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Darryl Plandowski has a new job in hockey three days after winning the Stanley Cup as part of the Tampa Bay Lightning’s front office.
He’s the Arizona Coyotes’ new director of amateur scouting, and will start working with new general manager Bill Armstrong after he arrives in the valley on October 8.
That’s a day after the NHL Draft wraps up. Plandowski helped plan the Lightning’s draft strategy as assistant director of amateur scouting, so he cannot have a role in the Coyotes’ draft.
“Our first thing will be which leagues are even playing. We need a plan in place of who’s playing, when are leagues going to start to play, and that seems to even be a moving target,” Plandowski said from his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia Thursday. “For us, it’s to get structure and a plan in place to watch as many kids as we can.
“Any team that’s won in the last few years, they’ve developed a lot of their own guys,” he added. “I’m a big believer that you have to have your own guys. A lot teams cherish the guys that they’ve developed and are really talented, but are also really good human beings and rock-solid character guys.”
Plandowski spoke with Armstrong about the Coyotes’ job during the NHL playoffs, after the Lightning gave permission for those talks to take place. Plandowski said Armstrong — a former director of amateur scouting with the St. Louis Blues — outlined his plan for the Coyotes, and he liked what he heard.
The Coyotes figure to make a number of changes to their roster in what could be a rebuild under Armstrong.
“No doubt it’s going to be a challenge, but when I started with Tampa 12 years ago, it’s pretty much the same thing. They were changing things over, a new owner came in and there was lots of new pieces and everyone was trying to mesh,” Plandowski said. “But for me, I trusted Billy and I like Billy, so it was a situation I could come into where I already had a good relationship with the GM and a chance to keep developing and building.”
Plandowski had been a part of three teams earlier in his career that made it to the Stanley Cup Final, Buffalo in 1998, Pittsburgh in 2008 and Tampa Bay in 2015. But he’d never won one until this season, and with that goal accomplished he was looking for a new challenge.
In Plandowski’s first season with the Lightning, 2009, the team used its first round draft pick to select defenseman Victor Hedman, who went on to win this season’s Conn Smythe Trophy as the NHL playoffs most valuable player.
“As a scout, it’s fun to build things,” he said. “That was why winning the Cup was so important to me. I desperately wanted to have one of these Cups, and once I’d done I felt a lot better about myself and I can move on and start all over again.”
Plandowski said there’s more of an emphasis around the NHL on building a quality roster through the draft and development of homegrown players. Like Armstrong, he’s been a scout, and the two have operated in the same circles for years. Also like Armstrong, he helped build a championship-winning roster, Armstrong with the St. Louis Blues and Plandowski with the Lightning.
“We are very pleased to add another Stanley Cup Champion to our organization,” Armstrong said in a statement from the Coyotes. “Darryl is an excellent talent evaluator and his fingerprints are all over the Tampa Bay Lightning roster. We are thrilled to have him lead our amateur scouting department.”
Get in touch with Jose Romero at [email protected]. Find him on Twitter at @RomeroJoseM.
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