Munich, Germany - A familiar face returns to the league: Canadian Rich Chernomaz, who led the Kölner Haie to the DEL championship last season, will take over as head coach in Augsburg, where Danny Naud was fired after eleven straight losses.

Chernomaz started out last season as an assistant to Lance Nethery, now head coach of the Frankfurt Lions. With the Haie on the verge of missing the playoffs, Chernomaz became interim head coach. The 39-year-old Manitoba-native got the slumping team on a roll. Entering the postseason as the sixth-seeded team, the Haie surprisingly went all the way and won the title.

After appearing in 51 NHL games with New Jersey and Calgary between 1983 and 1992, Chernomaz finished his playing career with the Schwenningen Wild Wings of the DEL, which also became his first stint as a head coach in 1999.