Surrey named Gomez in June to succeed Cam Keith, who moved on to become coach and GM of Cowichan Valley of the BCHL after leading Surrey to the league’s Fred Page Cup last season.
Gomez was an assistant under Keith last season, returning to hockey after he retired as a player in 2016. He last coached as an assistant for the Islanders in 2018-19.
“Retirement is boring, it’s not what it’s cracked up to be,” he said. “I was just golfing and not doing anything, not giving back for the world. Whether I ran from it or I didn’t want to admit it, I’m a hockey player.
“This is my domain. This is my passion. I didn’t always agree with all the coaches I had, so I had to see if I could do it.”
Surrey was a homecoming of sorts for Gomez, a 45-year-old Anchorage, Alaska, native of Mexican and Colombian heritage. He played for Surrey 1996-97 had 124 points (48 goals, 76 assists) in 56 games.
He added 41 points (18 goals, 23 assists) in 21 BCHL Playoff games to help Surrey win the league championship and advance to the RBC Cup Finals, where it lost 4-3 to Summerside Western. Gomez was named the BCHL Rookie of the Year and the RBC Cup top forward.
Gomez said he’s enjoying working with Mottau, a retired defenseman who played 321 games with the New York Rangers, Calgary Flames, Devils, Islanders, Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers from 2000-14 and was Gomez’s roommate when they played for the United States at the 1998 IIHF World Junior Championship.
“On the ice, we run a pretty tough ship, I mean it’s a little Pat Burns, a little Larry Robinson,” Gomez said, citing no-nonsense former Devils coaches as role models. “I’m pretty hard on them, but it’s all for a good reason. And once we step off the ice, the joking and everything goes right up.”
Gomez is regarded by many as the first Hispanic star in the NHL, though he wasn’t the League’s first player of Hispanic descent. Bill Guerin, the Minnesota Wild general manager and former forward with eight NHL teams, is part Nicaraguan and began his career with the Devils in 1991-92 .
Gomez had 756 points (181 goals, 575 assists) in 1,079 NHL games for the Devils, Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, San Jose Sharks, Panthers, St. Louis Blues and Ottawa Senators.
He won the Calder Trophy, voted as the NHL rookie of the year, in 1999-2000 and helped New Jersey win the Stanley Cup in 2000 and 2003. He had 101 points (29 goals, 72 assists) in 149 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
He had five points (one goal, four assists) in six games and shared the points lead with Craig Conroy for the United States at the 2006 Torino Olympics.
“I still tell people that [Gomez] on a power play is one of the best quarterbacks that I have seen in a long time, the way he could export the puck through center ice,” Lamoriello said. “So you know he knows the game.”
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