Kyle Schneider grew up in Prince Albert before his junior hockey career took him to both La Ronge and Melfort. (Photo submitted: SJHL/Broad Leaf Media)

By Nick Nielsen

Former Ice Wolf, Mustang

Schneider named head coach of Kindersley Klippers

Jul 24, 2025 | 5:53 PM

It’s still early in his career as a coach in junior hockey, but Prince Albert’s Kyle Schneider is taking yet another step forward. After three seasons as an assistant coach with the La Ronge Ice Wolves in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), Schneider has now been announced as the new bench boss of the Kindersley Klippers.

After playing his AAA years in Prince Albert with the Mintos, Schneider went on to a junior hockey career that saw him make a stop in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League with the Selkirk Steelers where he played 23 games across two seasons, then to the Melfort Mustangs of the SJHL, and a final stop with the La Ronge Ice Wolves for his final year of junior in 2019-20.

Two years later and Schneider was named an assistant coach for the Ice Wolves in 2022-23 where he spent the next three seasons coaching with some of the staff he played for in La Ronge, including his coach Kevin ‘Killer’ Kaminski. Schneider said that if it wasn’t for Kaminiski recognizing his coaching ability, Schneider himself may have never taken the step into a coaching role at all.

“I think I’ve built pretty good relationships with all of my coaches as a player, and it was a call that I wasn’t necessarily expecting when Kevin reached out for me to be his assistant coach. He knew how much I loved the game and that I had a passion for it, and I would say it was his advice ‘if you love it, then you should try and stay in the game for as long as possible’, and I’m glad I took that first step and now I’m honoured that I get this opportunity to lead an organization.”

At just 26 years old, Schneider will become the youngest coach in the SJHL, and one of only three head coaches younger than 37. Even at such a young age, Schneider was named a video coach to Team Saskatchewan at last year’s WHL Cup, and he’ll be returning to the team as an assistant coach this season.

Riderville

Now for the Hard Part

Dec 10, 2025

Grey Cup!!!

Everything you wanted and more

Nov 21, 2025

Ferland earns Grey Cup ring

'A wonderful human being': High school coach thrilled Logan Ferland is a Grey Cup champion

Nov 17, 2025

Schneider isn’t afraid of the challenge set ahead of him being the youngest head coach in the league, and he sees a lot of benefits from it too.

“With some of the relationships I’ve been able to build, I’m sticking to my values and trying to treat people the right way wherever I’m at. It has served me well and I think as far as a coach, I think being a younger guy gives me an opportunity to build relationships with players. I really pride myself on getting to know the guys, not only as a hockey player, but as a person and building a trust between the coach and the player. I think there’s there’s a lot of expectations taking this job as well, and ultimately now the team success does fall on me as the leader of the organization. So, there’s a lot of responsibility, but what I owe the players by accepting this position is to be prepared and come in with a plan, and then it’s up to us as a collective group to execute that.”

Schneider will be joining a Klippers team that has improved their record in each of the last two seasons under the now departing Clayton Jardine, who was named an assistant coach to the Red Deer Rebels in the WHL. With the team looking for their first playoff series win since 2015 (excluding the 2016 8 vs. 9 survivor series), Schneider is excited to join an organization that is both on the upswing, and hungry to succeed.

“The Klippers have established themselves as a playoff hockey team these last couple of years. Clayton Jardine, the former head coach and general manager, did a great job of of building that culture and building those expectations into the organization, along with the board of directors, and now with the returning group, we’re going to have a veteran group. The newly named general manager Ryan Gibson has done a great job recruiting this spring to fill some of the holes from the graduating players that moved on to university next season, and I think the expectations are high. Every team has the same goal and that’s to win a championship, but inheriting this group, I feel like we are in a place to push for that and it’s going to be a lot of work. Nothing comes easy, but we are going to be prepared and ready to go for game one of the season.”

When asked about his relationship with Kaminski and how that will change, going from one of Kaminski’s players to an assistant coach and now to a rival head coach, Schneider chuckled a bit when thinking about the first time his Klippers meet Kaminski’s Ice Wolves.

“I’ve spent more time with ‘Killer’ the last four years than anybody else, and I think we’ve built a pretty close relationship. Like I said, he’s my mentor and I really I owe a lot to the guy. On a professional level, I don’t think he’s going to be doing any favours. I think the Ice Wolves are going to be trying to beat the Klippers and the Klippers are going to be trying to beat the Ice Wolves, but as far as the guys that I can lean on, I think we’ll have a good, solid professional relationship.”

Along with the board of directors for hiring him, Schneider wanted to thank his family and his girlfriend Emma for supporting him throughout the process.

—