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Maple Ridge coach Brett Sonne hired as Seattle Torrent assistant coach
Former Ridge Meadows Flames assistant Brett Sonne has joined the Seattle Torrent coaching staff in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Maple Ridge hockey coach Brett Sonne has been hired as an assistant coach by the Seattle Torrent of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. The team announced the appointment Thursday, Sept. 17. Sonne had been an assistant coach with his hometown Ridge Meadows Flames Junior A team.
Seattle general manager Meghan Turner said Sonne’s professional playing career and coaching experience would complement the coaching staff and support player development as the team seeks to compete in its second season. Sonne said he looked forward to building relationships with players and staff, contributing to a high-performance environment and becoming part of the Seattle community.
Sonne has five seasons of junior-level coaching experience. From 2024 to 2026, he was an assistant coach with the Coquitlam Express of the British Columbia Hockey League, specializing in faceoffs, power plays and six-on-five offensive situations. Before that, he spent three seasons with the Flames and helped the club win its first league championship in 26 years in the 2023-24 season. He was on the Flames staff this season before being hired by Seattle.
As a player, Sonne spent four major-junior seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen. The St. Louis Blues selected him in the third round, 85th overall, in the 2007 NHL Draft. He was named WHL Player of the Year in 2009 and was part of Canada’s gold-medal-winning team at the 2009 IIHF World Junior Championship. He played four professional seasons in the American Hockey League from 2009 to 2013, primarily with the Peoria Rivermen, then continued his career in Europe through 2019 with teams in Austria, Sweden, Italy, Denmark and France.
Sonne will work under Seattle head coach Christine Bumstead, a Canadian who has coached internationally for Canada and with the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades. The PWHL has 12 teams, including seven based in the United States and five in Canada, among them the Vancouver Goldeneyes. The league launched in 2024.