The 2013 Central Hockey League off-season promises to be a very different one for Quad-City Mallards coach Terry Ruskowski.
This time, he isn’t spending the summer looking for a new team to coach, after watching financial realities catch up to his previous two teams at Laredo and Rio Grande Valley.
This time, he won’t have the handicap of putting together a team on the fly, with a week to go before the season starts.
This time, he actually has the full off-season to work with to build his team — and the work has already begun.
As the Mallards completed exit interviews and physicals following their quarterfinal loss to Fort Worth on Saturday, Ruskowski already had an eye on next season and building around some returning players.
“If the guys I want that did very well for me last year, if they want to come back, what I'll do is instead of building a whole new team, I can go for spots,” Ruskowski said. “If I need a tough guy, I'll go find a tough guy who will protect our younger and smaller guys. I can target that instead of just going randomly to pick the best players and put them in areas where they've never played before.”
How much of the team returns is a question mark, with the coach wanting to return anywhere between 10 and 12 of his players. One certainty is that this time, anyone who does return will be his decision. During the past season, Ruskowski did not arrive in the Quad-Cities until a week before the season, forcing him to try to win with a team mostly put together by previous coach David Bell.
Bell's system bore little resemblance to Ruskowski's and the Mallards struggled for most of the first half of the season with a team full of players who were ill-suited to Ruskowski's style. It was not until the final 12 weeks of the season that the Mallards turned the corner, going 21-11-3 to close out the regular season and finish in sixth place in the 10-team CHL.
“I respect what he's done and what he did do here,” Ruskowski said. “But every coach has different systems. I like to be as close as possible to the AHL level, so that if my players ever do get called up, they're not wondering what to do. I think the coaches at the higher league respect that, because they don't have to sit down and teach them.”
One of those players who did get called up was forward Mickey Lang, who parlayed a 41-goal season into a brief opportunity with the Rockford IceHogs. That will likely open doors at higher levels for the second-year player, but if not, the forward would be glad to return to a market he considers a great place for hockey
“Hopefully, they get what they deserve for next year,” Lang said. “I know exactly what I'm getting here. I'm getting great people who are loyal, they're faithful and they've always been good to me. This will always be a second home for me, and whatever happens, I know I can always rely on the Quad-Cities.”
Forward Anthony Perdicaro, who joined the team midway through the season, also sounded like he would be interested in returning.
“We really thought we were going to do big things in the playoffs,” Perdicaro said. “I think there's unfinished business for some of the guys in that locker room for next year.”
Ruskowski concurred with that statement, and he planned on starting his work on that by looking at rookies and building from there.
“Sometimes, there's guys that want to sign really early, and if I think they can help my team, I'll want to sign them as early as possible,” Ruskowski said. “The younger guys are a bit more impatient. The older guys will wait until the summer, so for me, it's sign the young kids that are really going to help us and later on, work on the older guys.”
This time, he isn’t spending the summer looking for a new team to coach, after watching financial realities catch up to his previous two teams at Laredo and Rio Grande Valley.
This time, he won’t have the handicap of putting together a team on the fly, with a week to go before the season starts.
This time, he actually has the full off-season to work with to build his team — and the work has already begun.
As the Mallards completed exit interviews and physicals following their quarterfinal loss to Fort Worth on Saturday, Ruskowski already had an eye on next season and building around some returning players.
“If the guys I want that did very well for me last year, if they want to come back, what I'll do is instead of building a whole new team, I can go for spots,” Ruskowski said. “If I need a tough guy, I'll go find a tough guy who will protect our younger and smaller guys. I can target that instead of just going randomly to pick the best players and put them in areas where they've never played before.”
How much of the team returns is a question mark, with the coach wanting to return anywhere between 10 and 12 of his players. One certainty is that this time, anyone who does return will be his decision. During the past season, Ruskowski did not arrive in the Quad-Cities until a week before the season, forcing him to try to win with a team mostly put together by previous coach David Bell.
Bell's system bore little resemblance to Ruskowski's and the Mallards struggled for most of the first half of the season with a team full of players who were ill-suited to Ruskowski's style. It was not until the final 12 weeks of the season that the Mallards turned the corner, going 21-11-3 to close out the regular season and finish in sixth place in the 10-team CHL.
“I respect what he's done and what he did do here,” Ruskowski said. “But every coach has different systems. I like to be as close as possible to the AHL level, so that if my players ever do get called up, they're not wondering what to do. I think the coaches at the higher league respect that, because they don't have to sit down and teach them.”
One of those players who did get called up was forward Mickey Lang, who parlayed a 41-goal season into a brief opportunity with the Rockford IceHogs. That will likely open doors at higher levels for the second-year player, but if not, the forward would be glad to return to a market he considers a great place for hockey
“Hopefully, they get what they deserve for next year,” Lang said. “I know exactly what I'm getting here. I'm getting great people who are loyal, they're faithful and they've always been good to me. This will always be a second home for me, and whatever happens, I know I can always rely on the Quad-Cities.”
Forward Anthony Perdicaro, who joined the team midway through the season, also sounded like he would be interested in returning.
“We really thought we were going to do big things in the playoffs,” Perdicaro said. “I think there's unfinished business for some of the guys in that locker room for next year.”
Ruskowski concurred with that statement, and he planned on starting his work on that by looking at rookies and building from there.
“Sometimes, there's guys that want to sign really early, and if I think they can help my team, I'll want to sign them as early as possible,” Ruskowski said. “The younger guys are a bit more impatient. The older guys will wait until the summer, so for me, it's sign the young kids that are really going to help us and later on, work on the older guys.”
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