The Almaguin Spartans are thrilled to announce the addition of Kenneth Latta as the club’s Head of Scouting and Player Development. Ken’s role with the club will be to scout and recruit elite level players from Europe to the club’s roster. He will work to assist Spartan players in advancing to college and professional hockey. Ken will also provide further guidance and work with management in ways to improve the club’s training, coaching and overall player experience.
Ken comes to the Spartans with significant playing and coaching experience. Originally from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Ken started his playing career in the Ontario Hockey League where he amassed 191 points and 585 penalty minutes in 237 games with the Soo Greyhounds and London Knights. Ken would play under Stanley Cup winning coach Terry Crisp and alongside two future hall of fame players in Paul Coffey and Ron Francis. His success in the OHL resulted in Ken being drafted 79th overall in 1981 to the Philadelphia Flyers.
After finishing up his junior career, Ken would play professionally in the IHL, AHL and ACHL in North America. During Ken’s time in the ACHL he would play in Pineridge, North Carolina with two well known hockey names from Sundridge-Steve Atwell and Steve Heittola. After 2 seasons in North America, Ken made his way overseas where he played 6 seasons in the Germany second and third division.
After Ken’s playing career, he moved into the coaching and management side of the game. Ken spent 14 years coaching and managing professional teams in the Germany3 and the DEL2. His last position was with the Blue Devils Weiden Germany3 where he was the head coach and general manager from 2017-2022.
Ken comes from a very well-known hockey family as well. His brother David played in the NHL for the Quebec Nordiques. His son Nick was the captain of the Sarnia Sting (OHL), played for the Germany U18 and U20 World Junior teams and has played professionally in the AHL and DEL. Ken’s other son Louis also played for the Sarnia Sting (OHL), the Germany National U18 team and professionally in the DEL2. Both boys won a DEL2 championship with Ravensburg Towerstars this season.
Spartans General Manager David Forde had this to say about the club’s most addition “I am really excited to have Ken coming on board with us. He is a highly respected hockey mind, who has a wealth of experience that can really help us grow as an organization. Ken’s primary role with the club will be scouting/recruitment in Europe, which will help us bring in elite talent to the program and make us a more competitive and skilled team.
His other role with the club will be helping our players advance to college and professional hockey after playing for the Spartans. Many organizations do a great job at recruiting players into their programs, but very few do a great job at working to help players advance from their programs. We have historically had one of the highest advancement rates in the GMHL year after year and I feel adding Ken and his incredible network of contacts is going to allow us to find our players even more post junior playing opportunities.
I have a lot of faith in Ken and can’t wait to start working with him. His experience and knowledge are going to really help our staff and myself develop professionally and help take our program to the next level. Ken will be coming over this month from Germany to meet our staff, community and get started in helping us build a contending team this fall. “
