The first-year head coach of the Rochester Grizzlies, the new North American 3 Hockey League franchise that will play at the Rochester Recreation Center, was hired in mid-April by owners Mike Cooper and Craig Patrick, who also own the Austin Bruins, a junior hockey team that plays in the Tier II North American Hockey League.
Things haven’t slowed down a bit for the Ramsey, N.J., native, who played NCAA Division III college hockey at Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pa., and at Westfield (Mass.) State University. He spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Johnson & Wales, a Division III program in Providence, R.I.
Mignone sat down with the Post Bulletin late last week to talk about building the Grizzlies’ first roster and the season ahead. The Grizzlies’ first practice of the season is set for two weeks from today, Aug. 27.
POST BULLETIN: Your roster is pretty well set as you look ahead to fall camp starting in two weeks. What do you like about the group you’ve assembled?
MIGNONE: We’re going to start with 25-ish guys, in that range, we’ll get into practice and go from there. It’s a nice mix of young and old. We have some guys with experience, and we have some guys who are still in high school. It’s a promising group. The most exciting thing is that everybody is kind of new. We don’t have a first line returning, or a top (defensive) pairing, or a starting goalie. It’s going to be the utmost competition from Day 1. I told the guys, ‘If you want to be our first-line center, let’s see it. Prove it to us.’ That’s what I’m looking forward to most.
PB: Knowing that, will you mix-and-match guys early in the season, try a lot of different line combinations to find out which ones work best?
MIGNONE: It’s going to be pretty fluid with that, especially through the first month. We might find a couple guys we’d like to keep together, but everyone is going to get a fair crack at earning their spot. Once we get into October, we hope to settle into some things and give guys an opportunity to keep their roles. The first month, we’ll throw ’em in the blender every night and see what we have. If we find something we like, we’ll stick with it.
PB: In what ways do you expect your players and staff to get involved in the community?
MIGNONE: That’s our big goal. We’ve had a lot of good responses from the community. We want our guys to be out as much as possible, helping out youth hockey players, going to schools and reading with kids.
In Austin, the Bruins had 500 hours of community service with their guys last season and that’s what we plan on hopefully getting to here.
PB: What’s your time here been like so far? Has it been a whirlwind since taking the job?
MIGNONE: Yeah, it’s been full-steam ahead. We’ve had numerous camps with the Bruins and of our own, and just being on the road trying to find quality players and quality kids. There are a lot of options for guys at this level. We think we offer probably the best combination of staff, facility and ownership backing. We have a unique rink here, and our affiliations with Mayo and OMC, the guys get treated really well here. Between myself and (assistant coach) Mike (Aikens), I think we have everything we need to help develop these guys and get them moved to the next level.
PB: What’s the reaction been like from players, knowing the relationship you have with the Bruins, and knowing guys will get moved up to the NAHL if they earn that call-up?
MIGNONE: It’s definitely positive and something we stressed to the guys, that if they’re playing well here, they’re going to have the opportunity to go skate with those guys and practice. Some of our guys are just an injury away (from getting called up). With the proximity to Austin, it’s really nice. We’ll have a system in place to get some of our guys over there during the week, even just to see ‘hey, this is what I have to do to get to the next level.’
PB: Will things be similar on the ice for players here and in Austin, in terms of philosophy and expectations?
MIGNONE: We’ll run the same systems and things as the Bruins do, so the transition process should be none for players. Obviously, the speed up there is faster, but when you don’t have to think about your responsibilities on the ice, you can just react and play. We want to move as many guys on to Austin as possible, or on to other teams in the NAHL.
PB: What’s it been like to work with assistant coach Mike Aikens, a Rochester native who has seven years of USHL coaching experience?
MIGNONE: It’s been really good so far. He helps in so many ways, just his knowledge of junior hockey in general. He’s been successful at higher levels than this. … He was a defenseman, I was a forward, so it seems like a natural split for us. We’ve talked about him running the (penalty kill) and I’ll do our power play, but we’ll obviously collaborate a lot. We’ll be both hands on deck with everything we do.
PB: For you personally, what’s the adjustment been like to being a head coach?
MIGNONE: It’s good, a lot of balls in the air, especially with us being brand new, there has been a lot to do and we’ve been busy, but that’s what we want.
