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 Remaining, 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 targets through the Bears’ 1987-88 championship season, Maxwell retired at 28 and went immediately into professional scouting with Hershey’s mother or father workforce 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 a wide range 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 final supervisor in Dallas when Maxwell was a professional scout there from 2006-08, approached Maxwell with a proposal to run the present with the Blues’ AHL affiliate, the Springfield Thunderbirds.
Turn into a common supervisor. Proceed serving as a professional scout, too.
“When Doug approached me about this,” Maxwell recounted, “he mentioned I’ll have greater than sufficient to do. And he was appropriate.”
Maxwell, who settled his household in close by Connecticut whereas scouting, is the Blues’ consultant on the bottom in Springfield. He manages the workforce’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 a number of completely different elements, which has been actually thrilling for me,” Maxwell mentioned.
This weekend he’s again in St. Louis because the workforce opens its preseason schedule. The Blues are enjoying seven preseason contests as their rosters on the NHL and AHL ranges start to take form. Even then, Maxwell’s workforce nonetheless could possibly 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 workforce has discovered appreciable success constructing strong fan assist. Workforce president Nathan Costa and his employees have managed the franchise effectively 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 lower 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 interchange Drew Bannister, who was promoted to the Blues in December. The Springfield roster continues 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 mentioned. “However as a GM, you’re making an attempt to create, making an attempt to get to the place these two intersect – the growing and the profitable – to create an actual optimistic environment for our youngsters and our veterans.”
Maxwell is studying every day, even after almost 5 a long time within the recreation. Considering 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 be taught.
“Taking a look at it from the attitude of how I might be taught and develop myself into one other function, that was most likely the principle cause that I got here right here,” Maxwell mentioned. “All of us have targets. The American League is a growth league for not solely gamers however administration, so I nonetheless have a objective of being a common supervisor within the NHL. I noticed that this might assist me. I’ve all the time believed it’s a must to have targets. I admire the chance that Doug is giving me and searching ahead to taking that subsequent step in my profession.
“To win the Stanley Cup continues to be one thing that I actually covet.”
On the American Hockey League beat for 20 years, TheAHL.com options author Patrick Williams additionally at the moment 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.
