Jake Grimes returns to the OHL with Niagara IceDogs

Image Credit: Aaron Bell / OHL Images

A longtime fixture in the Bay of Quinte hockey community is heading back to the Ontario Hockey League.

The Niagara IceDogs announced Friday that former Belleville Bulls forward and assistant coach Jake Grimes has been named as the club's new head coach ahead of the 2026-27 season.

Grimes spent three seasons with the Bulls from 1989 to 1992. In 198 career games, he recorded 84 goals and 206 points while earning Eastern Conference Coaches Poll honours as the Best Defensive Forward and Best Checker.

Following a professional career with the New Haven Senators, Prince Edward Island Senators, and Thunder Bay Senators. Grimes returned to the Friendly City in 2004 as an assistant coach under George Burnett.

In 11 seasons, he helped lead the club through one of the most successful stretches in franchise history. The Bulls won four Leyden Trophy East Division championships, reached four Eastern Conference Finals, qualified for the playoffs nine times and appeared in the 2008 Memorial Cup.

Image Credit: Aaron Bell / OHL Images

Since leaving Belleville in 2015, Grimes has continued coaching with the Peterborough Petes, Guelph Storm, Cape Breton Eagles, University of Waterloo, Saginaw Spirit and, most recently, the University of Guelph.

Grimes brings a championship pedigree to Niagara, having been part of Saginaw’s Memorial Cup-winning coaching staff in 2024. He also served as an assistant coach with the Guelph Storm during their J. Ross Robertson Cup championship run in 2019.

With more than 30 years of coaching experience, Grimes will look to build on the IceDogs’ recent success as the club aims to reach the postseason for a third consecutive season after missing the playoffs in six straight years prior.