Mitch Calvert
Life in professional hockey, whether on the sidelines or on the ice, can be a scary and often insecure existence.
But Dave Allison wouldn’t have it any other way.
After the Dallas Stars ended its affiliation with their American Hockey League farm team, the Iowa Stars (the team Allison had coached for three seasons) this past spring, the Fort Frances native immediately began looking for work elsewhere—and landed a job as player development co-ordinator for the Colorado Avalanche.
“I called some people in regards to doing some scouting, and was very fortunate that Francois Giguere [current Avalanche general manager], who was the assistant general manager in Dallas when I was there for a time, said they were looking for somebody to fulfill this role and after talking to them more, it was something that sounded pretty neat,” Allison remarked.
“I’m very fortunate Francois was thinking about me in terms of this and it’s worked out very well so far.”
The position of player development co-ordinator has been a by-product of the salary cap era in the National Hockey League, with more and more teams throughout the league creating similar positions to foster young prospects.
The Avalanche, once a team capable of going out every summer and signing marquee free agents, no longer has that luxury and instead must bring players through their system.
“It’s one-on-one, it’s helping a kid without him thinking that you want something from him,” Allison, 49, said of his new role. “All I want is for him to understand the balance between his talent and what the coaches are asking him to do.
“A lot of times kids think that the coaches are against them, but they aren’t,” he stressed. “We’re very fortunate [in Colorado] that we have our kids with a lot of great coaches to help them along.”
Allison doesn’t scout potential picks, but rather travels across North America to watch Avalanche prospects who already are in the system and still developing in the junior or college ranks.
“I’m on my way to Toronto right now,” Allison noted. “We have a goalie, Trevor Cann [Peterborough Petes], and a defenceman, [Cameron] Gaunce, who was our first pick [last year], playing for Mississauga, so I’m going to watch them play.
“I build a relationship with their coach, taking the lead really from Craig Billington [vice-president of hockey operations], who put this all together for Colorado, and then talk to the kid and just try to mentor him through some of the pitfalls and get him ready to play pro hockey.
“There’s a huge difference between junior and college to pro hockey, and we just try to expedite that process so they can make the adjustment,” Allison explained.
Just the weekend prior, Allison was in Quebec to watch prospects Kelsey Tessier and Joel Chouinard in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and he plans to head to Boston this weekend. Despite the travel, he said the time away from his family is still less than what was required as head coach of the Iowa Stars.
“I’m only gone on the weekends, and when you coach you are basically gone all the time because you are wrapped up in 24 guys and it’s 24/7, and you’ve got 80-some games,” said Allison, who had a brief stint as head coach of the Ottawa Senators before returning home to coach the now defunct Borderland Thunder, winning an SIJHL championship in 2002-03.
He then had two winning seasons with the Stars before finishing with a 35-37-0-8 record last season.
“I’ve got three kids, and we’ve enjoyed Des Moines, so this way we can stay in Des Moines and I still can work.”
Despite what looks like an obvious need in goal on the big club with Peter Budaj and Andrew Raycroft currently between the pipes, Allison said his job isn’t to hurry players along or focus on specific positions over others.
“It’s just about the person and if he’s got any issues, then we deal with them,” Allison noted.
“It’s kind of that gray area from when we draft them to when they get to the NHL,” he explained. “It’s not easy to play pro hockey, not easy to play in the NHL, but at the end of the day as an organization, we want to say we’ve given you all these tools and it’s up to the individual to take advantage of them.
“It’s not the end-all, be-all to play in the NHL, but we just want to make sure we exhaust every avenue so that these kids can make the right choices and succeed,” he stressed.
With 20 years of coaching experience under his belt, once certainly can sense the itch is still there to get behind the bench again down the road. But Allison is cherishing his new role and putting everything he has into it.
“I think [getting back into coaching] will take care of itself,” Allison said. “What I’m focusing on now is just doing the best job I can do here, and I think there are a lot of positives to this job.
“I think there will be a lot of growth within this job and organization, but at the end of the day I’m very fortunate to be working in hockey and doing something I really enjoy,” he enthused.
