{"id":14827,"date":"2016-07-27T10:30:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=14827"},"modified":"2016-07-27T10:30:36","modified_gmt":"2016-07-27T14:30:36","slug":"new-head-coach-brings-a-fresh-face-to-jr-a-tigers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/new-head-coach-brings-a-fresh-face-to-jr-a-tigers\/","title":{"rendered":"New head coach brings a fresh face to Jr. A Tigers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

What were you doing at 27-years-old?<\/p>\n

Nikita Poliakov, an ex-junior player, is the new head coach of the junior A Aurora Tigers.<\/p>\n

Hired in March, Poliakov, who is on the ice almost every day, is preparing for August\u2019s prospect camp to create the roster for the 2016-17 Tigers.
\nPoliakov\u2019s relationship with Tigers owner and general manager Jim Thomson has been a long and detailed one, with Poliakov involved in almost every aspect of Thomson\u2019s hockey ventures from private lessons to minor league involvements with Richmond Hill and York-Simcoe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been working with Jim for the last seven and a half years,\u201d said Poliakov. \u201cHe was trying to get me on board last year, but I was away from hockey for the year. This year, the timing was right, and here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the age of 27, Poliakov is not that far removed from his own days as a player, beginning junior hockey with the North York Rangers in 2006-07 and continuing with the Upper Canada Hockey Club, putting up point-a-game numbers in 2009-10. He spent one year in the Federal Hockey League in the northeastern United States before turning his sights to coaching and teaching.<\/p>\n

With only three players expected to return from the 2015-16 season to this year\u2019s crop of Tigers, Poliakov has his work cut out for him. Yet, as he says, the job is made easier by his strong relationship with Thomson, who has almost completely overhauled the organization since taking over as owner just over one year ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been great. We\u2019ve been on the same page as far as how we envision the team, and what we want the team to look like. It makes everything a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the organization is hoping to bounce back from a first-round ousting by the Wellington Dukes in 2016, the preseason schedule is set to begin in just over a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, we\u2019ve got to take it day-by-day,\u201d said Poliakov. \u201cWe\u2019re planning to have 40 kids out for camp, so it gives us a good look at choosing the team. Then we can say \u2018ok, this is what we have, and this is what we\u2019re going to be going after.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the large turnover, Poliakov has already seen potential in the organization, which has been a perennial powerhouse in the regular season for the past five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s exciting, we have really great people in the organization that are doing a great job scouting and bringing in all different kinds of players. It\u2019s definitely made it a lot easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

As one of the youngest coaches in junior hockey, Poliakov is part of a new crop of young go-getters that has brought a fresh face to hockey and hockey analytics, following the likes of 29-year-old assistant GM of the Maple Leafs Kyle Dubas, and as Poliakov himself mentioned, 26-year-old Phoenix Coyotes GM John Chayka.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting hired as a GM in the NHL is a bit harder to do, but I\u2019m happy with where I\u2019m at.\u201d<\/p>\n

The OJHL regular season kicks off in early September. For schedules visit www.auroratigers.pointstreaksites.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What were you doing at 27-years-old?<\/p>\n

Nikita Poliakov, an ex-junior player, is the new head coach of the junior A Aurora Tigers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-3R9","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 00:03:49","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}