Nightingale returns to steer IceHogs

Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author

Yet one more line on Jared Nightingale’s resume put him in prime place to grow to be an AHL head coach.

Since his retirement in 2017 following 11 professional seasons skating within the AHL and ECHL, Nightingale had steadily made his means via a number of teaching stops, a transparent match for the properly revered former defenseman and captain.

He began off as an assistant coach with Omaha of the US Hockey League. He labored with the celebrated U.S. Nationwide Staff Growth Program, and later grew to become an affiliate coach with Saginaw of the Ontario Hockey League. In November 2021, the ripple results from a training shake-up with the Chicago Blackhawks opened up a spot to usher in the one-time IceHog as an assistant coach in Rockford.

However head-coaching expertise normally goes a great distance in hiring selections, and Nightingale nonetheless wanted that line on his CV. In 2024, he was employed as head coach and director of hockey operations for the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, an operation that has been a confirmed teaching observe to each the AHL and NHL for the likes of Jared Bednar, Cail MacLean, Spencer Carbery and Ryan Warsofsky. Nightingale led South Carolina to one of the best common season in franchise historical past, ending first general within the league and incomes the ECHL’s coach of the 12 months award.

With that sort of success paired with already having bench expertise on the AHL stage, it was anticipated that Nightingale would appeal to consideration for head-coaching vacancies within the American Hockey League this offseason. He was named Rockford’s new head coach on Might 30.

When it got here time to interview with the Blackhawks group this previous spring, Nightingale already had historical past with the entrance workplace from his time with Rockford. Without having to interrupt the ice or get to know one another, the 2 sides might get all the way down to speaking hockey and studying what Nightingale had taken from his first marketing campaign with South Carolina. A robust relationship between the NHL and AHL head coaches can also be key, and Nightingale arrived already realizing Blashill, a fellow Michigander.

“I assumed it was in all probability a better dialog than speaking to someone you haven’t met, a corporation you haven’t labored for,” stated Nightingale, who along with his ties to Rockford additionally is aware of new Blackhawks head coach and fellow Michigan native Jeff Blashill. “I feel the relationships are there. Being my first head job within the AHL, I’m going to carry some enthusiasm and pleasure for these gamers and their growth.”

The IceHogs are getting a coach who has seen all the ups and downs that include the professional sport. Undrafted, the Michigan State College product turned professional with the Springfield Falcons late within the 2005-06 season and made AHL stops in Iowa, Hartford, Chicago, Syracuse, Norfolk, Grand Rapids and Milwaukee along with Rockford, the place he served as captain of the IceHogs in 2013-14.

If Nightingale at all times appeared to others like a pure match to sometime go into teaching, it was a sense that he additionally held. As a pacesetter and captain on a number of groups, particularly as he grew older, he began to concentrate to how his head coaches operated. And for as a lot focus goes towards on-ice work, a lot of participant growth facilities on serving to gamers to develop professional habits and discover their means into maturity off the ice. Amongst his AHL coaches had been Blashill, Jon Cooper, Craig Berube, Dean Evason and AHL Corridor of Famers John Anderson and Ken Gernander.

“I’ve at all times regarded as much as coaches and never simply captains, however good teammates and leaders,” Nightingale defined. “I perceive how nice of an impression you’ll be able to have on a participant’s profession and life. That’s one thing that goes past the X’s and O’s.”

Creating that sense of worth will probably be a key precedence. Main a workforce at this stage isn’t just about specializing in the highest prospects. Nightingale spent his whole profession making an attempt to fill a job. He’ll carry a sure understanding for tips on how to assist and perceive a participant who could also be coping with stalled progress or struggling to remain within the league.

In South Carolina, he additionally noticed how the Washington Capitals and Hershey Bears all labored to make him and the Stingrays really feel like an important a part of the group. Nightingale went to coaching camp with the Capitals, and Carbery made certain that he was included in teaching conferences.

“I feel the gamers knew in South Carolina that they had been valued,” Nightingale defined. “That made my job lots simpler – the communication and the way nice of a job that Washington does at making a tradition of household.”

In order the Blackhawks rebuild in Chicago, they are going to want their prospects within the correct developmental atmosphere in Rockford. And a part of that atmosphere is about giving each participant on the roster a stake within the workforce and its success.

“I lived it as a participant,” Nightingale acknowledged. “The ability {that a} coach has in instilling perception [that] you’ll be able to nonetheless enhance. Attempting to get them to embrace that and revel in it – that’s why it’s essential to speak the imaginative and prescient of the workforce and the expectations. You’ve acquired to essentially have ardour for the every day grind of making an attempt to get higher. That’s one thing I received’t look previous.

“Each participant that comes into Rockford, I would like them to depart being higher.”

On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at present covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is an everyday contributor on SiriusXM NHL Community Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his excellent protection of the league in 2016.