, Tim has been a big part of why I’m in the position I’m (in) here today. I can’t thank him enough for what he’s done for me for challenging me to be a better coach, pushing the status quo and always looking for new ways to do things.”

O’Leary said he’s excited for the opportunity.

“I really do love our group,” O’Leary said. “I know we’re young but there’s a lot of things to be excited about moving forward. I really can’t wait to get started. I know that we’re not going to change things overnight. But I’m really excited about the opporunity moving forward.”

Warriors general manager Alan Millar said a couple of factors came in to the decision to let Hunter go.

“Tim was in the last year of his contract, and over the course of the last weeks adn days, and last night and into this morning, I had come to the decision that I was not going to renew Tim in the summer or offer him a new contract, and I felt it was only fair to him, and I have too much respect for him, to string him along ifor the next 30 games in what has become a very difficult season,” Millar said. “This allows Tim to move on to find another opprtunity in the game, and I’m very confident that he will.”

In saying this isn’t an interim coachign decision, Millar said he would sit down with O’Leary in the offseason to hammer out a multi year contract for the position.

The Warriors have had a mixed bag of success in the Tim Hunter era.

Hunter, 59 was hired in 2014 as the Warriors head coach when then-coach Mike Stothers accepted a head coaching job in the American Hockey League. After playing 16 seasons in the National Hockey League with Calgary, Quebec, Vancouver, and San Jose, Hunter had been an assistant coach in the NHL for 13 seasons.

The Warriors finished out of the playoffs in his first season, 2014-15, with a 32-35-5 record but then made four straight playoff appearances, including the franchise’s best season – 52-15-5 – when they lost in the second round to the Swift Current Broncos.

Overall, he posted a 189-134-25-8 record with the Warriors.

The Warriors won only two rounds in the playoffs in Hunter’s five plus seasons with the Warriors.

This season, after getting off to a 5-1 start, the wheels started to fall off. They’ve only won six of their last 29 games, including a stretch of two wins in their last 18 games.

“Results are results,” said Millar. “Everybody’s going to look at this and look at our season. If we go back, we were very transparent in terms of what our team was going to look like, the age of our team. And we anticipated there would be tough nights. Some things certainly haven’t gone our way personnel wise that have added to the toughness of the season. Results matter, but that’s a really small part of the announcement today.”

Hunter was an assistant coach with Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships for two seasons before taking the reins for the 2019 tournament.

Hunter is the winningest head coach in Warriors history and ranks second in games coached.

Millar said this was one of the toughest decisions he’s had to make in hockey and said the team will be turning a page with the coaching change.

“(It’s a ) very difficult day for the organization and a very difficult day for me personally,” said Millar. “I met with Tim (Monday) morning. He’s a good man, a good coach, a good hockey guy. But at this time we just feel it’s time to turn the page... and look in a new direction.”

Millar said Hunter heightened their program through his experience at Hockey Canada.

“I look at some of the players that developed and moved on,” Millar said. “The one year, really unique that three 20-year-old free agents signed NHL contracts, in Tanner Jeannot, Jayden Halbgewachs and Brayden Burke and Tim certainly deserves a lof of credit for his leadership and what he’s done for the hockey club and what he’s done for the community.”

Millar said that they expect to finish the season with the staff they have: O’Leary as head coach, Scott King as assistant, Matt Wenninger as goaltending coach and Olivia Howe as coaching assistant.