The Bridgeport Islanders have named Matt Macdonald and Pascal Rheaume as assistant coaches.
Macdonald and Rheaume join the staff of new Islanders head coach Rick Kowalsky.
Macdonald, 40, spent the previous five seasons as an assistant with the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins. Before that, he served as head coach and director of hockey operations for Cincinnati in the ECHL.
The native of Niagara Falls, Ont., played seven professional seasons, including 77 games in the AHL with Rockford (2007-08) and Portland (2008-09). Macdonald played collegiately at St. Lawrence University.
Rheaume, 50, joins Bridgeport after two seasons as an assistant coach with Trois-Rivieres in the ECHL. He was head coach of Val d’Or in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from 2018 to 2020, and served as an assistant with Sherbrooke (QMJHL) from 2016 to 2018.
This is Rheaume’s second coaching position in the AHL, having spent the 2015-16 season as an assistant with the Iowa Wild. He also played 589 games in the AHL with Albany, Worcester, Hartford, San Antonio, Lowell, Manchester and Peoria, totaling 174 goals and 234 assists for 408 points. He won a Calder Cup championship with Albany in 1995.
The native of Quebec City also played 318 games in the NHL with New Jersey, St. Louis, Chicago, Atlanta, the N.Y. Rangers and Phoenix, recording 39 goals and 52 assists for 91 points and winning the Stanley Cup with the Devils in 2003.