For many Walleye fans, new coach Pat Mikesch represents not the final piece of a championship puzzle.
His hire is just ... a puzzle.
Toledo had its pick of candidates, and it chose a guy who in eight years as coach of the Green Bay Gamblers of the amateur United States Hockey League never made it past the first round of the playoffs?
On paper, at first pass, Mikesch’s primary qualification appears to be that he knows Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde, his former boss in Green Bay.
The questions are fair.
But ...
So are our open minds.
Because hires are not made on paper.
In this case, it was made at the end of an exhaustive search inside the Walleye offices at Fifth Third Field.
And while not everyone will agree with the verdict, it’s hard to argue with the process.
Just picture the scene downtown for the last round of interviews.
After the vetting of a mountain of candidates — including the dozen who made it through for one-hour video calls — there were three finalists: Mikesch; Jared Nightingale, a former Walleye captain and the lead assistant for the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs; and Chuck Weber, a longtime former ECHL and AHL coach.
Each of them faced six inquisitors, with the room featuring not only Toledo executives Joe Napoli and Neil Neukam and Red Wings assistant GM Shawn Horcoff, but — get this — every former Walleye coach: Nick Vitucci, Lalonde, and Dan Watson.
How cool is that?
If anyone knows what it takes to succeed in the ECHL — where the coach doubles as the GM and must be as adept at recruiting and building a roster as he is at developing young talent — it’s these guys.
For them, the interviews were personal.
“They all love this place so much,” Mikesch said, “that they wanted it to be the right guy and right personality.”
A guy like him.
“He commanded the room,” Watson said.
Don’t know about you, but I trust the coaches’ judgment — and, ultimately, the decision made by Napoli.
And I trust it a little more after meeting Mikesch.
The 50-year-old Michigan native hit all the right notes Friday during and after his introductory news conference, embracing the roaring reputation of Toledo hockey fans (“It’s Hockeytown of Ohio,” he said) and their expectation that — at least at the Huntington Center — the Walleye run extends into June.
Are there concerns?
Of course.
In Green Bay, he didn’t enjoy half the success of Lalonde, who, in three seasons with the Gamblers, went 114-56-8-6 and won a USHL title before landing the Walleye job in 2014.
Mikesch — an assistant on those Lalonde teams — went 214-200-48 and was let go in 2022. He spent last season as assistant director of major gifts at Michigan Tech, where he played collegiately and later spent seven years as an assistant.
That’s not going to inspire a rush on the box office.
But a little context is helpful.
In some ways, the USHL and ECHL is an apples-to-pumpkins comparison.
The USHL is an amateur league for players ages 16 to 21, where teams are built almost exclusively through an annual draft of 15-year-old prospects.
Mikesch proved he could develop talent — upwards of 30 of his players got drafted by NHL teams — but his ability as a recruiter was mitigated.
In Toledo, where he can offer top free agents the chance to play before nightly sellouts in a sparkling arena, the guess here is he’ll be a better salesman than the ShamWow guy.
It’s not hard to see why his former players and Lalonde swear by him. Mikesch came off as sharp, funny, and energetic, not to mention accountable.
Paradox or not, Walleye and Wings officials were impressed by how Mikesch responded to a variation of the same question I asked him: Why didn’t you win more in Green Bay?
“He owned it,” Napoli said. “That was the key.”
“Probably one of the most honest parts of the interview process was the playoff experience that was lacking,” Mikesch said. “They were all learning opportunities for me. We had three teams that I thought could have won the championship there, and I'm disappointed that we didn't. Best-of-3 series are tough. I made mistakes.”
Now, can he take that experience, grow, and finish the job in Toledo?
We’ll see.
But the Walleye have shown a knack for finding the right coaches, from Vitucci — the right man for the moment when pro hockey returned to Toledo in 2009 — to Lalonde to Watson.
They’ve won everything but a Kelly Cup title, including the benefit of the doubt.
First Published July 14, 2023, 10:37 p.m.
