Scout
10-29-2008, 07:38 AM
New Winter Hawk coach: Rebuilding the team 'starts at the top'
Former NHL assistant Mike Johnston says he'll develop the players on hand and retool with an uptempo style
By Jason Vondersmith
New Winter Hawk coach and GM Mike Johnston says he has a plan to rebuild the Portland team.
Mike Johnston comes to the Portland Winter Hawks with quite a coaching resume, despite not having been a junior-level or pro player.
Johnston played at Acadia University in Nova Scotia and Brandon University in Manitoba, and then got into coaching about age 23. The past nine years, he has been an assistant coach with Vancouver and Los Angeles in the NHL.
"I've been a career coach," says Johnston, 51, who took as Winter Hawks general manager and coach this week.
He went through his first practice as coach on Tuesday. It's basically Johnston's first time coaching a major-junior team in the Canadian Hockey League, but he has plentiful experience as a university coach and as a two-time assistant on Canada teams for the World Junior Championships.
"I've coached in nine world championships -- seven with NHL players, and two with juniors," he says. "I've held a variety of roles and responsibilities; with this age group, 16 to 20, I've mainly dealt with 19 and above (on world teams). It's a little bit younger. But I'm excited. It'll be a great challenge.
"They're good kids. They all want to be pros, trying to be players. We'll focus these kids on hockey and schooling."
As general manager, Johnston has a long-term plan to get the Winter Hawks back on track after two woeful Western Hockey League seasons. Poor seasons, among many other things, forced the old ownership, led by Jim Goldsmith, to sell to new owner Bill Gallacher, who made wholesale changes this week to staff.
Johnson will be assisted by former WHL and NHL player Travis Green. The team has retained assistant coach Kyle Gustafson – but let go of assistant Brian Pellerin -- and Johnston has offered ex-coach Rich Kromm a different role with the team (Johnston wouldn't specify the role).
Former GM Ken Hodge will stay on as a consultant but not necessarily be in the office much. Johnston says it's a situation much like the Detroit Red Wings have with head coach Mike Babcock seeking advice from ex-coach and consulant Scotty Bowman.
"We haven't come to define roles and responsibilities," Johnston says. "He (Hodge) has a lot of knowledge, and he's well-respected in the league; at times he's been the sole reason the franchise survived in certain years and had great years."
Matt Bardsley, the former director of player personnel, will be do WHL scouting and put together depth charts on players.
A new director of player personnel will be hired next week, when the scouting staff also will be announced. "He will direct from Canada," Johnston says, of the new director of player personnel.
Johnston will spend the next several weeks evaluating his current talent. He wants to lean on goalie Kurtis Mucha and defenseman Travis Ehrhardt as leaders, because, if NHL teams see something in them (each has attended an NHL camp), they have some positive attributes.
"Kurtis Mucha will be like a pitcher or quarterback – he's a key guy," Johnston says. "He's the Tom Brady of our team. He has to carry his confidence at a high level."
Mucha attended the Phoenix Coyotes training camp. Ehrhardt impressed people at the Detroit camp.
"I've talked with (ex-Wings great) Steve Yzerman about him," Johnston says, "and he says (the Wings) raved about him."
Johnston worked with Yzerman on Canada junior teams.
Johnston says he split Tuesday's practice into two phases. The first, laying the foundation for how he wants the Hawks to play; the second, getting to know the players better on the ice with them, after meeting with them individually on Monday.
"We've covered some ground in the past 24 hours. We're earmarking how we want to play in the first game," he says.
How?
"If you look at the style of our team, we'll want to play an uptempo style, offensively and defensively," he says. "On the attack, generate speed with good transition and active defense. But come back hard with backside pressure, be a backchecking team, and be good with reads and solid defensively.
"If you take a look at our team down the road, I expect you'll see a competitive, quick skating, uptempo-type team."
It sounds similar to what Mike Williamson and Kromm tried to do as coaches. What's different?
"It's more of a bigger picture than at the coaching level," Johnston says, before explaining that the proverbial ball (or puck) had been dropped in scouting, drafting, recruiting and signing players; many high-end players have chosen not play for the Winter Hawks. He says the Winter Hawks' list remains thin with players born in the 1988-91 years, or current players ages 17 to 20.
"It starts at the top, both with a financial and (overall) commitment to make sure everything from education to billets to medical ... everything's taken care of," he says. "When those fell by the wayside, it hurt recruitment and it wasn't an attraction to come here. In this league, everything's about drafting, recruiting, getting good players."
Gallacher, a Calgary oil and gas businessman, is reportedly a billionaire. And, it sounds like he'll be pumping plenty of money into the program.
"It's money, but more than financial commitment, we want good people," Johnston adds. "They lost good people here (under the old owners). Little things weren't done for players; it's not the fault of Ken Hodge, Rich Kromm or Mike Williamson. It starts at the top."
Goldsmith and team President Jack Donovan lamented that the 50-player protected list was in sorry shape when they got the team. And, they said an inability to recruit high-end players started before their reign. The owners also approved trades the past two seasons that sent away experienced players, something that Johnston indicated probably was a mistake.
"I have a fairly concrete plan to rebuild and retool it," Johnston says. "Once you get into that spiral of trying to patch up, it's never-ending. What we have to do now is, there's no way to patch, we have to develop, work with, nurture along, use some structure and change the mindsets and culture first."
Scout
Former NHL assistant Mike Johnston says he'll develop the players on hand and retool with an uptempo style
By Jason Vondersmith
New Winter Hawk coach and GM Mike Johnston says he has a plan to rebuild the Portland team.
Mike Johnston comes to the Portland Winter Hawks with quite a coaching resume, despite not having been a junior-level or pro player.
Johnston played at Acadia University in Nova Scotia and Brandon University in Manitoba, and then got into coaching about age 23. The past nine years, he has been an assistant coach with Vancouver and Los Angeles in the NHL.
"I've been a career coach," says Johnston, 51, who took as Winter Hawks general manager and coach this week.
He went through his first practice as coach on Tuesday. It's basically Johnston's first time coaching a major-junior team in the Canadian Hockey League, but he has plentiful experience as a university coach and as a two-time assistant on Canada teams for the World Junior Championships.
"I've coached in nine world championships -- seven with NHL players, and two with juniors," he says. "I've held a variety of roles and responsibilities; with this age group, 16 to 20, I've mainly dealt with 19 and above (on world teams). It's a little bit younger. But I'm excited. It'll be a great challenge.
"They're good kids. They all want to be pros, trying to be players. We'll focus these kids on hockey and schooling."
As general manager, Johnston has a long-term plan to get the Winter Hawks back on track after two woeful Western Hockey League seasons. Poor seasons, among many other things, forced the old ownership, led by Jim Goldsmith, to sell to new owner Bill Gallacher, who made wholesale changes this week to staff.
Johnson will be assisted by former WHL and NHL player Travis Green. The team has retained assistant coach Kyle Gustafson – but let go of assistant Brian Pellerin -- and Johnston has offered ex-coach Rich Kromm a different role with the team (Johnston wouldn't specify the role).
Former GM Ken Hodge will stay on as a consultant but not necessarily be in the office much. Johnston says it's a situation much like the Detroit Red Wings have with head coach Mike Babcock seeking advice from ex-coach and consulant Scotty Bowman.
"We haven't come to define roles and responsibilities," Johnston says. "He (Hodge) has a lot of knowledge, and he's well-respected in the league; at times he's been the sole reason the franchise survived in certain years and had great years."
Matt Bardsley, the former director of player personnel, will be do WHL scouting and put together depth charts on players.
A new director of player personnel will be hired next week, when the scouting staff also will be announced. "He will direct from Canada," Johnston says, of the new director of player personnel.
Johnston will spend the next several weeks evaluating his current talent. He wants to lean on goalie Kurtis Mucha and defenseman Travis Ehrhardt as leaders, because, if NHL teams see something in them (each has attended an NHL camp), they have some positive attributes.
"Kurtis Mucha will be like a pitcher or quarterback – he's a key guy," Johnston says. "He's the Tom Brady of our team. He has to carry his confidence at a high level."
Mucha attended the Phoenix Coyotes training camp. Ehrhardt impressed people at the Detroit camp.
"I've talked with (ex-Wings great) Steve Yzerman about him," Johnston says, "and he says (the Wings) raved about him."
Johnston worked with Yzerman on Canada junior teams.
Johnston says he split Tuesday's practice into two phases. The first, laying the foundation for how he wants the Hawks to play; the second, getting to know the players better on the ice with them, after meeting with them individually on Monday.
"We've covered some ground in the past 24 hours. We're earmarking how we want to play in the first game," he says.
How?
"If you look at the style of our team, we'll want to play an uptempo style, offensively and defensively," he says. "On the attack, generate speed with good transition and active defense. But come back hard with backside pressure, be a backchecking team, and be good with reads and solid defensively.
"If you take a look at our team down the road, I expect you'll see a competitive, quick skating, uptempo-type team."
It sounds similar to what Mike Williamson and Kromm tried to do as coaches. What's different?
"It's more of a bigger picture than at the coaching level," Johnston says, before explaining that the proverbial ball (or puck) had been dropped in scouting, drafting, recruiting and signing players; many high-end players have chosen not play for the Winter Hawks. He says the Winter Hawks' list remains thin with players born in the 1988-91 years, or current players ages 17 to 20.
"It starts at the top, both with a financial and (overall) commitment to make sure everything from education to billets to medical ... everything's taken care of," he says. "When those fell by the wayside, it hurt recruitment and it wasn't an attraction to come here. In this league, everything's about drafting, recruiting, getting good players."
Gallacher, a Calgary oil and gas businessman, is reportedly a billionaire. And, it sounds like he'll be pumping plenty of money into the program.
"It's money, but more than financial commitment, we want good people," Johnston adds. "They lost good people here (under the old owners). Little things weren't done for players; it's not the fault of Ken Hodge, Rich Kromm or Mike Williamson. It starts at the top."
Goldsmith and team President Jack Donovan lamented that the 50-player protected list was in sorry shape when they got the team. And, they said an inability to recruit high-end players started before their reign. The owners also approved trades the past two seasons that sent away experienced players, something that Johnston indicated probably was a mistake.
"I have a fairly concrete plan to rebuild and retool it," Johnston says. "Once you get into that spiral of trying to patch up, it's never-ending. What we have to do now is, there's no way to patch, we have to develop, work with, nurture along, use some structure and change the mindsets and culture first."
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