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Atlantic Notes: Cooper, Senators, Seger, O’Connell

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Lightning head coach Jon Cooper will have some extra duties coming his way in the near future.  In his latest column for The Athletic (subscription link), Pierre LeBrun reports that Tampa Bay’s bench boss is expected to be named as Canada’s head coach for the upcoming 4 Nations Cup as well as the 2026 Olympics.  LeBrun adds that Hockey Canada considered having a separate head coach for each event but, like the United States with Mike Sullivan, has ultimately settled on having the same one for both.  Cooper has coached internationally at three events in the past.  He was Canada’s head coach at the 2017 Worlds, coached Team North America at the World Cup that same year, and was an assistant for the U.S. at the 2007 Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament.

More from the Atlantic Division:

  • Speaking at a season ticket holder session, Senators Senior Vice President Dave Poulin indicated that they have fielded trade interest in the seventh-overall selection, per Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). Ottawa underachieved considerably this season as instead of pushing for a playoff spot, they were well out of the mix early, resulting in changes both in the front office and behind the bench.  The Sens have to forfeit one of their first-round picks between now and 2026 as part of the punishment for failing to disclose Evgenii Dadonov’s no-trade clause to Vegas in 2021, eventually resulting in a failed trade to Anaheim the following year.  However, with this pick being so early, they wisely decided not to make this the year they lost the selection.
  • The Red Wings’ farm team has added one of the more intriguing remaining college free agents as AHL Grand Rapids announced the signing of Gabriel Seger to a one-year deal. The 24-year-old had a breakout showing in his final collegiate campaign, leading Cornell in scoring with 14 goals and 30 assists in 44 games although it wasn’t enough to land him an NHL deal in recent weeks.
  • Arizona State University associate coach Albie O’Connell is expected to leave the program to pursue an NHL opportunity, relays PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan (Twitter link). College Hockey News’ Mike McMahon adds (Twitter link) that O’Connell is expected to be hired by the Canadiens.  If that holds true, it will be his second stint with the organization after serving as a college scout for Montreal back in 2022-23 before returning behind an NCAA bench this past season.

Snapshots: Merela, Sabres Staff, Krog

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Yesterday, Lightning restricted free agent forward Waltteri Merela signed a one-year deal with SC Bern of the Swiss National League. The Lightning reportedly wanted Merela to return to the organization (as per Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times) but couldn’t offer him the guaranteed money that he could get abroad because of their need to keep salary cap flexibility. The Lightning plan to make Merela a qualifying offer to retain his NHL rights until he is 27.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The Buffalo Sabres have hired Chris Bergeron as a scout, shares Lance Lysowski of the Buffalo News. Bergeron has served as the head coach of Miami (Ohio) University’s men’s hockey team for the last five seasons, posting a cumulative – and dismal – 35-116-16 record with the club. Those results earn Bergeron the title of lowest win percentage in Miami’s history, narrowly beating out Bill Davidge’s 39-111-3 record across four seasons in the late 1980s. Bergeron still has a storied hockey career despite a slow go of things in Miami, Ohio – serving as the head coach of Bowling Green State University for nine seasons and accumulating 43 AHL games, 119 ECHL, and 111 IHL games across a seven-year professional career of his own. Bergeron is expected to, unsurprisingly, serve as Buffalo’s NCAA scout after Jerry Forton was promoted to ‘Director of Amateur Scouting’.
  • Buffalo has also shared that they will be maintaining AHL assistant coaches Vinny Prospal and Nathan Paetsch, shares Lysowski (Twitter link). The duo – both former NHL players – concluded the first year of their coaching careers last season, helping lead the Rochester Americans to a strong 39-23-7 record. With a year under their belts, the novice coaches will now lend their lessons learned to new head coach Mike Leone as he enters the first pro role of his own coaching career.
  • The Vancouver Canucks have hired former NHL center Jason Krog as a skills and development coach for the NHL and AHL rosters (Twitter link). Krog played in four games with Vancouver to end a 202-game career in the NHL that was largely spent with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. Krog scored 22 goals and 59 games across his career, including a single-season high of 25 points in 2002-03. He flaunted fantastic agility and skill as an undersized pivot in a physical era of the NHL – and will now look to bring those lessons to a young Canucks organization.

Snapshots: Warsofsky, Radulov, Utah Branding

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The San Jose Sharks have interviewed a long list of candidates for their vacant head coaching position, including assistant coach Ryan Warsofsky who, per Sheng Peng of San Jose Hockey Now, is now pulling ahead as the favorite for the job. He pulls ahead of a list of interviewees that features Jay Woodcroft, Matt Nieto, Jeff Blashill, Jeff Halpern, and Jeremy Colliton. Warsofsky also interviewed for San Jose’s head coach role in 2022, though he was ultimately hired behind David Quinn.

Warsofsky oversaw San Jose’s defense and penalty kill while serving behind Quinn, serving as the coach behind Erik Karlsson’s 101-point, Norris Trophy-winning season last year. But he was also the coach behind San Jose’s 326 goals allowed this season – the third-most of any team over the last decade.

Warsofsky is just two years into his NHL coaching career – experiencing two of the staunchest extremes he could have – after leading the Chicago Wolves to the 2022 AHL Calder Cup Championship to cap off his three-year tenure as an AHL head coach. Warsofsky’s hire would follow a growing trend of teams finding their coaches internally, with each of Winnipeg, St. Louis, Seattle, and Los Angeles already promoting coaches to the NHL head coach role this off-season. The role in San Jose would be the first NHL head coaching role of Warsofsky’s still very young career.

Other notes from around the league:

  • Long-time Dallas Stars forward Alexander Radulov has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Lokomotiv (Twitter link). Radulov has spent the last two seasons with Kazan Ak-Bars, posting a combined 41 goals and 97 points across 120 games. He’s remained productive, even at the age of 37, and will now be set to play with the fourth KHL club of his career – after four seasons with Ufa, four with CSKA Moscow, and two with Kazan. Those seasons add to Radulov’s nine-year career in the NHL, where he totaled 368 points in 524 career games spent with three different clubs. With no signs of slowing down, Radulov will look to vindicate this one-year contract with a strong season and continue his trek to becoming just the 19th KHL player to play beyond 40 years old.
  • NHL Utah is down to six finalists for its permanent name after an initial vote yielded over 500,000 responses. They’ll be called the Utah Blizzards, Utah Hockey Club, Utah Mammoth, Utah Outlaws, Utah Venom or Utah Yeti beginning with the 2025-26 season. They’ll carry temporary Utah Hockey Club branding for their inaugural 2024-25 campaign. Fans can choose between the six finalists using this link.

Ottawa Senators Round Out Coaching Staff

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Having already committed to Travis Green as head coach for the next four years, the Ottawa Senators rounded out their coaching staff this morning with a pair of hires. According to a team announcement, the team has hired Mike Yeo and Nolan Baumgartner as assistant coaches for the 2024-25 NHL season.

Coming over from the Vancouver Canucks in a lateral move, Yeo brings over two decades of coaching experience to the Senators’ bench. Yeo started his professional coaching before the 2000-01 AHL season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins as an assistant coach before taking the same role with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2005-10. After being a part of a successful run with the Penguins, Yeo spent one season as the head coach of the Houston Aeros in the AHL before taking over the head coach position with the Minnesota Wild after the organization fired head coach Todd Richards after the 2010-11 regular season.

In four and a half seasons with the Wild, Yeo coached the team to a 173-132-44 record over 349 games but failed to take the team beyond the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Minnesota moved on from Yeo during the 2015-16 season which led the coach to an assistant coaching role with the St. Louis Blues for the 2016-17 season. Since then, Yeo briefly served as the head coach of the Blues for two seasons and spent time with the Philadelphia Flyers as an assistant coach before finally landing with the Canucks organization in his most recent role.

Focusing primarily on Vancouver’s penalty kill throughout his tenure with the organization, Yeo helped raise the team’s success percentage from 71.60% in the 2022-23 season to 79.13% this past year. For the Senators, after finishing last year with the 29th-ranked penalty kill across the league, Yeo will likely once again be tasked with elevating the team’s play during a man disadvantage.

On the other hand, Baumgartner’s only coaching experience at the NHL level came during a five-season run as an assistant coach in Vancouver from 2017-22. In a fascinating twist, once Baumgartner was eventually let go by the Canucks, the opening created a vacancy that Yeo would ultimately fill. In a short gap, Baumgartner spent two years as an assistant coach for the Manitoba Moose, the top affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets.

In the same announcement, Ottawa also relayed the team would be retaining franchise legend Daniel Alfredsson while also bringing back Ben Sexton as an assistant coach, Justin Peters as the goaltending coach, Mike King as the video coach, as well as keeping Jacques Martin as a Senior Advisor to the coaching staff.

Coaching Notes: Carle, Pandolfo, Yeo, Snowden

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Before the New Jersey Devils officially hired Sheldon Keefe as their next head coach, the organization looked into some rookie options. Earlier today, Greg Wyshynski of ESPN reported that New Jersey had also interviewed David Carle of the University of Denver and Jay Pandolfo of Boston University.

Given this report, it is more than likely the Devils were looking for coaches who have excelled with young talents, no matter the amount of previous NHL coaching experience. Both coaches have collegiate and international experience leading some of the best programs in the United States.

Carle, who has spent the last six years as head coach of the Pioneers, has already collected two National Championships and an IIHF World Junior Championship gold medal. The 34-year-old Carle is one of the best coaching prospects in the game after experiencing so much success in only half a decade manning the bench.

After retiring from the NHL after the 2012-13 season, Pandolfo has served in numerous professional roles, ranging from scouting to developing. Taking over as the head coach of the Terriers last year, Pandolfo has led the famous program to 36 wins in only 48 regular season games, as well as two appearances in the Frozen Four.

Other coaching notes:

  • The Vancouver Canucks have mutually parted ways with assistant coach Mike Yeo according to a team announcement. The news comes as a bit of a shock as Yeo oversaw the transformation of a Canucks’ penalty kill unit that dramatically improved one of the league’s worst penalty kill in just one year. Nevertheless, Vancouver may be allowing Yeo to pursue other options as he looks to find a head coaching role in the NHL once again.
  • At the AHL level, Anthony Di Marco of TheFourthPeriod reports that John Snowden has been heavily linked to the head coaching vacancy of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Snowden, currently serving as an assistant coach for the interstate Lehigh Valley Phantoms, has a connection to the Pittsburgh Penguins’ current General Manager, Kyle Dubas. Before his stint with the Phantoms, Snowden was an assistant coach for the Toronto Marlies during the last two years of Dubas’ tenure with the Toronto Maple Leafs organization.

Snapshots: Monahan, Chiarelli, Lauer, Trouba

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The Winnipeg Jets are reportedly looking to retain pending free agent Sean Monahan, shares Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on the latest 32 Thoughts Podcast. The Jets acquired Monahan ahead of the trade deadline, sending a 2024 first-round and 2027 seventh-round pick back to the Montreal Canadiens. Monahan went on to score 13 goals and 24 points across 34 regular-season games with Winnipeg, adding one assist in five postseason games.

Monahan was one of Winnipeg’s two Trade Deadline acquisitions, alongside Tyler Toffoli, who the Jets sent a 2024 third-round and 2025 second-round pick. Toffoli has shared his interest in testing the open market. That decision should give Winnipeg much more freedom to allocate their $13.353MM in cap space between Monahan, pending restricted-free-agent Cole Perfetti, and William Jennings Trophy-co-winner Laurent Brossoit. The trio headline a list of 10 pending free agents on the Jets lineup.

Maintaining Monahan will give the Jets some stability down the middle, while moving on from Toffoli could open the door for top prospects Brad Lambert or Nikita Chibrikov to challenge the opening-day roster. The Jets will likely be removed from any jaw-dropping deals, with limited cap space and already-spent draft picks, but they’ll look to hold onto a playoff-caliber lineup with their signing this summer.

Other notes from around the NHL:

  • Friedman also shared in 32 Thoughts that expected incumbent to the Columbus Blue Jackets general manager role, Don Waddell, will be splitting responsibilities between GM and President of Hockey Operations through the early going. However, the Blue Jackets haven’t ruled out the idea of bringing in additional support, with Friedman naming Peter Chiarelli as a potential candidate. Chiarelli has received interest from front offices around the NHL, though he’s stayed put in an advisory role, and then a Vice President of Hockey Operations role, with the St. Louis Blues. He’s serving that role after a four-year tenure as GM and President of Hockey Ops for the Edmonton Oilers and a nine-year tenure with the Boston Bruins. Chiarelli has become notorious for his decisions with the Oilers and Bruins, though his role in Columbus likely wouldn’t involve final say. He’ll be a name to monitor, as the Blue Jackets look to pull themselves up from a challenging 2023-24 campaign.
  • The Winnipeg Jets have dismissed assistant coach Brad Lauer, and will retain Marty Johnston and Wade Flaherty as assistant and goalie coaches, per TSN’s John Lu (Twitter link). Lauer just wrapped up his second season as Winnipeg’s assistant. The pair of seasons brought him to 11 years spent as an assistant coach across the NHL, with his longest tenure coming during a four-year stretch with the Anaheim Ducks. Lauer played in 10 seasons between the NHL and IHL during his own playing career and has been coaching since his retirement in 2002. He served as the head coach behind the Edmonton Oil Kings to the 2022 Ed Chynoweth Cup, winning the WHL Championship. That accolade, and a long career in the pros, should be enough to land Lauer a new role quickly.
  • The NHL Department of Player Safety has fined New York Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba $5K for an elbow against Florida Panthers forward Evan Rodrigues in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final (Twitter link). The fine is the maximum allowed under the CBA. Trouba was assessed a minor penalty on the hit, though many fans argued the flying-elbow should have warranted a major penalty. He’ll now be assessed a fine instead, maintaining his eligibility for what will be a crucial Game 4. The Rangers are currently up 2-1 in the ECF series, in no small part thanks to Trouba’s three points in three games, including two assists in Game 3. He’s also recorded 12 hits and 16 blocks in the series.

Canucks Name Manny Malhotra AHL Head Coach

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The Vancouver Canucks have named Toronto Maple Leafs assistant coach Manny Malhotra as the next head coach of the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks. Malhotra replaces Jeremy Colliton, who served in two seasons with Abbotsford, leading the team to two identical seasons – two 40-25-7 records and first-round exits. Abbotsford associate coach Gary Agnew will also be stepping away from the club after three seasons (Twitter link).

Malhotra’s experience in the NHL kicked off with his seventh-overall selection by the New York Rangers in the 1998 NHL Draft – a part of a top 15 that also featured Vincent Lecavalier, David Legwand, and Alex Tanguay. Malhotra would go on to play in 991 career games across 18 seasons and seven teams. He spent three-or-more seasons with four different teams, including the Vancouver Canucks, who he appeared in 159 games with between 2010 and 2013. Malhotra was never a strong scorer, with a measly career-high of 35 points posted in the 2008-09 campaign, but his intangibles are what made him distinct. He was a defensive specialist and boasted a dazzling 59.7 percent on faceoffs in the final eight years of his career – dating back to when the stat was first tracked.

Teams were eager to bring those traits behind the bench when Malhotra announced his retirement in the 2015-16 season. He didn’t wait long to kick off his coaching career as a result, joining Vancouver as an assistant coach in the 2017-18 season. He’d stay in Vancouver until 2020 when he moved east to join Toronto. Malhotra will now assume an Abbotsford lineup full of potential, largely thanks to the trio of top prospects Jonathan Lekkerimaki, Aatu Raty, and Danila Klimovich. Vancouver has made it clear that they want to offer the chance for prospects to crack the NHL lineup next season, though it will be Malhotra in charge of developing the ones who don’t make it.

Meanwhile, former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Colliton is back on the market after a pair of seasons in the minor leagues. Colliton became the youngest head coach since 1995 when he took over the Blackhawks in 2018, at the precise age of 33 years and 299 days. He was highly praised at the time, but quickly lost steam after totaling a 86-83-24 record over three seasons in Chicago. He hasn’t returned to an NHL role since, though that could be poised to change soon, with San Jose reportedly already engaging the AHL bench-leader. He becomes one of many coaches looking for new roles – joining a list of free agents now headlined by Todd McLellan, Dean Evason, and Jay Woodcroft.

Jets Name Scott Arniel Head Coach

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The Winnipeg Jets have officially named Scott Arniel as the fifth head coach in modern franchise history (Twitter link). The deal was first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger (Twitter link). Arniel served as an associate coach under Rick Bowness this season, stepping in during Bowness’ two personal leaves this season.

Arniel presided over 18 games in relief of Bownesss, posting a 10-5-3 record. It was his first time serving a head coach since the 2012-13 season, when he led the AHL’s Chicago Wolves to an 11-25-5 record. That season capped off a seven-year span of head coaching roles for Arniel – including two seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets where he posted a combined 45-60-18 record. Arniel moved on from head coaching to join the New York Rangers as an associate coach in the 2013-14 season – bolstering the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals. He’d go on to serve five seasons with the Rangers before flipping to the division rival Washington Capitals, where he spent another four seasons.

Bowness would bring Arniel onto his staff when he joined Winnipeg in 2022. The pair have since led the Jets to two first-round exits, though they’ve posted a 98-57-9 record. Arniel, who played in six seasons with the Jets during his 11-year playing career, was reportedly a front-runner for Winnipeg’s vacant head coach role ever since Bowness announced his retirement. And while the club did look externally, holding interviews with Todd McLellan and Craig Berube, their next bench-leader will come from within the organization.

Arniel will take on an incredibly talented Jets lineup, headlined by star forward Mark Scheifele and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who both signed long-term extension with the club last summer. But it’s a lineup subject to change, with the Jets currently carrying 10 pending free agents – including Cole Perfetti, Sean Monahan, and Tyler Toffoli – with just $13.353MM in cap space. The team is reportedly considering moving top winger Nikolaj Ehlers’ $6MM cap hit to help free up some cap space – a potentially substantial move following Ehlers’ 61-point season. Arniel will luckily have strong supporting cast to lean on even without Ehlers, with Winnipeg still boasting each of Kyle Connor, Gabriel Vilardi, Alex Iafallo, and Josh Morrissey under contract for next season.

It’s been four years since the Jets advanced past the first round of the playoffs, and they’ve only made the Western Conference Finals once in the 13 years since taking over for the Atlanta Thrashers. Arniel will look to buck that trend next year with a strong roster next year, though cap constraints could make it a tougher lift than he’s hoping for.

Canucks Announce Offseason Plans

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Vancouver Canucks general manager Patrik Allvin and head coach Rick Tocchet spoke with the media on Thursday about the team’s plans for the upcoming off-season. Coming off their most successful season in nine years, Allvin started interviews by emphasizing that the team needs to enter the summer with the mindset that they only managed to reach the second round. As shared by Pass It To Bulis’ Daniel Wagner, Allvin said “I’m not happy sitting here today…we lost our last game and it was only in round two.” 

The team’s off-season plans will reflect that high bar, with Allvin most notably sharing that they’re looking to bring in a top-six winger, shares Sportsnet’s Brendan Batchelor (Twitter link). Allvin added that the team is also looking to bring in more speed, while Tocchet spoke to needing more creativity and shooting out of the lineup. Each of those attributes could be met by pending Carolina Hurricanes free agent Jake Guentzel, who Vancouver was reportedly very interested in ahead of the Trade Deadline.

The Hurricanes ultimately acquired Guentzel in exchange for Michael Bunting, top prospects Vaisili Ponomaryov and Cruz Lucius, and second-and-fifth-round picks in 2024. That’s a tall price to pay for a Spring rental, and there’s no doubt Carolina will make a hardy push to extend Guentzel after he posted a combined 34 points in 28 games with the club. But Guentzel left the door open to other destinations in his exit interview, acknowledging that hockey is ultimately a business. He’ll almost assuredly be due for an enthusiastic call from Allvin, should he decide to enter the open market.

The search for a top-six winger will headline Vancouver’s summer, with Allvin sharing that the team wants to retain its pending free agents otherwise, per Batchelor (Twitter link). Allvin went on to name Nikita Zadorov, Tyler Myers, and Dakota Joshua as specific free agents the team is looking to retain. There shouldn’t be any pushback from the player’s side, with Joshua’s agent expressing a desire to return on the Donnie & Dhali Show while Zadorov speaking openly about his love for Vancouver during exit interviews. The trio are a part of Vancouver’s 11 pending free agents – a list that most notably includes Elias Lindholm and backup goaltenders Arturs Silovs and Casey DeSmith. The Canucks paid a pretty penny to acquire Lindholm earlier this season, while Silovs earned expanded opportunity with his fantastic playoff run. If and how the Canucks are able to lock up both players will be a major factor in how their 2024-25 roster is constructed.

Among his other thoughts, Allvin also made sure to mention the team’s top prospects – sharing that the team wants to create opportunity for those players. While he didn’t name any players outright, it’s not hard to reason that reigning SHL ’Rookie of the Year’ Jonathan Lekkerimaki is among the top to earn a chance. Lekkerimaki recorded 31 points in 46 SHL games this season, adding two points in six AHL games following the end of Orebro’s season. He signed a three-year, $4.3MM entry-level contract in early May and could be one of Vancouver’s most exciting breakout candidates next season. Other top prospects Aatu Raty, Danila Klimovich, and defenseman Elias Pettersson could also push for an added role.

Vancouver’s postseason berth was just their second of the last nine seasons, and just their seventh time making it to the second round this century. It seems the team’s leadership core is ready to carry that winning mentality forward, looking at making impacts with externally, internally, and prospect decisions.

AHL Notes: Konowalchuk, Armstrong, Forrest

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The AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds have named Steve Konowalchuk as their head coach. Konowalchuk becomes the fourth head coach in Springfield’s seven-year history, taking the torch from interim coach Daniel Tkaczuk, who took over for Drew Bannister following his promotion to the St. Louis Blues in December. Tkaczuk led the Thunderbirds to a 18-29-3 record, following Bannister’s 12-8-0 start. The Thunderbirds haven’t yet provided details on which assistant coaches Konowalchuk will retain.

Konowalchuk is best known for his years as a player, becoming a staple of the Washington Capitals lineup between 1992 and 2003. He was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in the 2003-04 season and was forced to retire due to a heart condition in 2006, after missing much of the 2005-06 campaign. He returned to the team in the 2009-10 season, spending two years as an assistant coach before moving into a head coaching role with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds. Seattle was where Konowalchuk made his mark, leading the team to the playoffs in five seasons straight – capped off with a WHL Finals appearance and championship win respectively in his final two seasons. Konowalchuk managed an impressive list of Thunderbirds alums, including Shea Theodore, Mathew Barzal, Keegan Kolesar, and Ethan Bear. He’d move back to the NHL in the year following his 2017 WHL Championship, joining the Anaheim Ducks as an assistant coach for one season before returning to the WHL and then spending last season in an AHL assistant role.

Konowalchuk will now take on his biggest role yet, taking the reigns of a Springfield Thunderbirds team just two years removed from a race to the Calder Cup Finals. They’d ultimately get swept by the Chicago Wolves but have held on to their playoff hopes in the seasons since. Konowalchuk found consistent success the last time he coached a Thunderbirds roster, and could be poised for big opportunity should he find a groove again.

Other notes from around the minor leagues:

  • The Florida Panthers have signed forward Jamie Armstrong to a one-year, two-way contract. He’s expected to join the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers, adding to their long list of depth forwards. Armstrong – son of Utah general manager Bill Armstrong – is coming off of his graduate year at Boston College, where he recorded 12 points in 32 games. It was his first year as an Eagle, having spent the previous four years of his collegiate career across the road with Boston University. He totaled 26 points across 84 games with Boston University, filling in as stout bottom-six depth.
  • Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach J.D. Forrest is a candidate to fill the Rochester Americans’ coaching vacancy, shares Lance Lysowski of The Buffalo News (Twitter link). Lysowski added that the Buffalo Sabres are hoping to have their AHL coach solidified prior to June’s NHL Draft. Forrest would take over for former Rochester coach Seth Appert, who was promoted to Lindy Ruff’s staff in early May. Both Forrest and Appert have deep roots in USA Hockey, with Appert previously serving as the head coach of the U.S. National Team Development program (NTDP), while Forrest is a former NTDP assistant coach and led Team USA to a Silver Medal at the 2022 IIHF U18 World Championship.

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