Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
In 2020, the Buffalo Sabres employed Seth Appert with a direct mandate: develop younger expertise with the Rochester People because the NHL membership rebuilds.
In 4 seasons as head coach of the Amerks, Appert – whose teaching background had included greater than 20 years on the NCAA degree in addition to time with USA Hockey’s Nationwide Group Growth Program – introduced alongside gamers like Jack Quinn, JJ Peterka, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, Peyton Krebs and Mattias Samuelsson on their solution to full-time roles in Buffalo. Jiri Kulich, Isak Rosen and Devon Levi are all poised to contend for promotions this coming season.
Appert was rewarded with a spot on the workers of latest Sabres head coach Lindy Ruff. And Mike Leone was introduced in to proceed the work in Rochester.
Like Appert, the 36-year-old Leone’s background consists of time with the much-heralded USNTDP, a three-year keep that featured roles representing america and a number of worldwide tournaments and helped produce greater than 40 NHL draft picks. The native of Dearborn Heights, Mich., has additionally been head coach and basic supervisor with Inexperienced Bay of america Hockey League and was an assistant coach at Bowling Inexperienced State College and with Quad Metropolis of the ECHL. Throughout Leone’s days as a ahead with Texarkana and St. Louis within the junior North American Hockey League, his teammates included three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Maroon and present Cleveland Monsters head coach Trent Vogelhuber, and he performed for future Calder Cup and Stanley Cup successful coach Jon Cooper.
In Rochester, Leone is strolling right into a scenario that can provide some familiarity, given the NTDP ties that he shares with Appert. Assistant coaches Vaclav Prospal and Nathan Paetsch will probably be getting back from Appert’s workers as Leone works to construct relationships along with his new membership.
“I feel it’s actually necessary, particularly with the entire younger gamers now, to essentially care in regards to the particular person first, the participant second,” Leone outlined. “I feel that’s how I began my teaching profession. It’s what I consider in. Getting the belief degree to work with the participant… I feel that’s actually necessary, figuring out why you’re doing issues a sure manner while you’re creating the athlete.”
There may be extra expertise shifting by way of the Buffalo pipeline, together with a pair of latest first-round picks in forwards Noah Ostlund and Konsta Helenius. Ostlund, 20, made his AHL debut with the Amerks late final season; Helenius, 18, was taken 14th total on this previous June’s draft. Anton Wahlberg, a second-rounder in 2023, joined Rochester in March after ending his season within the Swedish Hockey League. The Sabres are relying on these gamers and others to observe the acquainted path by way of the AHL to make the group’s rebuilding undertaking successful.
Leone’s path is a well-recognized one as nicely. Along with enjoying for Cooper within the NAHL, he performed a season for Jeff Blashill at Western Michigan, and he was coached in Toledo (ECHL) by the Detroit Pink Wings’ Derek Lalonde and the Grand Rapids Griffins’ Dan Watson.
“I’ve been in all probability the luckiest man in hockey to play for the people who I’ve performed for,” Leone defined. “They’re my mentors. They’re people who I lean on. Jon Cooper, for instance – his relationships along with his gamers, how he approaches laborious conversations, his coming into the room simply caring about you as an individual, it went a great distance. Jeff Blashill – enjoying for him in school and studying rather a lot as a participant being round him. After which Derek Lalonde was an important communicator with the gamers. You all the time knew the place you stood.
“I’ve been actually fortunate and type of paved my very own manner as coach and have my very own ideas and concepts, however my core values are very aligned with the coaches that I bought to play for.”
TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for practically 20 years for retailers together with NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey Information, SiriusXM NHL Community Radio and SLAM! Sports activities, and was most lately the co-host of The Hockey Information On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.
