Toronto Marlies dump newly hired goaltending coach after public backlash

Dusty Imoo's tenure as the goaltending coach for the AHL's Toronto Marlies was very short-lived. Just two days after getting hired, Maple Leafs President Brendan Shanahan released a statement saying Imoo would not be joining the Marlies, and that the organization "made a mistake by not thoroughly following through on our organizational protocols when considering this candidate for the position of goaltending coach for the Toronto Marlies."

So what happened since his hiring that would cause the team to do a complete 180? It turns out that when the Marlies announced in Sunday that Imoo had been hired, many Twitter followers pointed out that his account had liked and retweeted several tweets that contained transphobic hate speech, anti-vaccine sentiments and support for the January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection in the United States. Imoo has since deleted his Twitter and Instagram accounts completely.

Imoo had a lengthy career as a professional goaltender, but never managed to make the AHL. He spent several years in the ECHL, IHL and in hockey leagues in Japan. Imoo has served as goaltending coach for the WHL's Seattle Thunderbirds and the St. John's Ice Caps of the American Hockey League before becoming the goaltending coach of the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League in 2015. In 2019, he served as goaltending coach for the KHL's Kunlun Red Star.

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