Dual Characters Nothing New to Crunch’s Bouchard | theahl.com

Patrick Williamstheahl.com writer

Joel Bouchard Of course, I’ve been busy for a long time after playing 15 seasons of professional hockey.

Bouchard, 51, serves as team president, vice president of hockey operations, general manager, head coach, assistant coach and broadcaster. He worked on ownership and owned his own hockey academy in business in the sport.

So what about another job? Tampa Bay Lightning believes Bouchard, who led Syracuse Crunch as head coach over the past two seasons, is ready to take on more responsibilities. They named him Monday the new general manager of Syracuse, which will be used in conjunction with coaches.

Balanced dual roles is not new to Bouchard. After his game career ended, he taught for three seasons as an assistant to a junior in the QMJHL Montreal after he featured 364 NHL games. He then entered management in 2011 to help the franchise relocate and become Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. In 2014, he became head coach of Blainville-Boisbriand, who held four seasons. Along the way, he served as General Manager of Canadian Hockey, a position that won a silver medal at the 2017 IIHF World Youth Championship and a gold medal the following year.

Even after serving as head coach of nearby Laval Rocket in 2018, he still maintained management with Blainville-Boisbriand for three seasons. He went to the San Diego Seagulls for a season in 2021, returned to the fleet next season in management, and then worked in Syracuse in June 2023.

Bouchard knows how to stay busy. With this mindset, past experience and resources provided by Tampa Bay and Syracuse, he said he is adding to the increase in workload.

He will increase the help of lightning and they also appoint Jeff Tambellini As the organization’s new assistant general manager/director of hockey operations. Tambellini scored on his AHL game day and he just served as Director of Player Development for three seasons with Seattle Kraken. But the 41-year-old — a Lightning Scout two seasons before heading to Seattle — returned to a familiar organization with someone he knew in Busard. The two were teammates of the New York Islanders in 2005-06, Busard shrank his career, while Tambellini was a rookie in the trade with Los Angeles.

Tambellini will be an assistant GM in Syracuse, and in addition to his workload of The Lightning, he can also make Bouchard a dual role. Bouchard also has a long-term relationship with Lightning GM Julien Brisebois and the director of the player Jamie Pushorhe has a strong and experienced Syracuse employee on the local front.

“It’s familiar, so we think of communication and the way it is. It’s just the help left, right and center. And I do agree that there’s some workload with some workload, which should be, but I think we lack support. We have good crews everywhere. Everyone can work together. We can do it.”

Bouchard tells the story of meeting Tambellini at the 2024 NHL Draft in Las Vegas. The two eventually chatted and caught up for more than an hour, reaffirming Bushad’s impression from nearly two decades ago.

“He’s a smart guy,” Bushad said. “You can know from a young age that he is very mature, very dedicated, a hard-working guy who is committed to the process. I don’t think he will be great in hockey in every position. I’m glad he’s on board because he’ll be right for him.”

Just like every summer, this crisis brings change. Assistant coach JD Forrest and AJ MacLean Returning and goalkeeper coach Maxime Vaillancourt and video coach Jack Wheeler. But on the roster, the organization has made several signings to help replenish the locker room in Syracuse, which has been retired Gabriel Dumont And leave Tobie Bisson,,,,, Logan Brown,,,,, Derrick Pouliot and Matt Tomkins As a free agent.

In all these movements, the next step for Bouchard and Tambellini will be to break down their respective responsibilities.

“We’re going to list them very clearly,” Busard said. “I don’t like the grey area. I don’t like things that fall in the cracks. We’re going to find the rhythm soon.

“The most important thing is how we help each other to be the best version of austerity we can be.”

During the fifty years in the American Hockey League, Theahl.com writer Patrick Williams currently covers NHL.com and Flosports leagues and is a regular contributor to Siriusxm NHL New Network Radio. He won the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding league coverage in 2016.