Meet the New Head Coach of the New Mexico Ice Wolves
September 13, 2024 - North American Hockey League (NAHL)
New Mexico Ice Wolves News Release
When the first and only head coach in New Mexico Ice Wolves' history, Phil Fox, left over the summer, team owner and president Stan Hubbard found himself in need of a new coach.
So, Hubbard called longtime friend Kevin Hartzell, also a senior advisor to the Ice Wolves.
"I called Kevin and said, 'I need you to help me figure out if the guys we got are the right guys (to interview for the coaching job)' and there was about 20 seconds of silence and he said, 'what if I come down for a year?' and I said, 'then the conversation is over,'" Hubbard explained.
While that one conversation was over, the pair have had an ongoing conversation that dates back decades, when Hubbard hired Hartzell to be the head coach of the St. Paul Vulcans of the United States Hockey League in 1983.
Hartzell, all of 25 at the time, impressed Hubbard with his approach to not only developing skilled hockey players, but also developing skilled people.
"He was just made of the right stuff and came from the right background," Hubbard said of Hartzell.
In six season as head coach in St. Paul, Hartzell guided the Vulcans to a record of 189-80-11, including winning the Clark Cup as the league's champion in his first year.
Hartzell moved on to coach the Sioux Falls Stampede of the USHL for seven seasons, where he led them to a record of 224-152-44 and a championship in 2007. When he retired from coaching over a decade ago, he did so as one of the winningest coaches in USHL history.
In his retirement, Hartzell enjoyed spending time with his wife, Mary-Elizabeth, at their lake house in Minnesota for half the year, and spending the other half playing pickleball under the Florida sun.
"I loved retirement," Hartzell said. "I love pickleball, not answering my alarm clock everyday, it was nice."
But Hartzell has also been a part of the Ice Wolves organization since the beginning. When the team planted it's roots in Albuquerque in 2019, Hubbard enlisted the Hartzell's help to build out the program. And when Hubbard called Hartzell to ask about what coach he should hire, it seemed like was a bit of divine intervention.
"My wife says (coaching) is what God put you on Earth to do and I love Stan and decided to go back to what I do well," he said.
While the years have gone by, Hartzell's approach to building a winning culture has not.
In a team practice on Wednesday ahead of their season opener again the U.S. Hockey National Development Team's under-17 team this weekend, Hartzell preached patience and focus.
"A thousand little plays," he told his players. "There's going to be a thousand plays over the course of the night and we're going to make mistakes. But if we get most of them right, we'll be successful."
It is this details-first approach the players feel is going to make the difference once the puck drops.
"A thousand plays is his way of saying so many things happen in a game, that 100% perfection is unattainable," Johnny Johannson, a forward for the Ice Wolves, said. "But if we can get 70% of those plays in our favor, we are going to win the game."
The Ice Wolves, a member of the North American Hockey League, went 38-28 and made the Robertson Cup playoffs last season, but lost in the second round.
Hartzell said fans can expect an Ice Wolves team this year that does the little thing right and works for everything they get.
"We're still in the infancy stage of who we are and where we're going, but we're getting a little better everyday," he said. "Some nights we'll play great and some night we can lose, but we'll always work hard."
The Ice Wolves regular season begins Sept. 20 with a three-game home series against Corpus Christi Ice Rays at the Outpost Ice Arena.
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