Canucks hire ex-Dubuque assistant Joe Coombs as amateur scout

Vancouver, British Columbia, hired Joe Coombs as an amateur scout, bringing a coach who built part of his reputation in Dubuque back into the junior-hockey pipeline that feeds NHL organizations. Coombs most recently coached in the North American Hockey League, but his earlier work with the Dubuque Fighting Saints and later stop in El Paso made him a familiar name to teams tracking junior development.

Coombs was behind the bench for Dubuque in the 2010-11 season as an assistant coach under Jim Montgomery, with Bobby Kinsella on the same staff. After the Fighting Saints returned to the United States Hockey League in 2010, Coombs stayed in Dubuque and later served as associate head coach, a stretch that tied him to one of the league’s most visible development programs. Elite Prospects lists Montgomery as the head coach and Coombs and Kinsella as the assistants on that 2010-11 team.

His most recent coaching stop came in El Paso, Texas, where the Rhinos named Coombs their new head coach on May 27, 2022. The move came with a stated long-term plan for the club, and Elite Prospects shows Coombs as El Paso’s head coach from 2022-23 through 2024-25. NAHL coverage later said the Rhinos improved in 2022-23 under Coombs but still fell short of expectations, underscoring the challenge of turning a rebuild into immediate results.

For Vancouver, the hire adds another junior-hockey voice to the amateur scouting department as Todd Harvey’s group continues through the club’s 2026 draft process. Coombs arrives with experience in both the USHL and NAHL, two leagues that remain central to how NHL teams identify players, coaches and evaluators who can spot future talent early.

The USHL backdrop helps explain the fit. Dubuque reached the Eastern Conference Final for a second straight year in 2024-25, a reminder that the Saints remain part of a league that sends more than players toward the NHL. The 2025 USHL Fall Classic in Pittsburgh opened the season with all 16 teams playing their first two regular-season games in front of NHL scouts, general managers and executives preparing for the 2026 NHL Draft, the kind of setting that has turned USHL experience into a calling card for hockey people moving up the ladder.