If you know me, you know I have a soft spot for the American Hockey League.
I covered the AHL, particularly the Texas Stars, on a beat basis between 2012 and 2016. That time covering the AHL built the foundation for my career. I co-wrote a book on the Texas Stars, We Win Here, with Stephen Meserve, who runs the must-read site 100 Degree Hockey.
It remains, to me, one of the most fascinating leagues in the world, and it’s one of the most complicated places to coach. It’s the only league where development is prioritized over winning, and as a coach that can be counter intuitive to your prime directive.
And that’s the challenge that new Toby Petersen is tackling this season in his return to the Stars organization, replacing Neil Graham as the head coach in Cedar Park. Petersen played for both the Dallas and Texas Stars, then spent time coaching as an AHL assistant and then was most recently a skills coach with the Colorado Avalanche.
Petersen joined the DLLS Stars Podcast earlier this week to discuss his new role, the AHL mentality, and several other things.
You can see that full episode here.
If you haven’t watched that episode, you should. But I also wanted to take some time, after re-listening to it myself, to put together some thoughts on Petersen and what I’m interested in tracking with Texas this season, particular with Petersen’s non-negotiables translate to winning and development.
Petersen has been pretty open about how he values non-negotiables in his coaching approach. How in order to build an ideal culture, and winning team, there won’t be any shortcuts.
The Texas Stars, unlike many AHL teams, have always had more of an emphasis on “winning drives development,” which is why the Stars have invested in AHL veterans, like current Texas captain Curtis McKenzie.
As Petersen looks at it, the Texas Stars adopting a shortcut-free mentality should lead to more wins for the AHL team and also push other individuals to a higher level. This isn’t new in Texas, but it’s worth repeating.
One thing that I did find interesting from our interview with Petersen was how he looked at his time as a veteran player in the AHL, and the revelation that there were times he had coaches who felt they could have done more for veterans.
It’s a “development never stops” ideology, which Petersen has told me he continued to pick up during his time with the Avalanche, where finding ways to help veteran players improve has a trickle-down impact on prospects.
