Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Options Author
Kevin Maxwell had an opportunity to strive one thing new.
As a participant, he performed 66 video games within the NHL, skated in a Stanley Cup Last, and was Olympian with Canada on the 1980 Video games in Lake Placid. He received a pair of Calder Cup championships, with the Maine Mariners and the Hershey Bears.
After pocketing a career-best 36 objectives through the Bears’ 1987-88 championship season, Maxwell retired at 28 and went immediately into professional scouting with Hershey’s dad or mum crew then, the Philadelphia Flyers. It turned out to be a savvy profession transfer, as apart from a part of one season within the Western Hockey League as a head coach with Brandon, Maxwell spent 34 years in quite a lot of scouting roles with the Flyers, Hartford Whalers, New York Islanders, Dallas Stars and New York Rangers.
In 2022, Doug Armstrong, who had been the overall supervisor in Dallas when Maxwell was a professional scout there from 2006-08, approached Maxwell with a suggestion to run the present with the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
Turn out to be a basic supervisor. Proceed serving as a professional scout, too.
“When Doug approached me about this,” Maxwell recounted, “he stated I’ll have greater than sufficient to do. And he was right.”
Maxwell, who settled his household in close by Connecticut whereas scouting, is the Blues’ consultant on the bottom in Springfield. He manages the crew’s day-to-day hockey affairs, concerned with the group’s prospects and the event coaches tasked with working with Thunderbirds gamers. Final weekend he was in St. Louis for the Tom Kurvers Prospect Showcase, a preseason event involving the Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild.
“You’re touching quite a lot of totally different elements, which has been actually thrilling for me,” Maxwell stated.
This weekend he’s again in St. Louis because the crew opens its preseason schedule. The Blues are taking part in seven preseason contests as their rosters on the NHL and AHL ranges start to take form. Even then, Maxwell’s crew nonetheless might be extremely topic to vary. One transfer right here, one transfer there, can instigate a cascade of subsequent transactions.
“Till you see the whites of their eyes, you don’t actually know who you’re getting,” Maxwell famous.
For the reason that Thunderbirds started play in Springfield in 2016, the crew has discovered appreciable success constructing sturdy fan help. Group president Nathan Costa and his employees have managed the franchise nicely off the ice, and St. Louis needs to match that success on the ice. The Thunderbirds, who reached the Calder Cup Finals in 2022, missed the postseason reduce this previous spring, so the Blues went to work this summer time.
St. Louis introduced in Steve Konowalchuk as the brand new head coach in Springfield to switch Drew Bannister, who was promoted to the Blues in December. The Springfield roster remains to be to be determined, however there are a number of intriguing prospects who might see time with the Thunderbirds.
“We’re a develop-and-win philosophy,” Maxwell stated. “However as a GM, you’re attempting to create, attempting to get to the place these two intersect – the growing and the profitable – to create an actual optimistic ambiance for our youngsters and our veterans.”
Maxwell is studying every day, even after almost 5 a long time within the sport. Pondering again to his conversations with Armstrong, it’s what he got here to the St. Louis group to do. Everybody in Springfield this fall, be they participant, coach, or administration, is there to enhance and study.
“ it from the attitude of how I might study and develop myself into one other function, that was most likely the primary cause that I got here right here,” Maxwell stated. “All of us have objectives. The American League is a improvement league for not solely gamers however administration, so I nonetheless have a objective of being a basic supervisor within the NHL. I noticed that this might assist me. I’ve all the time believed it’s important to have objectives. I recognize the chance that Doug is giving me and searching ahead to taking that subsequent step in my profession.
“To win the Stanley Cup remains to be one thing that I actually covet.”
On the American Hockey League beat for twenty years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally presently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a daily 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.
