spndnchz Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Chadd Cassidy becoming assistant coach for Amerks. Rumblings of Jay McKee also. Not sure when they will announce it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted August 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 He was Ron Rolston's assistant. Some info: http://www.usahockey.com/USANTDP/default.aspx?NAV=AF_05&ID=292034&DetailedNews=yes During the 2009-10 campaign, Cassidy helped guide the U.S. National Under-17 Team to great international success. While serving as an assistant to Ron Rolston, Cassidy helped lead Team USA to its first title at the 2010 World Under-17 Hockey Challenge since 2002. He also helped pilot the squad to a first-place finish at the 2009 Under-17 Four Nations Cup in Trnava, Slovakia. The U.S. National Under-17 Team finished with a 9-1-1-3 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record against international foes under Rolston and Cassidy’s watch. In August, Cassidy served as an assistant coach for the U.S. Under-18 Select Team that finished second at the 2010 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament in Breclav, Czech Republic, and Piestany, Slovakia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darksabre Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Twitter seems to have McKee confirmed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I'm not so sure if I like these moves at all. We have essentially bumped a high school coaching staff up to our AHL job. Other than this, Cassidy's highest level of experience is a couple assistant jobs at the DIII level. If McKee's in, he has no coaching experience other than his volunteer status with Niagara. It's very clear though that they want to go heavy on the development. Then again, I could be overanalyzing this a bit. Cunneyworth was a great coach in Rochester and his only experience was his player/coach role before he became the head coach. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weave Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I'm not so sure if I like these moves at all. We have essentially bumped a high school coaching staff up to our AHL job. Other than this, Cassidy's highest level of experience is a couple assistant jobs at the DIII level. If McKee's in, he has no coaching experience other than his volunteer status with Niagara. It's very clear though that they want to go heavy on the development. Then again, I could be overanalyzing this a bit. Cunneyworth was a great coach in Rochester and his only experience was his player/coach role before he became the head coach. I'm having the same thoughts. I'm not exactly sure how to put them into words but there is alot of emphasis on development from folks at the ameteur level and not much emphasis on coaching for the first pro level by folks who've been there/done that. In my mind, coaching kids on the pro game is part of player development and there seems to be a lack of pro coaches here. Like you said, could be much ado about nothing. We won't have an idea of whether these hires are successful for at least a year or two, maybe longer. If nothing else, it's a helluva experiment. I will say that I do like the outside the box aspect to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korab rules Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I'm not so sure if I like these moves at all. We have essentially bumped a high school coaching staff up to our AHL job. Other than this, Cassidy's highest level of experience is a couple assistant jobs at the DIII level. If McKee's in, he has no coaching experience other than his volunteer status with Niagara. It's very clear though that they want to go heavy on the development. Then again, I could be overanalyzing this a bit. Cunneyworth was a great coach in Rochester and his only experience was his player/coach role before he became the head coach. It's Sabres University - Cassidy and Rolston have been teaching for years and years. High School? Yeah, you could call it that, but those high schoolers have been competing on the international stage and winning against the best players in the world. It's a bit of a gamble, but I don't see much downside. You can bet that Darcy and Lindy will have their fingers on the pulse of the team. If they don't like what they are seeing, I am sure they will take action to rectify it. I like the addition of McKee - maybe he can teach toughness to some of these young, finesse defensemen we have in spades. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted August 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I think what you have is a bunch of guys that have taught younger players to a high level, teaching younger players to the next level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted August 30, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 News conference Wednesday @ 11am. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 It's Sabres University - Cassidy and Rolston have been teaching for years and years. High School? Yeah, you could call it that, but those high schoolers have been competing on the international stage and winning against the best players in the world. It's a bit of a gamble, but I don't see much downside. You can bet that Darcy and Lindy will have their fingers on the pulse of the team. If they don't like what they are seeing, I am sure they will take action to rectify it. I like the addition of McKee - maybe he can teach toughness to some of these young, finesse defensemen we have in spades. Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call these guys 'high school coaches.' These guys are coming from jobs most Junior coaches would kill for. Don't know if the plan for Sabres Community College at the War Memorial (throwing out a bone for Chico) will pan out or not, but it is an interesting twist, and it looks well thought out. I don't agree that Lindy & Darcy will 'take action to rectify' issues though (at least in the short term). As this is a rather untried concept, it very likely will take some time to evaluate whether it is in reality superior to what everyone else is doing. This may be a case where Darcy's well perceived patience could be a huge virtue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korab rules Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call these guys 'high school coaches.' These guys are coming from jobs most Junior coaches would kill for. Don't know if the plan for Sabres Community College at the War Memorial (throwing out a bone for Chico) will pan out or not, but it is an interesting twist, and it looks well thought out. I don't agree that Lindy & Darcy will 'take action to rectify' issues though (at least in the short term). As this is a rather untried concept, it very likely will take some time to evaluate whether it is in reality superior to what everyone else is doing. This may be a case where Darcy's well perceived patience could be a huge virtue. I agree that they will be patient - I didn't mean to suggest that they will pull the plug or fire people or make wholesale changes on short notice. I meant that they will gently tweak things that seem to need tweaking. One of the great benefits of the Sabres farm system since the lockout has been the the organizational symmetry. Players are called up from Portland or Rochester, they know the system and their role, and it allows them to contribute without having to think. They can concentrate on the job they already know how to perform instead of getting caught up in the bright lights of the big stage. I don't think Darcy and Lindy will do anything to disrupt that proven system, nor put up with anything that does for long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Yeah, I wouldn't exactly call these guys 'high school coaches.' These guys are coming from jobs most Junior coaches would kill for. Don't know if the plan for Sabres Community College at the War Memorial (throwing out a bone for Chico) will pan out or not, but it is an interesting twist, and it looks well thought out. I don't agree that Lindy & Darcy will 'take action to rectify' issues though (at least in the short term). As this is a rather untried concept, it very likely will take some time to evaluate whether it is in reality superior to what everyone else is doing. This may be a case where Darcy's well perceived patience could be a huge virtue. I'm not so sure it's an untried concept at this point. There's definitely a trend here. The last two USNTDP coaches are now both in the AHL. Pittsburgh plucked John Hynes directly out of Ann Arbor last year. In 2009, Colorado hired David Quinn out of BU, 5 years removed from his stay at the USNTDP. None of them had any head coaching experience other than their time in Ann Arbor either. I'll bow to the AHL followers out there who may have an idea of how those two have fared in Scranton and Cleveland so far. And as for the high school comment, of course it's not a typical high school job. But there's still a big difference dealing with the mentality of a high school kid and that of a 20-something professional hockey player. That's the red flag I'm picking up on here. edit: Either way, it's a bit of a departure from their last few hires in McCutcheon, Cunneyworth, and Dineen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Taro T Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 I agree that they will be patient - I didn't mean to suggest that they will pull the plug or fire people or make wholesale changes on short notice. I meant that they will gently tweak things that seem to need tweaking. One of the great benefits of the Sabres farm system since the lockout has been the the organizational symmetry. Players are called up from Portland or Rochester, they know the system and their role, and it allows them to contribute without having to think. They can concentrate on the job they already know how to perform instead of getting caught up in the bright lights of the big stage. I don't think Darcy and Lindy will do anything to disrupt that proven system, nor put up with anything that does for long. I would agree w/ you that they'll ensure that the on-ice system used is the system that they'll use when they get called up and that Lindy will make sure the coaches are having them play the way he wants them to. (Though I don't know how much that system will change now that the D has undergone such major revamping. How much the system changes will probably be significantly dependent upon how well Leino helps start the breakout and how well he carries the puck into the zone.) Where I disagree, and maybe we don't disagree as much as I initially believed, is that they won't be altering the direction of the various off-ice programs they'll be working the kids through if they don't appear to be showing results right off. They'll give that side of Hockey Highschool more time to take root (or demonstrate clearly that it isn't working and needs to be tweaked or completely reformulated (or something in between)). I'm not so sure it's an untried concept at this point. There's definitely a trend here. The last two USNTDP coaches are now both in the AHL. Pittsburgh plucked John Hynes directly out of Ann Arbor last year. In 2009, Colorado hired David Quinn out of BU, 5 years removed from his stay at the USNTDP. None of them had any head coaching experience other than their time in Ann Arbor either. I'll bow to the AHL followers out there who may have an idea of how those two have fared in Scranton and Cleveland so far. And as for the high school comment, of course it's not a typical high school job. But there's still a big difference dealing with the mentality of a high school kid and that of a 20-something professional hockey player. That's the red flag I'm picking up on here. edit: Either way, it's a bit of a departure from their last few hires in McCutcheon, Cunneyworth, and Dineen. I didn't mean to imply that hiring strong developmental coaches was a new concept; the 'hockey university' thing seems to be more of a new concept. Perhaps it isn't that novel a concept; I don't follow the college ranks nor the AHL nearly as closely as you and some others do. If other NHL teams, such as Pittsburgh and the Avs, have already implemented the concept then hopefully the Sabres could benefit from these teams already having learned some of what doesn't work. Either way, I expect it to take some time and experimentation to get it right, and I expect Regier would have the patience to allow the plan to demonstrably work or not; and then go from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Amerk Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 It's Sabres University - Cassidy and Rolston have been teaching for years and years. High School? Yeah, you could call it that, but those high schoolers have been competing on the international stage and winning against the best players in the world. It's a bit of a gamble, but I don't see much downside. You can bet that Darcy and Lindy will have their fingers on the pulse of the team. If they don't like what they are seeing, I am sure they will take action to rectify it. I like the addition of McKee - maybe he can teach toughness to some of these young, finesse defensemen we have in spades. Still waiting on the development of those Sabres University alternate 3rd jerseys... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
korab rules Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Still waiting on the development of those Sabres University alternate 3rd jerseys... Chico, too. He has dibs on his GPA - 0.0 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Amerk Posted August 30, 2011 Report Share Posted August 30, 2011 Chico, too. He has dibs on his GPA - 0.0 Nah. I think Chico is moving to Portland on the 1st of the month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted August 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Buffalo Sabres General Manager Darcy Regier announced today that Chadd Cassidy and Jay McKee have been named Assistant Coaches of the Rochester Americans, the American Hockey League affiliate of the Sabres. In addition, Chris Taylor has been hired as Development Coach and Bob Janosz has been named Goaltending Coach. http://amerks.com/newsX.asp?type=News&aID=302 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nfreeman Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Leaving aside the question of hiring coaches without professional experience (which is a very valid and interesting question), I have to say that I'm very happy to have McKee back in the organization. He was one of my all-time favorite Sabres. There is a (small) number of Sabres who have played with as much heart as McKee did, but none that showed more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew Amerk Posted August 31, 2011 Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Leaving aside the question of hiring coaches without professional experience (which is a very valid and interesting question), I have to say that I'm very happy to have McKee back in the organization. He was one of my all-time favorite Sabres. There is a (small) number of Sabres who have played with as much heart as McKee did, but none that showed more. Agreed. Also, good for Chris Taylor. Great guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spndnchz Posted August 31, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 31, 2011 Jay McKee on GR550 @ 6:25 today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted September 2, 2011 Report Share Posted September 2, 2011 I pulled this from the McKee article on the front page: The Amherstview native recalled a particularly hectic fortnight in the 1997-98 season where his Amerks played 13 games in 10 days. Players wrapped up a road trip in Adirondack on a Friday, bused seven hours back to Rochester, hung up their sweaty gear — this is the AHL don't forget — and played a 1 o'clock home game the next afternoon. The following day the club bussed seven hours back to Adirondack. I might have to check the math there, but I'd love to hear the logistics on that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobody Posted September 4, 2011 Report Share Posted September 4, 2011 I pulled this from the McKee article on the front page: I might have to check the math there, but I'd love to hear the logistics on that one. Those day night double headers are killer in the AHL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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