Editor’s note: The Youngstown SteelHounds were part of the Mahoning Valley sports scene for three seasons (2005-08) as part of the Central Hockey League. This is one in a series of stories about the minor league hockey franchise written by Tribune Chronicle / Vindicator sports reporter Brian Yauger as part of his journalism senior project at Youngstown State University. The stories will run periodically in the Tribune / Vindicator sports pages over the next few weeks.

Heading into the 2005-06 Central Hockey League season, the brand-new Youngstown SteelHounds selected five players in the expansion draft to jump start their roster.

The first of those players selected was right-shot defenseman Kris Mallette.

Mallette, a third-round selection by the Philadelphia Flyers, was coming off a championship year with the Colorado Eagles in which he finished with 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 55 games and was the team’s “tough guy” racking up 193 penalty minutes.

“Kris got a lot of respect,” SteelHounds captain Jeff Christian said. “He was a legit heavyweight.”

Over the course of the team’s first season, Mallette did the same thing for the SteelHounds, racking up 271 penalty minutes in his 55 games, third all-time in team history. The team had a strong bond which, according to Mallette, was impossible not to have due to the amount of travel.

“It was a great group of guys, we had a good time,” he said. “The only downside to that was we were out of our rink basically two weeks out of every month due to the fact that our closest team was like 700 miles away. That was the only downside, but we got really close because of it.”

After the ’05-06 season, Mallette left Youngstown for the Laredo Bucks in the CHL and then closed out his playing career with the Flint Generals of the IHL, describing his final seasons of playing as being “One and done, chasing the contract.”

Mallette stuck around for a second year with the Generals, where he was nursing multiple injuries and decided to retire before the season was over. He had already planned on retirement as he and his wife didn’t want to keep moving around with their daughter, who was set to start school.

They decided to settle down in Kelowna, British Columbia, where he had played junior hockey with the Western Hockey League’s Rockets from 1996 to 1999.

“We’ve had a house here as long as I can remember,” Mallette said. “The first person I went to go see was my boss, now the owner and my old general manager, Bruce Hamilton, and asked him for some guidance. We talked about coaching and he directed me on a path. I started from the bottom and worked my way up.”

Before joining the Rockets’ staff, Mallette spent three seasons with the North Okanagan Knights and one with the Vernon Vipers. He was hired as assistant coach of the Rockets for the 2014-15 season.

Mallette spent five-and-a-half seasons as the Rockets’ assistant coach before being promoted to interim head coach in February, replacing former Colorado Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote.

In March, the “interim” title was lifted and he was named the full-time head coach. Upon the promotion, Mallette became the first former Rocket player to coach the club in team history.

“I owe a lot of who I am and what I’ve done to the Kelowna Rockets and the Hamilton family,” Mallette said. “I moved here as a 17-year-old not really knowing what it was to be a professional and a man and a good person off the ice, and they taught me those ways. I carried them throughout my career and I always came back to open arms.

“With Kelowna, you’re family through and through until the day you’re done,” Mallette said. “They treat their alumni very, very well and for me to be able to have the opportunity not only to coach the Kelowna Rockets, but to give back to something that gave me so much is really special.”

The man who will be remembered in the Mahoning Valley as the first SteelHound, is now the first Kelowna Rocket to step behind the bench and coach the four-time Western Hockey League champions, hoping to lead them to many more over the coming years.