The Rangers have named Grant Potulny as the head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, a team release states. Until recently, he’d held the same role with Northern Michigan University.
Potulny, 44, never played in the NHL but was a fifth-round pick of the Senators in 2000 and had a brief AHL career in the aughts. After retiring in 2009, he became an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, which he captained to a national championship in 2003. He remained there through 2017 before taking the head job at Northern Michigan, where he’s been since.
In his first season behind the NMU bench, Potulny coached the Wildcats to a 25-win season, their most since 2001-02. He was recognized as the WCHA’s Coach of the Year for his efforts, but he hasn’t received any other honors in the six years since. Potulny has still had a decent recent run of success with the historically overlooked school, advancing to the CCHA tournament final in 2021 and 2023.
Potulny also has some experience with the United States U-20 national team, serving as an assistant at the World Juniors on four occasions. He was part of gold medal-winning squads in 2013 and 2017.
He takes over as Hartford’s full-time coach after Kris Knoblauch left the organization to accept the head coach position with the Oilers in November, eventually leading them to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Longtime NHL and AHL assistant Steve Smith took over as interim the rest of the way, but the Rangers didn’t say today whether he’d be returning to the Wolf Pack bench.
He’s got to be excited considering what happened to the previous coach of the team.
@Josh — “…brief AHL career in the aughts.” Thanks, @Josh! On a hot day, it’s always nice to take a trip in the Wayback Machine, to the start of the millennium, with Mr. Peabody sticking his head out the passenger side window and his tongue flapping in the wind. (When he isn’t looking, I move his air vent over to my side to get more of that A/C). Sherman’s in the back seat, with his usual, “Are we there yet?”
:)