📝 by Patrick Williams
Even with a 938-game National Hockey League career and an extensive international track record, Marco Sturm’s hockey journey had never taken him to the AHL.
That changed on June 17, 2022, when the Los Angeles Kings appointed him head coach of the Ontario Reign.
Sturm took the post following four seasons spent as an assistant coach with the Kings. Before that, he had spent three years as general manager and head coach of the German national team, guiding the program to a silver medal at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, back-to-back quarterfinal appearances at the IIHF World Championship, and a 2015 Deutschland Cup title.
And as a player who went 21st overall to San Jose in the 1996 NHL Draft, he went on to tally 487 points (242 goals, 245 assists) among six different clubs. Representing Germany, he took part in three Olympics, the 2004 World Cup of Hockey, and four World Championship tournaments.
Yet taking the Ontario post, Sturm had no prior direct experience with the NHL’s premier developmental league, though he certainly understood its vital role in hockey’s ecosystem.
Sturm has his Reign (30-18-2-1, 63 points) one point out of third place in the Pacific Division going into this afternoon’s match-up with San Diego at Toyota Arena.
TheAHL.com had a wide-ranging conversation with the 44-year-old Sturm on his first year in the AHL, experiences and challenges, and more. Here are his thoughts:
ON HIS FIRST SEASON IN THE AHL
“It’s been a nice experience for me, especially. I’m learning, too. [Having] good players not in the lineup, good players in the lineup, how to deal with that. I think the guys work really hard, and that always helps.”
ON WHAT HE IS LEARNING
“It’s not really the systems, the hockey stuff. It’s just dealing with everything around it. Players called up and how to deal with new kids coming in, getting them ready as possible… Everything around it. I think that’s something that’s new and teaching them in a really quick way.”
ON HELPING PLAYERS LEARN TO BE PROS
“I’m glad I had that experience as an NHL player and as an assistant coach in the NHL. Because of that experience, that’s easy for me. I’m trying to help them with my experience and what I’ve been through. I’ve been in their shoes. That’s the easy part for me, because I’ve been through it.”
ON WHAT MAKES IT SO DIFFICULT TO MAKE THAT FINAL PUSH TO BECOME A FULL-TIME NHL PLAYER
“The biggest thing for me is they’re not consistent enough. That’s why they’re here. We have to teach them to be more consistent. Players have really good moments… They have good periods, they have good shifts, they have good games. But [after] could look totally different, so that’s a challenge we all have.”
ON THE MENTALITY THAT HE IS TRYING TO INSTILL IN ONTARIO
“I think we started something four years ago when Todd (Kings head coach Todd McLellan) took over, and we had a whole makeover. It’s gone uphill since then. We found our identity that we are tough to play against. We’re very structured, very disciplined, and frustrate a lot of teams.
“I think it goes down a little bit to us, too. We’re probably not there yet where the Kings are, but you can see a little bit. We are on the right path. We have a lot of young kids here. It’s a long process, but we’re definitely on the right track with the Kings and the Reign.”
ON HELPING CAL PETERSEN AFTER HE WAS SENT TO ONTARIO
“He’s an NHL goaltender, and you can see it here. It’s confidence. I think that’s why he’s here now. Rob Blake and the organization thought he has to come here and get his confidence back in play, because he kind of lost it this year. He had some really tough bounces, tough games. Now we try to build him up again.
“He’s practicing really good. He’s having a lot of fun. I know that. I’ve experienced that with him. He’s a very professional, very polite person. We’re very happy to have him, and we try to help him. That’s what good teams and good teammates do, and us as coaches as well. We try to get him back on track here, playing good in front of him and also keeping him sharp, so when he gets called up again that he is going to be back where he can be.”
ON HELPING FELLOW NHL FIRST-ROUND PICKS LIAS ANDERSSON AND ALEX TURCOTTE
“I think Lias is a guy who really needs to be comfortable. He needs to feel like you want him on your side, on your team.
“It’s not easy for every young kid with the Kings going up. He’s a guy who needs a little bit of freedom. He struggled in the last few years. Lately, you can see he’s having a lot of fun. He’s still very confident. When he plays like that, I think he might get another chance, and then I really think that it’s going to look different.
“[Turcotte has] been through some really tough times. Because he went a different path, you have to be patient, too. And he has to be patient. We want him to be healthy first. And then we want him to be the best he can be, but sometimes it takes time. He thought he’s going to be the same player like it was in the past, and it’s not just going to happen [overnight].
“He’s a good kid. He works extremely hard. Now we have to guide him to the right track, and it’s a slow process.
ON JORDAN SPENCE
“He’s an NHL defenseman already. I don’t really see any much better defenseman in this league when he is on top of his game. Even for his size (5-10, 170 pounds), he plays really strong. He’s strong on his feet. He makes good plays, good reads, and he can shoot the puck, so he has a little bit of everything.
“I think when he got called up he played really solid. We have a lot of defensemen right now in our organization, so the goal for him [is] lots of ice with us, and that’s what he gets. He gets 24 to 28 minutes a night so that’s really good for him, and that’s what we’ve tried to do with his development.
“He is a guy we’re going to look forward to with the Kings, for sure.”
ON HAVING HIGH-END VETERANS LIKE T.J. TYNAN, CAMERON GAUNCE AND NATE THOMPSON
“That’s another thing I’ve learned in this league. You need those guys. You really do. Most of the teams are packed, especially with us, with so many young kids. Having those kinds of guys, it’s huge. It’s huge not just for the players, it’s also huge for the coaches as well.
“You need guys you can rely on and who control the room as well, and that’s what we have.”
ON HIS PLAYERS LEARNING DOWN THE STRETCH
“I’m trying to work on them playing the right way. Even when we had some good results [with a 7-1-0-0 start], I don’t know… I was not really sold on our game, because they didn’t really know how to also manage the game as well and play the right way. I thought there was a lot of hope in our game.
“Forget about wins and losses; I want to see us play the right way, like the way we want to play as an organization, as the Reign and the Kings.
“Slowly they get it. It took a little bit of time. Because of the system we have and the structure we have, it allows us to win hockey games. I think it’s so much better right now than two or three months ago. It takes time, but it’s fun working with them.”
Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and is currently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.