The Hartford Wolf Pack hired Jay Leach to replace Grant Potulny. The 46-year-old was an assistant with the Boston Bruins and hopes to turn around a team that had the worst record in the American Hockey League last season.
It wasn't seen as a step up for Steve Ott, the longtime assistant coach for the St. Louis Blues, who was hired midseason by the American Hockey League affiliate. The Springfield Thunderbirds gave him the chance to lead a team for the first time and remove any doubt that he could coach in the NHL. He led them on a remarkable run to put himself on plenty of NHL teams' radars.
Jay Leach hopes to do the same thing. He was an assistant coach for the past five seasons and coached in the AHL with both the Providence Bruins and the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins. However, at 46, this is the move to prove he can be an NHL head coach.
The Hartford Wolf Pack are no easy task. They finished last season with the worst record in the AHL and fired Grant Potulny as a result. It's not just that they missed the playoffs but the New York Rangers also did, and there aren't a lot of prospects on the way.
It speaks to an organizational failure. Leach was hired to clean things up and, more importantly, make his mark as a great coach. The question is whether he can and why his background will help him in this upcoming stop.
The Challenges Hartford Present Leach
Leach has a successful past in the AHL, notably with his time in Providence. This league tests coaches and forces them to not only adjust to the turnover but also get players to buy in when the times are rough.
And that's what the Wolf Pack were dealing with last season. The dog days of the season hit the last-place team hard, and the players feel it firsthand. It's hard to buy in and play in the AHL when players feel so close yet so far from the next level. It's harder when the losses keep piling up. The Wolf Pack need that type of coach.
Leach wasn't tested in this regard when he was with the Bruins. It's worth adding that he had more resources to work with when he was with the Bruins, something that isn't guaranteed with the Wolf Pack. Hartford didn't help out Potulny and notably didn't provide him with the veterans to help mentor the young skaters. Considering how last season went, there's a good chance Leach will have some help from the front office. That said, he'll have to make the most with a roster that isn't expected to be great next season.
What Leach Can Do
When Rocky Thompson was hired by the Bridgeport Islanders last season, he was asked to clean up a mess. The Islanders were a Historically bad team in 2024-25, winning only four games at home. He not only turned them around but led them to the fourth-best record in the Atlantic Division.
Thompson fixed the Islanders by getting the players to buy into his system. He didn't run a complex system, and his style has its issues. That said, the players bought in and looked like one of the better teams in the league in the second half of last season.
Leach has a similar task in front of him, and like Thompson, he's a winner with previous AHL stops. He must get the buy-in, and more specifically, to the Wolf Pack, he must bring back discipline and structure to a team that lost it last season.
It's unclear what the Wolf Pack will look like next season. Likewise, it's unlikely that they'll have a similar turnaround. That said, Leach is a coach who knows what it takes to win in the AHL. Now, it's a matter of him doing it again and removing any doubt that he can coach in the NHL. Leach left Boston to bet on himself, and now, he's taking the biggest gamble by coaching a team that has a lot of work to do.