Sydney’s Joseph and Culligan join Cape Breton Eagles

Two new staff members are joining the QMJHL’s Cape Breton Eagles in the off-season.

Club general manager Sylvain Couturier made the announcement at the team’s town hall draft recap at Centre 200 on Monday night.

Sydney’s own Fabian Joseph and Chris Culligan will both begin scouting roles.

Fifty-eight-year-old Joseph has been involved with hockey for over four decades. Among his accomplishments, he’s a Nova Scotia Hall of Fame inductee and former two-time Olympic silver medalist.

Thirty-five-year-old Culligan was assistant coach with the Eagles from 2019 to 2022 and is the current head coach for the Sydney Mitsubishi Rush in the Nova Scotia U18 league.

In a release, club majority owner, Irwin Simon says, “Both Fabian and Chris are going to be huge additions to our staff next season.”

“Both men have long and successful careers in hockey and are well respected in Cape Breton and beyond. All the puzzle pieces seem to be falling into place with our organization, so we certainly have some exciting hockey ahead of us.”

Joseph will act as hockey operations advisor to head coach Louis Robitaille and Couturier for next season where his duties will be to pre-scout the opposition and consult with coaching staff and management regarding trading and drafting.

He is the younger brother of long-time Eagles coach Blair “Bearcat” Joseph. Following Blair’s passing in 2023, Fabian said he has gained a newfound respect for the Eagles organization.

Culligan will take on the role as regional scout for the Eagles to assist Couturier and his scouting team with assessing prospects at the U18 level.

Culligan says, “I would have been happy to be involved in any way, I am just happy to contribute to the organizations success.”

“I have always been interested in the hockey ops side of the game, so it is exciting to get involved.”