The Surrey Eagles are a team in transition. Just over a year after winning the Fred Page Cup, the Eagles are rebuilding their roster and coaching staff.
On the ice, several players departed the team. Forward Savek Brar graduated from the Eagles to attend the University of Victoria and play in the BC Intercollegiate Hockey League. 2004-born forward Ryan Evenhuis committed to the University of Toronto to play U SPORTS hockey. Sam Elliot, a 2005-born forward, signed with the Western Hockey League’s Wenatchee Wild in June.
Off the ice, the Eagles have a new head coach for 2025-26. After one season as head coach and general manager, Eagles alum Scott Gomez stepped down to be the head coach for the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League.
Replacing Gomez in the front office is Brian Passmore. Before being hired by the Eagles, Passmore was head coach and general manager of the Vancouver Island Junior Hockey League’s Westshore Wolves in 2024-25.
This article will track the changes in the organization. Before that, I’ll discuss how the Eagles performed under Gomez.
Gomez in charge
Last season, the Surrey Eagles finished with a regular season record of 31-18-5. It earned them 67 points and second place in the Coastal Conference. Only Chilliwack finished ahead of Surrey with 79 points.
In the playoffs, the Eagles faced the Alberni Valley Bulldogs in the first round and were upset in five games. The Bulldogs finished seventh in the Coastal Conference, 11 points behind Surrey. In total, the Eagles saw 42 different players skate in at least one game.
35 skaters and seven different goaltenders appeared for the Eagles. 2005-born Aidan Fischer and 2006-born Maddox Osaka played the most games in goal with 23 and 18, respectively. The Eagles’ leading scorer was 2004-born Korean forward Si Hwan Kim. He notched 16 goals and 36 assists in 47 games during his lone BCHL season.
On the ice
As mentioned above, Brar, Evenhuis, and Elliot have left the Eagles. During the season, 2005-born defender Jonathan Lanza left Surrey to play for the Charlottetown Islanders of the Québec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. 2007-born forward Ryan White left the Eagles to join the Ontario Hockey League’s Ottawa 67’s.
2005-born forward Brady Kudrick is off to start his NCAA Division I career this fall at Boston College. In February, 2006-born forward Dean Toskos was traded by Surrey to the Blackfalds Bulldogs. 2005-born forwards Cam Russo and Noah Flynn were traded to the Coquitlam Express at the Feb. 10 trade deadline.
These are the players who left the Eagles in 2025. Thus far, the team has been relatively quiet on the recruiting front. In July, the Eagles signed Korean players Ji Hyun Jang and Yoon Min Shin to the roster. Both Jang and Shin are 2005-born forwards out of Yonsei University in the Korea College league.
Surrey also signed local players Lucas Biros and Evan Cook for 2025-26. Biros is a 2007-born forward from Coquitlam who played for the Vancouver North East Chiefs U18 AAA in the BC Elite Hockey League last season. Cook, a 2007-born hometown forward, skated with the Yale Hockey Academy U18 Prep team in the Canadian Sport School Hockey League in 2024-25.
Off the ice
As mentioned above, Gomez stepped down as the Eagles’ head coach and general manager. Replacing him is Passmore, whose experience in the BCHL is mostly with the Cowichan Valley Capitals.
Surrey was Gomez’s first time as head coach. In 2023-24, he was the Eagles’ assistant coach under Cam Keith. Gomez was also an assistant coach at the NHL level with the New York Islanders during the 2017-18 and 2018-29 seasons.
As for Passmore, he has been in charge of the Capitals and Merritt Centennials in the BCHL and the Peninsula Panthers and Westshore in the VIJHL.
Passmore twice served as head coach and general manager in Cowichan Valley. He led the Caps during the 2017-18 season and again from 2020 through 2022. Passmore was let go by Cowichan in November 2022, partway through the 2022-23 season.
The Eagles’ future
The Eagles are a team in transition with a new head coach and general manager, and several players who departed for various reasons over the last seven months.
Surrey’s future with Passmore at the helm should be interesting. While he was in charge of the Centennials in 2023-24, they made the playoffs for the first time in half a decade. In Cowichan Valley, Passmore’s first time saw him replaced by Mike Vandekamp after one season.
Passmore’s second tenure with the Capitals was under difficult circumstances. Pandemic restrictions resulted in a modified Pod Season in Port Alberni in 2020-21. The following season, the Capitals made the playoffs as the eighth seed, bowing out to Alberni Valley in four games in the first round.
Related: Cowichan Valley Capitals player profile: McCoy Bidewell
Midway through the 2021-22 season, Passmore signed goaltender McCoy Bidewell to the Capitals. He’s one of the best goaltenders in Cowichan Valley history.
Passmore clearly has an eye for recruiting talented players. With a proven track record as a general manager and head coach in the BCHL, don’t sleep on the Eagles having an impact in the Coastal Conference during the 2025-26 season.
