Millar stepping down as Moose Jaw Warriors GM, joining Hockey Canada

After a decade in the Moose Jaw Warriors’ front office, Alan Millar is chasing a different opportunity with Hockey Canada.

On Monday, the Warriors announced Millar will be stepping down as general manager to accept the position of director of player personnel within Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence. He is the longest-serving general manager in the WHL team’s history.

“When I got here and we were in the Crushed Can, it was a great old barn, and the transition to Mosaic Place took us to another level,” Millar said.

“We really challenged each other to take our player environment — the professionalism of the organization, how we treated people, continuity within staff — (because) doing things the right way was real important. I feel good that we’ve accomplished a lot of that.”

Millar joined the Warriors in 2010 when he was named director of hockey operations. He was named general manager in 2012.

Under Millar, the Warriors won East Division titles in 2012 and 2018. During the 2017-18 season, the team captured the Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy — awarded to the team with the most points at the end of the regular season.

“The one thing is that we’ve had some good teams (and) we’ve had some great players. We didn’t get the job done in terms of winning (a championship). I wanted to win here real bad,” Millar said.

Millar said it would take a special opportunity to get him to leave his job with the Warriors but working for Team Canada was exactly that.

“It’s a management seat at the table to be a key decision-maker on trying to win world championships,” Millar said.

He has worked with Hockey Canada over the past three years, spending one year with the under-20 program and two with the under-18 program.

Millar won a silver medal with Canada at the 2021 IIHF world junior hockey championship. He also won gold and silver medals with Canada’s men’s summer under-18 team at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup in 2018 and 2019.

Chad Taylor, the Warriors’ president and governor, said the board has a decision to make on how to replace Millar but time is on their side.

Millar will start in his new position March 1.

The WHL’s East Division hub in Regina is set to get underway March 12.