Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Steve Konowalchuk discovered the professional hockey enterprise early.
As a 19-year-old in April of 1992, Konowalchuk made his skilled debut with the AHL’s Baltimore Skipjacks, taking part in three video games for head coach Barry Trotz. The previous third-round draft decide would cut up his first full season between Baltimore and the Washington Capitals.
Konowalchuk’s time in Appeal Metropolis noticed him skate on groups that finally graduated the likes of Olaf Kolzig, Byron Dafoe, Ken Klee, Keith Jones, Jason Woolley, Tim Taylor and AHL Corridor of Famer John Slaney to lengthy, profitable careers.
Throughout that early introduction to the American Hockey League, Konowalchuk says he discovered “the work ethic that it takes to get to the NHL.” Now greater than 30 years later, he’ll tackle his first skilled head teaching task, main the Springfield Thunderbirds. He’ll deliver with him 790 video games of NHL taking part in expertise, together with near twenty years of labor in teaching and scouting.
Konowalchuk made his return to the AHL final season as an affiliate coach with the Colorado Eagles. Earlier than that, he had been an assistant within the NHL with Colorado and Anaheim, and he was a profitable head coach within the Western Hockey League in Seattle and Pink Deer. He additionally frolicked scouting for the New York Rangers.
A 50-goal scorer himself in junior hockey who put up 63 factors in 48 video games within the AHL, Konowalchuk understood that whereas offensive stats appeal to consideration, a dedication to a accountable two-way recreation is what’s going to maintain a participant within the NHL. He did simply that, constructing a status as a reliable ahead to the purpose that he represented the US on the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Working with the Eagles final season supplied Konowalchuk an opportunity to acquaint himself with the AHL as soon as once more. So when the St. Louis Blues went on the lookout for a brand new head coach to guide the Thunderbirds this offseason, Konowalchuk turned an apparent selection.
“It was a great refresher and a great studying expertise to see the element that goes into the American League,” Konowalchuk stated of his time with the Eagles. “The locker room, that age group, that dynamic, it was good for me to have the ability to see that. I consider that’s going to assist me go ahead right here.”
Konowalchuk constructed lasting relationships as a rookie in Baltimore. Taylor, now an assistant normal supervisor with the Blues, performed 5 seasons within the AHL earlier than reaching the NHL; he went on to win two Stanley Cups and turn into an NHL captain. Klee, who performed 934 NHL video games, turned Konowalchuk’s long-time teammate in Washington. Dafoe gained a Calder Cup with Portland in 1993-94 and later was a Vezina Trophy finalist with the Boston Bruins.
One component with these gamers stood out to Konowalchuk.
“They’re aggressive,” Konowalchuk stated. “That’ll be a giant message to my staff. It’s about competing on the ice, off the ice, all the pieces you do as a result of the fellows that play and go on to have success, they’re simply very aggressive. That’s what pushes them to get all the pieces out of their potential. Kenny was that means. [Taylor], I performed towards him loads when he was in Tampa. Very aggressive.
“That’s the most important factor I’ve taken away from my whole profession. It’s at all times that man who has the ultra-compete that surprises you. ‘He’s not fairly quick sufficient. He’s not fairly sufficiently big. He’s not fairly this-or-that, or he can’t rating.’ However he competes and competes, and subsequent factor you understand he’s carving a profession out for himself.”
Konowalchuk roomed as a rookie with a pair of first-round picks in Slaney and Pat Peake. As his younger gamers study what it should take to finally safe an NHL job, this fall he additionally needs his personal younger gamers in Springfield to recollect the journey.
“It’s a particular time,” Konowalchuk stated. “You look again, these first couple of years…are a number of the greatest associates you’ll make all through your profession since you’re all going by way of the identical factor on the similar time. You’re sharing these experiences collectively.”
TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for almost twenty years for shops 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.
