It’s typical of a hockey team, or any sports team for that matter, to hire coaches in cycles. Teams hire one type of coach, and then when they search for the replacement, they do a full 180 (crazy) with their next hire. 

The Hartford Wolf Pack are making that pivot, specifically when it comes to American Hockey League coaching experience. They fired Grant Potulny and replaced his staff this offseason and hired Jay Leach. The Wolf Pack also hired Bob Woods and John Stevens (the younger one who just retired, that is) as assistants. 

It’s the opposite of the Potulny run team. The Wolf Pack wanted experience, and they got it. They wanted proven winners, and they have it. They wanted to change the culture, and now, they have coaches who have been in the AHL and gone through the grind before. 

Throughout last season, it was noticeable that the Wolf Pack were a mess. There were only two teams that finished in the bottom five both in goals for and goals against. The Wolf Pack were one of them. Potulny was a great college coach but lost the room, and it showed as the players looked checked out a few months in. 

It’s one of the worst things that can happen to a team in the AHL. When the veterans check out and don’t want to be there, the team falls apart. It’s hard to build a winning culture when they aren’t bought in. 

Leach is coming in to clean things up, a must for a team that had the AHL’s worst record. The Wolf Pack will be respectable, compete, and not give up to allow teams to steal games from them. 

More importantly, Leach brought in players who will change the culture. Almost all of the vets from last season are gone, while bringing in players like Glenn Gawdin, Dennis Cholowsky, and Marc Del Gaizo, who can allow younger players to learn the pro game and develop.

Woods is a big hire for the Wolf Pack. He’s known recently as an NHL assistant but is a proven winner as an AHL head coach, winning the Calder Cup title with the Hershey Bears in 2009. Woods is essentially another head coach behind the bench. 

Great teams not only have a great coach but also a great staff. A good case in point was the Toronto Marlies, who won the Calder Cup with John Gruden leading them while Michael Dyke and Mark Giordano rounded out the staff. Woods gives the Wolf Pack that same level of experience that Leach provided, and they will play with an identity because of it. 

The unknown or the wild card in the new staff is the new coach on the block, Stevens. It’s his first time behind the bench as a recently retired veteran. That said, Stevens was a player built to coach, considering his leadership experience. The plus for him is that he will learn a lot from the two coaches he’s working alongside, and it sets him up for a big step as a coach. 

The New York Rangers need their prospects to overachieve. They need “singles” and “doubles” to become “triples” and “home runs” to help accelerate the rebuild. It starts with Alberts Smits and Liam Greentree; it extends to Scott Morrow, Dylan Roobroeck, and Cole Beaudoin, who they acquired in the Vincent Trocheck trade.

The Wolf Pack play a vital role in getting those players ready for the NHL. Under Leach, they’ll be a winning team and set up their prospects for success. It will give the Rangers a young core to build around, which they lack heading into this season (even with the pleasant surprise known as Gabe Perreault). 

In the bigger picture, the Wolf Pack must turn things around. It’s been a rough two seasons where they’ve missed the playoffs and have become an embarrassing AHL team to watch. With the Rangers also finishing at the bottom of the conference in each of the last two seasons, the question is whether the Wolf Pack are a reflection of an organizational failure. Leach and the new staff they’ve assembled should change that.