Two-time Stanley Cup champion Scott Gomez will lead Surrey Eagles into next season as head coach and general manager, the franchise has announced.
A former star player on the BC Hockey League team, Gomez returned to South Surrey Arena last summer as an assistant coach under bench boss/GM Cam Keith, whose departure was announced Monday (June 17).
The Eagles posted news of Gomez's hiring on social media channels Tuesday morning (June 18), a day after rumours swirled that he would replace Keith, who said he's leaving the organization to live closer to family.
The Nelson-born Keith, 43, who coached the Eagles since 2019 and departs after the team's most successful season in a decade, says his move is non-hockey-related. He noted the high cost of living in Surrey as a reason for his desire to move his young family somewhere else, to either the B.C. Interior or Vancouver Island.
Reached Monday in Las Vegas while on a scouting trip, Keith continues to work for the Eagles during the team's transition to Gomez as head coach and GM.
Together this past season, Keith and Gomez led the Eagles to the BC Hockey League's Fred Page Cup, the team's first league-championship trophy since 2013.
Years earlier, in 1996-97, the Alaska-born Gomez played in South Surrey for a single season before heading south to Tri-City Americans of the WHL and, later, New Jersey Devils, with whom he won two Stanley Cups. He played for six other NHL teams until his 2016 retirement from pro hockey. Gomez then spent two years as an assistant coach of New York Islanders from 2017 to 2019.
With the Eagles as a player, Gomez scored 48 goals and 76 assists in 56 games before netting another 18 and adding 23 helpers in 21 playoff games.
News of Keith's exit was posted on the Eagles' website Monday.
"The entire Surrey Eagles organization want to extend our deepest gratitude towards Cam Keith and his family," raves the webpost, by the Brar family and the hockey organization.
"His leadership over the past five seasons has been the cornerstone of our success, culminating in the remarkable achievement of winning the Fred Page Cup this season."
On May 26 in Penticton, the Eagles celebrated their Fred Page Cup win over the Vees, travelled back to South Surrey, then flew to Alberta for a best-of-three series with Brooks Bandits. Surrey lost two straight to the well-rested Bandits in the BCHL's new Rocky Mountain Challenge championship.
Last September, at the start of the BCHL season, Keith and Gomez talked about aiming for a championship season with the Eagles.
Keith and Gomez both have connections to Anchorage and the Aces ECHL team where Keith played wing in the mid-2000s. Last summer, a mutual friend told Gomez that Keith was coaching in Surrey, and might need help on the bench.
“That interested me,” Gomez said in September, pre-practice at South Surrey Arena. “I called the Eagles owner and asked if they needed some help, and that’s what I wanted to do, be Cam’s assistant here. One of the first things I said to him was, ‘I don’t want your job, man.’ He’s the boss. This ain’t about that, it’s about coming back here and helping the kids get to the next level.
“I didn’t know what to expect, but I’m shocked how good these kids are,” Gomez added. “There’s talent out there, a lot of intelligent kids.”