Catching up with Coyotes coach André Tourigny

Here’s what André Tourigny has been up to since the Coyotes held their break-up day at Gila River Arena on April 30. 

He flew to Finland in early May for Team Canada’s training camp in preparation for the IIHF World Championship in Helsinki and Tampere from May 13-29. He served as Canada’s assistant coach on a team that took home the silver medal after an overtime loss to the host Finns in the gold medal game.

When the tournament concluded, he flew home to spend some time with his family and friends in Ottawa, but that time also included studying a lot of playoff hockey to gain a sense of league-wide trends and individual teams’ systems. He has also attended “a lot of conferences to see new trends and learn new stuff,” and he has compiled a list of candidates to fill the vacant assistant coaching position created by the departure of Phil Housley.

In a couple of weeks, Tourigny will head to Montréal for the NHL Draft (July 7-8), and then back to Arizona for Coyotes development camp, which will immediately follow the draft. When that concludes, Tourigny will finally enjoy what most of us consider real downtime.

I caught up with the Coyotes coach this week for a quick Q&A on a variety of topics.

When looking for an assistant coach, are you looking to fill a specific duty such as coaching the defense, or are you looking for more versatility?

I think we’re looking for a quality coach first. Mario (Duhamel) can run the D. Stiller (Cory Stillman) can run the power play so we’re not thinking we absolutely need to fill a certain role. We can go in a lot of different directions. That’s a good position to be. We’re just trying to find the best guy and from there, we’ll try to put everybody in the best role they can have inside our staff.

Does having an existing relationship with your next hire matter?

Yes and no. It cannot be the number one criterion. We need someone who will make us better. That’s the way I see it and I did it in the past at every level. I’m looking for someone who will bring something to our staff that will push us to the next level. I’m not looking for someone with experience. I’m not looking for someone without experience. I’m not looking for an offensive guy or a defensive guy or a technical guy or a guy who is more relationship based. We don’t have set criteria like that. We’re looking for the best fit and the best coach for our staff. With Mario and Stiller and Hunter (Cherni) and Schwaby (Corey Schwab), we have former players, we have career coaches, we have guys who have a good relationship with the players and bring a lot of enthusiasm. We have good Xs and Os guys, so we have a little bit of everything. We are looking at the next coach to be the best possible coach. That’s it.

Do you have a timeframe for filling that spot?

No, but by the development camp it would be great to have our full staff.

Nobody was certain about the futures of Stillman and Schwab when you took over. What made you want to continue to work with those guys?

I will start with Schwaby. He’s a really smart guy. He has a good feel for the room. Often I would ask Schwaby what the guys were thinking and he was always bang on. He knows exactly what’s going on in the room. He has a really good feel of how the guys will see certain situations or how they will feel through adversity or through good moments. Plus, he is really good with the goalies. But again, between games or between periods, I can ask Schwabby what he’s feeling, what he sees and he thinks the players will feel. He’s really good at that.

With Stiller, he is a former player, he has a good feel as well for the room, a good feel for the energy of the players. He’s an offensive-minded guy and he has an old-school mentality where he can relate to the grind and the toughness that the players have to have. He can have a really solid conversation with the players and have those tough discussions. At the same time, he can understand the players so he brings a good perspective while making sure certain things that have to happen do happen. 

There’s this external narrative that Schwab at times overworked goalie Karel Vejmelka in an era where load management is a goaltending buzz phrase. What is the internal perspective on this?

First of all, it’s not on Swaby. I’m the guy who makes the last decision. It’s tough for me to talk about the past but this year, when you look at what we were given, we did not know Veggie so if you say we played Veggie too much or we wore him down, how could you know what we don’t know? Veggie had no background in North America. He never played in the AHL or junior or anywhere where we could have background on him and know exactly how he would react. It was trial and error and we went from there. We needed to learn what he could handle.

There’s responsibility on the player as well to care for themselves and communicate, but I think if you look at the way we used them when we had Wedgie (Scott Wedgewood) and Veggie together, I think it was a perfect mix. Both goalies were on top of their game and when one goalie had a little slump, the other guy was fresh enough to be able to take charge and carry the load for a little while; give his partner time to get back on track. I really liked the way Schwaby managed the guys this year when we had two solid goalies. When at some point we had injuries and we did not have the same depth on the goalie front, it’s always tough to manage the situation. We’re not an easy team to play for in the sense that the load every game was heavy. Sometimes it can be tough for our goalies energy wise, but I’m not throwing Schwaby under the bus for that one. It’s my decision at the end of the day, and we need to have the personnel to be able to make sure we manage the load the right way.

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I wanted to ask you about a few players. What’s the next step for Clayton Keller, who had a breakout season in 2021-22?

Leadership and consistency. Doing it once is great to show you can do it. Doing it every day and every year is challenging for everybody in the NHL, not just for Clayton Keller. If you look at HockeyDB on every player, you will see that seasons are not always the same so he will have adversity again this year. I will say this, and I said it before. It took a long, long time before the opponents started to match (up with) Kells. Early in the season, before Christmas, and all of that first half of the season, they were just playing their own game. They were not hard on Kells. That time is over. Every night he will play against the best every time we’re on the road. He will have the first (defensive) pairing in his face every night. He will have the best center playing against him every night. That will be an adjustment for him and it’s something I’m sure he will embrace. He’s so competitive so it’s something he will look at as a challenge and he will be ready for it.

Is the answer much different for Lawson Crouse and Nick Schmaltz?

No, I think Crouser knows exactly what he has to do, and I think he knows we trust him. He knows where he stands with the team and he knows he’s a big part of it. Before he was trying to establish himself. I have no doubt we will get the same effort. Production is always tough to predict. Sometimes the puck goes in and sometimes it doesn’t. For me, it’s not just about production. It’s about the way you will play, the way you will take leadership on the team. I’m sure he will have a great season.

I still think there’s room for Nick Schmaltz. There’s untapped potential still there. If you look at last season, it was not all sunshine and rainbows. He had some peaks and valleys. I think we still need to keep growing together. I still need to work with him to make sure he’s consistent and he brings the high level he can bring every night.

How about Barrett Hayton?

He’s still a young guy. We talk about untapped potential. Well, he’s just beginning. I think last year he established himself as an NHL player. Now he needs to keep growing his game offensively, keep getting consistency defensively, keep working and getting faster or working on his skill. There’s a lot of room for Barrett to keep growing his game and I think he has the right attitude. He’s a guy who works really hard and is demanding of himself. He never takes a day off. He’s always balls out. He will keep growing and there’s room for improvement for him.

We don’t know what’s going to happen at the draft other than this: GM Bill Armstrong isn’t going to budge off of his asking price for Jakob Chychrun. I’m sure you saw the very candid remarks from Chychrun about his situation after the season. If Bill does not trade him, is there a path forward with Jakob? Can that relationship be mended?

I’m sure it can be because of the relationship between the coaches and Chych. I don’t see any problems there. I talked to Chych. In the exit meeting, I didn’t want to start by talking about the season. It was a lot for the young man and it did not go the way he wanted. I understand that. But if we have to work together again — and as a coach, I hope we will have that opportunity; if not I totally understand and I’m on board with what’s next — we’ll sit together and we’ll talk. Chych is a good guy. He’s a worker. He’s a guy who’s in good shape. He wants to be the best. He wants to be a number one D and I’m sure the mindset will be totally different. I have no doubt it will click if we have to work together again.

After development camp, what are your plans?

I will go back home and have some holiday. I’m planning a trip with my family.

Now that you’ve gotten a feel for the NHL grind, are you cherishing this family time all the more?

I like to do hockey. I like my job. For me, it’s not a sacrifice. It’s always good to have down time to be with the family, to see friends, go fishing a little bit, ride the bike. Those kinds of things are great, but it’s not like I’m looking at the season and saying, ‘Oh, my God, here we go. We’ll have to get back at it.’ I’m eager to get back at it. I’m excited. I’m looking at what’s next. I’m looking forward to the draft to see what will be new and what Billy has in store for us in free agency. I’m looking forward to getting the best out of the team. I’m excited about it. I’m looking forward to that.

We know Bill’s perspective on the NHL Draft and we know the scouts are viewing this as Christmas because they have seven picks in the top 45. What is your perspective on the draft?

I just want the scouts to be happy. If they’re happy, that means they are bringing the players they like so it will also be Christmas for the coach when training camp starts. Make sure Santa is good with the scouts so Santa can be good with the coaches. I started as a scout so I know how they feel. I know what this is. It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of work for two days, but those guys are the best and I’m super pumped to see them work and just to see what will happen. And Billy as well. As a scout, he has a lot of input in what we’re doing. I think we’re in really good shape with the number of picks and with the personnel we have in charge of it. I’m looking forward to it. It’s exciting.

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