Summer breeze blows in Flint
Prevailing winds of seasonal change have been shifting through the Michigan based Ontario Hockey League town of Flint. In addition to multiple player signings of top 2025 draft picks and high end free agents and the acquisition of a veteran goalie, the Flint Firebirds have upgraded their coaching staff.
On the proven player side, Firebirds general manager Dave McParlan dealt overage forward Sam McCue to the Brantford Bulldogs while obtaining overage goalie Mason Vaccari from the Kingston Frontenacs in exchange for future fifth, sixth and 14th round draft picks.
The under-rated Vaccari joins the program in Flint after having spent the past three OHL seasons in Kingston where he posted an overall winning record of 49-45-7 with a 3.45 goals against average and .887 save percentage.
As far as trading McCue to Brantford, Flint was able to receive a draft package that includes a second rounder, two third rounders, a fourth, a fifth and a sixth.
On the coaching side, the well prepared Justin Solcz has been hired by the Firebirds as an assistant. Meanwhile, Cal Hofford joins the Firebirds as a skills development coach, Rob Liddell has been added as the goaltending coach, Luc Lobsinger has been promoted from within to director of goaltending development and Scott MacDonald has been named director of analytics and video after previously serving as an assistant coach.
Flint’s staff will once again be led by Paul Flache, who is poised to begin his third season as the head coach of the Firebirds, who have made the Western Conference playoffs — finishing in eighth place and then sixth — in his previous two years. Meanwhile, Reijo Ruotsalainen will return for his third season as an assistant coach under Flache.
Among the newcomers, the aforementioned Justin Solcz joins the Firebirds from the Leamington Flyers of the Ontario Jr. Hockey League, where he has served as general manager for the past six seasons. Solcz was named the OJHL’s general manager of the year for both the ’23-24 and ’24-25 seasons as Leamington reached the OJHL Western Conference finals in each of its first two seasons in the league. Prior to that, Leamington competed in the Greater Ontario Jr. Hockey League, where Solcz guided the Flyers to a championship in the ’22-23 season.
And before that, Solcz, who is a Windsor, Ontario product, spent seven seasons as an assistant coach with the highly regarded University of Windsor Lancers program — and was the head coach of the Lakeshore Canadiens of the Provincial Jr. C Hockey League. Soltz won coach of the year honours while with Lakeshore.
Another highlight of the Flint off season was two Firebirds being selected at the recent National Hockey League draft. Forward Jimmy Lombardi went to the Los Angeles Kings in the fourth round while defenseman Rylan Fellinger was taken by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the sixth round.
With the above mentioned two picks, Flint continued its impressive run of having at least one player drafted into the NHL every year since the Firebirds were established as an OHL franchise back in 2015 by owner Rolf Nilsen. Since then and now, no less than 20 Firebirds have been taken by NHL teams.