Todd Nelson, the first player ever signed by the Griffins, wants to build a culture that encourages players to put the team ahead of individual accomplishments.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

Todd Nelson had officially been named the 10th head coach in Griffins history for less than two hours this summer when he was asked if there was any slogan he planned to endorse in the Grand Rapids locker room when he returned this fall.

“We Not Me,” he said almost reflexively, reacting as though he were poke-checking the question like the seasoned defensemen he once was. “It’s simple but it says it all in terms of team philosophy.”

As the first-ever player signed by the Griffins before the team’s inaugural 1996-97 season, Nelson was a consummate team guy, a blue-collar defenseman who was dedicated, disciplined and dependable. He was the ultimate “D” man.

Indeed, many felt that Nelson, having distinguished himself as one of the game’s top young coaches, was the perfect choice to succeed Jeff Blashill, who replaced Mike Babcock as the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings after serving three years at the helm of the Griffins.

“I know I have big shoes to fill in following Jeff, but I’m very confident going forward,” Nelson said. “I’m here to do a great job for the organization. I want to piggyback on the great job that Jeff did in Grand Rapids.”

Nelson is ready to embrace the challenge, excited that he is getting not only an opportunity with a new organization but also joining a talent-rich organization that has reached the Stanley Cup playoffs every season since 1990-91.

“When you look at organizations in the National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings represent the gold standard,” Nelson said. “I like the way they do things, their philosophy in terms of earning the right to play. Much of what they do falls in line with the things that I believe.

“When they contacted me to be the head coach in Grand Rapids, I jumped at the opportunity. It just seemed like a really good fit.”

Ironically, Nelson had hoped to be in a situation similar to Blashill this fall, looking forward to coaching his first full season in the NHL.

After five successful seasons in Oklahoma City, Nelson became the interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers last December, replacing the fired Dallas Eakins. By all accounts, the young Edmonton team showed marked improvement under Nelson’s direction, and it looked likely that he would lose the interim tag.

That is until the Oilers hired Peter Chiarelli as their new president of hockey operations and general manager, replacing Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish, in late April.

Chiarelli, whose nine-year tenure in Boston included a Stanley Cup in 2011 and another finals appearance in 2013, decided he wanted a different Todd – former Red Wings assistant Todd McLellan, who had been the head coach of the San Jose Sharks the past seven seasons.

“Things were looking pretty good for me in terms of staying on as the head coach,” Nelson said. “But a new general manager usually wants to put his stamp on the organization, so he went ahead and hired McLellan as the new head coach.”

To say that Nelson was disappointed would be putting it mildly. He had joined the Oilers organization in 2010 when the club moved its AHL affiliate from Springfield to Oklahoma City, following back-to-back seasons in which the team had finished dead last in the league.

In his four full seasons in Oklahoma, Nelson built winning teams that topped the 90-point mark and qualified for the playoffs each year. The Barons twice reached the conference finals, most notably in 2013 when Nelson’s team was eliminated in seven games by the eventual Calder Cup champion Griffins.

Nelson interviewed with McLellan regarding the possibility of joining his coaching staff but ultimately decided to seek a new opportunity elsewhere.

“From a professional point of view, I wasn’t sure which direction I should go – I felt like I was on an island by myself,” Nelson said. “I discussed options with Todd and we had a great conversation. I thought about it really hard for a couple of days. It was a very tough decision. In the end, it came down to the fact that I wanted to stay a head coach.”

Nelson received permission from the Oilers to talk to other teams, and after having talks with the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins about leading their AHL affiliates in Charlotte and Wilkes-Barre, respectively, he accepted the Red Wings’ offer.

“The situation in Grand Rapids really intrigued me because of my ties here,” he said. “I have a lot of fond memories of playing here. Needless to say, I’m very excited, and very hungry to re-establish myself at this level with a new organization.”

Nelson doesn’t expect that he will need to alter his coaching style, which relies on creating a winning atmosphere that is built on a culture of camaraderie and cohesiveness.

“When I went up to Edmonton, people asked me if I was going to change and I said I was going to coach the same way that I always have coached,” he said. “I’m going to provide a good atmosphere for the players to come to work every day and encourage a positive, upbeat attitude.

“For me, the biggest thing is just being myself. Because when you speak from the heart, you speak the truth.”

Like Blashill, Nelson is considered a players’ coach, a teacher who is tough but fair and honest at all times, a mentor with an open door policy, a bench boss who is just as interested in the player as a person as he is in the player as an athlete.

“Everywhere I go, I try to build a family atmosphere,” he said. “This is their family away from home. The way I look at it, coaching is part parenting and part teaching. You’re trying to educate your players on what they need to do to make it to the next level, but you’re also trying to provide a sense of comfort and that discipline that a parent gives their child. With every team I’ve coached, I’ve treated every player as if they were my own.”

During the course of a season, there are always hard decisions to be made, but tough love is part of parenting. “Those are the bad days when you have to cut someone or send someone down or trade somebody who’s been part of your family,” he said.

“On the other side, there’s no better gratification for a coach at the AHL level than getting that phone call from the parent club because they want to call up somebody and then you see the smile on the kid’s face before their first NHL game. That’s the greatest thing.”

He confessed that he never really thought about coaching until 2001-02, his final season as a player. Danton Cole became the head coach of the Muskegon Fury after two years as an assistant coach in Grand Rapids (under Guy Charron and Bruce Cassidy) and Cole convinced both Nelson and Bruce Ramsay to become player-assistants.

Nelson drew on the men he had as coaches, most notably, Barry Trotz, the longtime Nashville Predators head coach and current Washington Capitals coach, who led the Portland Pirates to the 1994 Calder Cup (besides Nelson, the team included Todd’s brother Jeff and future Griffins all-time leading scorer Michel Picard).

Not only was Trotz an innovator with video, a nascent technology two decades ago, but Nelson said Trotz also made good use of interpersonal skills that were often untapped by some of the game’s greatest coaches.

“Barry provided a culture that was conducive to success,” Nelson said. “He was a good communicator. He wasn’t just a coach, he was our friend. You could talk to him about situations; whether it was hockey or personal life, it didn’t matter. He showed that he cared. He built a culture and a strong family atmosphere.”

Nelson returned to Grand Rapids as a full-time assistant coach when Cole was named the head coach of the Griffins for the 2002-03 season. “Danton helped groom me as a coach,” Nelson said. “He came from an organization (New Jersey) that was really structured, and he was very organized and very detail-oriented, qualities that helped train me as a coach.”

One year later, Nelson was back in Muskegon, where he took his first head coaching job, leading the Fury to back-to-back United Hockey League championships in 2004 and 2005. “Muskegon was a great place to learn because at that level, you’re doing everything,” Nelson said. “You’re also the general manager – you’re handling all the logistics, from the salary cap to housing.

“It’s a great training ground for a young coach because you get to build your own team. Winning back-to-back championships is very difficult in this day and age, but I was fortunate to get good players who wanted to come there and play for me. We had three great years.”

Nelson’s success in Muskegon led to an offer to join the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where he served as an assistant coach under John Anderson for two seasons. Winning the Calder Cup in 2008 earned the pair a promotion to the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers.

“John Anderson was very creative offensively,” Nelson said. “I learned that it was OK to deviate from your plan as long as you have buy-in from the players. If you have their trust and respect, it doesn’t matter what you want to do tactically, they will follow you.”

Anderson and his staff were eventually relieved of their duties in Atlanta after the 2009-10 season, which opened up the opportunity for Nelson to take the job in Oklahoma City and become a head coach at the AHL level.

Coaching the talent-laden Barons fortified Nelson’s belief that coaching breaks down into two categories: arts and science. The latter covers tactics and systems of play – the proverbial X’s and O’s – while the former deals more with the mental aspects of the game.

“What you see today is that the arts portion is more important than ever,” Nelson said. ”As a coach, you want to create an atmosphere where players do what they are asked to do. You’ve got to get people to believe in themselves and in the group. If they are selfless, if they care more for each other than they do themselves, you’ll be successful.”

It’s that close-knit environment that Nelson will do his best to foster in Grand Rapids. “Team-building, for me, is not going out to play laser tag. Anybody can do that. It’s about creating a culture that is conducive to success.”

One event that Nelson does embrace is a team pig roast, a tradition from his playing days. “It’s important for the guys to get away from the rink and get to know each other,” he said. “I think guys care more about their teammates when they know more about each other.”

Coming into the Red Wings organization, Nelson feels like half of the battle has already been won since the club seems to truly understand the process of player development.

“Everybody loves a winner and Detroit obviously has been very good at it by building a really good track record of playoff hockey,” Nelson said. “We want players to develop in a winning atmosphere.”

Helping Nelson guide the Red Wings’ top prospects this season as assistant coaches will be a pair of fellow former Griffins: Ramsay, who played in Grand Rapids from 1996-99, and Ben Simon, who was a member of the 2006-07 team.

Nelson contends he will do everything in his power to make sure that the Griffins’ 20th anniversary season is one of their best. “Being part of a winning team provides the opportunity to go on to bigger and better things,” he said. “I’m here to do a great job for the organization.”

Todd Nelson, the first player ever signed by the Griffins, wants to build a culture that encourages players to put the team ahead of individual accomplishments.

Story and photo by Mark Newman

Todd Nelson had officially been named the 10th head coach in Griffins history for less than two hours this summer when he was asked if there was any slogan he planned to endorse in the Grand Rapids locker room when he returned this fall.

“We Not Me,” he said almost reflexively, reacting as though he were poke-checking the question like the seasoned defensemen he once was. “It’s simple but it says it all in terms of team philosophy.”

As the first-ever player signed by the Griffins before the team’s inaugural 1996-97 season, Nelson was a consummate team guy, a blue-collar defenseman who was dedicated, disciplined and dependable. He was the ultimate “D” man.

Indeed, many felt that Nelson, having distinguished himself as one of the game’s top young coaches, was the perfect choice to succeed Jeff Blashill, who replaced Mike Babcock as the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings after serving three years at the helm of the Griffins.

“I know I have big shoes to fill in following Jeff, but I’m very confident going forward,” Nelson said. “I’m here to do a great job for the organization. I want to piggyback on the great job that Jeff did in Grand Rapids.”

Nelson is ready to embrace the challenge, excited that he is getting not only an opportunity with a new organization but also joining a talent-rich organization that has reached the Stanley Cup playoffs every season since 1990-91.

“When you look at organizations in the National Hockey League, the Detroit Red Wings represent the gold standard,” Nelson said. “I like the way they do things, their philosophy in terms of earning the right to play. Much of what they do falls in line with the things that I believe.

“When they contacted me to be the head coach in Grand Rapids, I jumped at the opportunity. It just seemed like a really good fit.”

Ironically, Nelson had hoped to be in a situation similar to Blashill this fall, looking forward to coaching his first full season in the NHL.

After five successful seasons in Oklahoma City, Nelson became the interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers last December, replacing the fired Dallas Eakins. By all accounts, the young Edmonton team showed marked improvement under Nelson’s direction, and it looked likely that he would lose the interim tag.

That is until the Oilers hired Peter Chiarelli as their new president of hockey operations and general manager, replacing Kevin Lowe and Craig MacTavish, in late April.

Chiarelli, whose nine-year tenure in Boston included a Stanley Cup in 2011 and another finals appearance in 2013, decided he wanted a different Todd – former Red Wings assistant Todd McLellan, who had been the head coach of the San Jose Sharks the past seven seasons.

“Things were looking pretty good for me in terms of staying on as the head coach,” Nelson said. “But a new general manager usually wants to put his stamp on the organization, so he went ahead and hired McLellan as the new head coach.”

To say that Nelson was disappointed would be putting it mildly. He had joined the Oilers organization in 2010 when the club moved its AHL affiliate from Springfield to Oklahoma City, following back-to-back seasons in which the team had finished dead last in the league.

In his four full seasons in Oklahoma, Nelson built winning teams that topped the 90-point mark and qualified for the playoffs each year. The Barons twice reached the conference finals, most notably in 2013 when Nelson’s team was eliminated in seven games by the eventual Calder Cup champion Griffins.

Nelson interviewed with McLellan regarding the possibility of joining his coaching staff but ultimately decided to seek a new opportunity elsewhere.

“From a professional point of view, I wasn’t sure which direction I should go – I felt like I was on an island by myself,” Nelson said. “I discussed options with Todd and we had a great conversation. I thought about it really hard for a couple of days. It was a very tough decision. In the end, it came down to the fact that I wanted to stay a head coach.”

Nelson received permission from the Oilers to talk to other teams, and after having talks with the Carolina Hurricanes and Pittsburgh Penguins about leading their AHL affiliates in Charlotte and Wilkes-Barre, respectively, he accepted the Red Wings’ offer.

“The situation in Grand Rapids really intrigued me because of my ties here,” he said. “I have a lot of fond memories of playing here. Needless to say, I’m very excited, and very hungry to re-establish myself at this level with a new organization.”

Nelson doesn’t expect that he will need to alter his coaching style, which relies on creating a winning atmosphere that is built on a culture of camaraderie and cohesiveness.

“When I went up to Edmonton, people asked me if I was going to change and I said I was going to coach the same way that I always have coached,” he said. “I’m going to provide a good atmosphere for the players to come to work every day and encourage a positive, upbeat attitude.

“For me, the biggest thing is just being myself. Because when you speak from the heart, you speak the truth.”

Like Blashill, Nelson is considered a players’ coach, a teacher who is tough but fair and honest at all times, a mentor with an open door policy, a bench boss who is just as interested in the player as a person as he is in the player as an athlete.

“Everywhere I go, I try to build a family atmosphere,” he said. “This is their family away from home. The way I look at it, coaching is part parenting and part teaching. You’re trying to educate your players on what they need to do to make it to the next level, but you’re also trying to provide a sense of comfort and that discipline that a parent gives their child. With every team I’ve coached, I’ve treated every player as if they were my own.”

During the course of a season, there are always hard decisions to be made, but tough love is part of parenting. “Those are the bad days when you have to cut someone or send someone down or trade somebody who’s been part of your family,” he said.

“On the other side, there’s no better gratification for a coach at the AHL level than getting that phone call from the parent club because they want to call up somebody and then you see the smile on the kid’s face before their first NHL game. That’s the greatest thing.”

He confessed that he never really thought about coaching until 2001-02, his final season as a player. Danton Cole became the head coach of the Muskegon Fury after two years as an assistant coach in Grand Rapids (under Guy Charron and Bruce Cassidy) and Cole convinced both Nelson and Bruce Ramsay to become player-assistants.

Nelson drew on the men he had as coaches, most notably, Barry Trotz, the longtime Nashville Predators head coach and current Washington Capitals coach, who led the Portland Pirates to the 1994 Calder Cup (besides Nelson, the team included Todd’s brother Jeff and future Griffins all-time leading scorer Michel Picard).

Not only was Trotz an innovator with video, a nascent technology two decades ago, but Nelson said Trotz also made good use of interpersonal skills that were often untapped by some of the game’s greatest coaches.

“Barry provided a culture that was conducive to success,” Nelson said. “He was a good communicator. He wasn’t just a coach, he was our friend. You could talk to him about situations; whether it was hockey or personal life, it didn’t matter. He showed that he cared. He built a culture and a strong family atmosphere.”

Nelson returned to Grand Rapids as a full-time assistant coach when Cole was named the head coach of the Griffins for the 2002-03 season. “Danton helped groom me as a coach,” Nelson said. “He came from an organization (New Jersey) that was really structured, and he was very organized and very detail-oriented, qualities that helped train me as a coach.”

One year later, Nelson was back in Muskegon, where he took his first head coaching job, leading the Fury to back-to-back United Hockey League championships in 2004 and 2005. “Muskegon was a great place to learn because at that level, you’re doing everything,” Nelson said. “You’re also the general manager – you’re handling all the logistics, from the salary cap to housing.

“It’s a great training ground for a young coach because you get to build your own team. Winning back-to-back championships is very difficult in this day and age, but I was fortunate to get good players who wanted to come there and play for me. We had three great years.”

Nelson’s success in Muskegon led to an offer to join the AHL’s Chicago Wolves, where he served as an assistant coach under John Anderson for two seasons. Winning the Calder Cup in 2008 earned the pair a promotion to the NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers.

“John Anderson was very creative offensively,” Nelson said. “I learned that it was OK to deviate from your plan as long as you have buy-in from the players. If you have their trust and respect, it doesn’t matter what you want to do tactically, they will follow you.”

Anderson and his staff were eventually relieved of their duties in Atlanta after the 2009-10 season, which opened up the opportunity for Nelson to take the job in Oklahoma City and become a head coach at the AHL level.

Coaching the talent-laden Barons fortified Nelson’s belief that coaching breaks down into two categories: arts and science. The latter covers tactics and systems of play – the proverbial X’s and O’s – while the former deals more with the mental aspects of the game.

“What you see today is that the arts portion is more important than ever,” Nelson said. ”As a coach, you want to create an atmosphere where players do what they are asked to do. You’ve got to get people to believe in themselves and in the group. If they are selfless, if they care more for each other than they do themselves, you’ll be successful.”

It’s that close-knit environment that Nelson will do his best to foster in Grand Rapids. “Team-building, for me, is not going out to play laser tag. Anybody can do that. It’s about creating a culture that is conducive to success.”

One event that Nelson does embrace is a team pig roast, a tradition from his playing days. “It’s important for the guys to get away from the rink and get to know each other,” he said. “I think guys care more about their teammates when they know more about each other.”

Coming into the Red Wings organization, Nelson feels like half of the battle has already been won since the club seems to truly understand the process of player development.

“Everybody loves a winner and Detroit obviously has been very good at it by building a really good track record of playoff hockey,” Nelson said. “We want players to develop in a winning atmosphere.”

Helping Nelson guide the Red Wings’ top prospects this season as assistant coaches will be a pair of fellow former Griffins: Ramsay, who played in Grand Rapids from 1996-99, and Ben Simon, who was a member of the 2006-07 team.

Nelson contends he will do everything in his power to make sure that the Griffins’ 20th anniversary season is one of their best. “Being part of a winning team provides the opportunity to go on to bigger and better things,” he said. “I’m here to do a great job for the organization.”