OJS Coach Profile: Ryan Garlock

The next phase of Ottawa Junior Senators Assistant Coach Ryan Garlock’s hockey life begins with just that, him joining OJS in that capacity for the 2017-18 season.

Garlock hails from Iroquois Falls, Ontario, in the northern part of the province. He played bantam hockey in nearby Timmins, before embarking on a junior career in the OHL which saw him play for the Guelph Storm and Windsor Spitfires. Garlock amassed 172 points in 233 games played (2003-04 was his most productive year, scoring exactly a point a game (68 in 68) with Windsor), which saw him drafted in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft’s 2nd round, at 45th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks.

Stints in the ECHL (Johnstown and Charlotte) and the AHL, most notably with the San Antonio Rampage, Syracuse Crunch, Hartford Wolfpack, and Springfield Falcons followed, with Garlock hanging up his skates after the 2013-14 season, due to a hip surgery.

Garlock on whether or not he envisioned himself becoming a head coach in his post playing career:

“I thought so. Being involved in hockey is something that I always thought I would be doing, but I wasn’t sure in what capacity in which I would be doing it. But it’s definitely something that I thought about for a while.

“A good friend of mine, Chris Kushneiruk, has been an assistant coach there for a couple of years now and speaks very highly of the organization and his experience there. He made me aware of the position, then I went in to talk to Martin Dagenais, who is the Head Coach, General Manager, and owner; we thought it would be a good fit, and I was brought on board,” said Garlock of his arrival to OJS.

With a career that saw him knocking on the door to the NHL, one of Garlock’s most important coaching attributes on which he can draw is his experience: “I have a pretty good idea of what guys these ages are going through at this phase of their career. Having been there myself, I can draw on my experiences to help them out in different situations and provide them with a difference insight and perspective on things.

A hockey lifer, Garlock started skating when he was just three years old and quickly developed a passion for the sport. As a result, he values the intangibles such as work ethic and attitude; generally the things that cannot be taught. “If you have those things everything else – positioning and the intricacies of the game – are teachable, but those intangibles, if you’re willing to work hard and learn to get better, it makes our jobs as coaches easier.”

Perhaps this drive is one of the reasons why Garlock has been a co-founder of a gym in Ottawa: Fiit House.

“At Fiit House, we do interval training. We have a very large classroom and we do it as group classes that are run throughout the day with various pieces of equipment throughout the gym. It is a very intense workout, but it is conducive to every ability and fitness level. You show up for our class and it is 45 minutes of a supervised workout and you do it in your group with whoever is in the class at the same time. We also do 1-on-1 personal training; it’s a fairly intensive process, but the results for most people have been really, really promising.”