The new leader of Pack up to the task | TheAHL.com

Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer

The past 10 months have been a whirlwind for the Hartford Wolf Pack.

Started on a Sunday morning last November, the team is in the midst of a three-out-of-three weekend. Hopes were high for this team that was sitting at 7-3-1-0. Then came word that head coach Kris Knoblauch had left for the NHL, being hired as the new coach of the Edmonton Oilers. With the Wolf Pack a few hours before the matinee meeting with the Providence Bruins, the assistant coach Steve Smith replaced Knoblauch in the interim role.

Two and a half weeks later, captain Jonny Brodzinski he got what became a lasting memory for the New York Rangers. Other important players, like him Adam Edstrom, Matt Rempe, Riley Nash again Louis Domingueit can be lost for a long time due to memory loss or injury.

A late-season slump put Hartford’s season hopes in jeopardy, but Smith’s team snapped out of that slide, qualified for the Calder Cup Playoffs, and won two series before falling to Hershey in the division finals.

On June 27, the Rangers went to the NCAA recruiting ranks Grant Potulny as their new AHL coach. Potulny, 44, spent seven seasons as the head coach at Northern Michigan University, and eight years before that as an assistant at his alma mater, the University of Minnesota.

Potulny went straight into coaching in 2009 following his retirement from a playing career that included five seasons spent mostly in the AHL as a reliable pitcher in Binghamton, Hershey, Springfield, San Antonio and Norfolk. He had great success in Minnesota, including six regular-season conference titles and two Frozen Four appearances. At Northern Michigan, he went 128-113-7 and reached three conference championship games. Internationally, Potulny served as an assistant coach for the United States four times at the IIHF World Junior Championship, winning gold medals in 2013 and 2017 and bronze in 2018.

And his two sons – 19 years old Jackson and 17 years old Owen – now pursuing their own hockey career, Potulny and his family had the opportunity to explore new options. Potulny and Hartford general manager Ryan Martin they have built a long-standing relationship through their work with USA Hockey.

The Rangers organization is new, as is the professional coaching staff, but the fit felt comfortable to Potulny.

“I’m familiar with a lot about the team and the organization,” he explained.

Potulny knows the pro game from his playing days. Now he will be seeing the player-coach relationship from the other side. His Hartford roster will likely be a mix of rookies and other young prospects as well as older, established players. It will be a different dynamic than the college game.

“I think that when you start dealing with older players and older people, you have to be more cooperative,” Potulny said. “There has to be generosity on both sides of that, so I think building a strong relationship with the players will be important. Trying to get to a place quickly where they trust what I’m doing, and they trust me, I think that’s really important.

“Players at this level, they want to keep working hard to get better, and we will spend a lot of time improving here. As a player those are things you like to hear because they give you the opportunity to further your hockey journey. They want a structure. They want training. They want to be pushed.”

During his playing days, Potulny had his own coaching role models, playing for a number of AHL Hall of Famers in the. John Paddock again Bruce Boudreau. It was an education.

“The coaches I played for,” said Potulny, “had a plan. They had an itinerary. I knew what I was going to find every day when I got there. Consistency. It’s hard enough being a professional gamer. If there are ways to make other parts of their day difficult… those are things that I always value in coaches.”

Paddock’s soft-spoken manner made an instant impression on Potulny coming out of college and provided lessons he will take with him to Hartford this fall.

“John, he had a really nice way about him,” Potulny recounted. “He had a very good relationship with our veteran players. He thought a lot. When he did [something]you knew he put a lot of thought into it. As a coach, you have to make sure that your voice doesn’t get old just by talking the talk. John was a master at that.

“When he said something, it was loud.”

So with all the change that’s happened in Hartford over the past 10 months, Potulny can bring some of those same qualities to the Wolf Pack. This season will undoubtedly bring its own set of challenges and opportunities, and he is eager to lead a group of young players who are learning to adjust to the ups and downs of pro hockey.

Whether it’s the early season run or last season’s playoff push, Potulny has a brief message for his players.

“I have a saying: ‘We find out to us, not us be to him.’”

TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has covered the American Hockey League for nearly two decades at outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM ! Sports, and most recently was the host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.