Paul Gillis

Paul "Gilly" Gillis (born December 31, 1963 in Toronto, Ontario) is a retired Canadian ice hockey forward.

Playing career
He played junior hockey with the Niagara Falls Flyers and was chosen 34th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft.

Gillis started his National Hockey League career with the Quebec Nordiques in 1983. He also played for the Chicago Blackhawks and Hartford Whalers. He left the NHL after the 1993 season.

He was known as a grinder and tough defensively. In 624 NHL games he scored 88 goals and 154 assists. In 42 playoff games he scored 3 goals and 14 assists. He only played in 60 minor pro games in his 11 year pro career. He retired in 1993.

Coaching career
In the spring of 2007, Paul Gillis was named as just the third head coach in the Jackalopes 12-year history, and his impact was immediate. With his 11 years of experience as an NHL player and 14 years experience as a coach, Gillis led the Odessa Jackalopes back to the CHL postseason after the team missed out entirely in the 2006–07 campaign.

Paul began his coaching career with the Springfield Falcons of the AHL in 1994–95, following by two years as head coach of the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL. Gillis then led the Quad City Mallards to a UHL championship in 1997–98 with a remarkable 55-18-1 regular-season record. After a brief stint back in the OHL, Gillis returned to the UHL as head coach of the New Haven Knights for two years then returned to Quad City where he would guide the Mallards to the UHL finals again in 2002–03. He moved on to the Danbury Trashers and in 2005–06 made his third trip to the UHL finals, before coaching the Elmira Jackals for the final 28 games of the 2006–07 season.

In 14 years as a coach, Gillis has finished with a winning record 10 times. Before his first season in Odessa, the Jackalopes had missed the playoffs in three of the previous four years. That changed under Gillis, as Odessa reached the Conference Semifinals in last year’s CHL Playoffs.

He is currently the head coach of the Odessa Jackalopes.