Tourigny clicks with Coyotes players after evolving as coach

The poster that sits on Andre Tourigny’s desk in his office in Arizona reads, “I learned so much from my mistakes, I plan to do a few more.”

It’s there to remind him. And to explain him.

Entering his third season as coach of the Arizona Coyotes, Tourigny has become an outside-the-box preseason pick for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in the NHL, a rising star coaching rising stars. But his path to get here, through 15 years of coaching junior hockey, interrupted by a three-year stint as an NHL assistant, has taught him to embrace his missteps, to examine them -- and to change.

Which, in the end, isn’t easy for anyone.

“You learn and you burn bridges and you break relationships and you learn from it,” he said last month. “Why did I do that? Did I do that for me, or did I do that for him? Often you realize you were trying to prove a point for yourself, so it’s about leaving your ego on the side.”

Tourigny, now 49, was hired by the Coyotes on July 1, 2021, replacing Rick Tocchet after they failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It was the eighth time in nine seasons that had happened, the exception being 2020.

And though the Coyotes still haven’t been back to the playoffs, they improved from 57 points in his first season to 70 in his second, finishing 28-40-14. They have signed free agents (defenseman Matt Dumba, forward Jason Zucker), brought in coveted draft picks like forward Logan Cooley (No. 3 in 2022 NHL Draft) and forward Dylan Guenther (No. 9 in 2021 NHL Draft), and shown more fight under Tourigny than they did previously.

They’re hoping for even more improvement this season under the new voice and new leadership they got when they turned to Tourigny, a coach who had long waited for this opportunity. And in that time, he had remade himself and remade himself again, from learning English from zero as a coach to remaking his relationships with players to recognizing that the methods he had grown up with were no longer going to work.

“I was a really old-school, hard coach,” said Tourigny, whose Coyotes open the regular season at the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 13. “I realized at some point there’s a difference between someone doing it for you or someone doing it for his teammates, for the team. And I think that is what you’re trying to build as a coach. You’re trying to build a feeling of belonging, a feeling of pride and a camaraderie in the team where they want to fight for each other.”

That pride has filtered in. One after another after another, the Coyotes players cited Tourigny as a crucial reason for their happiness in Arizona, for their desire to sign or re-sign with the team. Each of star forward Clayton Keller’s parents mentioned -- in separate conversations -- how happy he has been since Tourigny’s arrival.

“I pay them a lot of money to say that,” said Tourigny, who signed a three-year contract with the Coyotes on Aug. 23.

For Nick Bjugstad, who signed a two-year contract to return to Arizona this offseason as an unrestricted free agent after being sent to the Edmonton Oilers at the 2023 NHL Trade Deadline, he was the main selling point.

“‘Bear’ and the entire coaching staff was the big thing, how they coach and how they treat the players,” the 31-year-old forward said, using Tourigny’s nickname. “That’s an important thing for me: enjoyable work environment while at the same time you can get better and grow your game, even if you’re an older guy.”

They mention his patience, his ability and desire to teach, how hands-on he is. They mention the trust they have, the honesty he shows, the way he demands a lot but gives it right back.

“I think he can relate to every player,” Keller told the “NHL @TheRink” podcast in a recent episode. “I think everyone on my team will tell you that he’s honest. He’s going to tell you straightforward, he’s not going to go behind your back. He turns the page if he’s yelling at you one night, he sees you in the morning the next day, it’s like it never happened, ‘Hey let’s work on this.’

“He truly does care about the player and life away from the rink. I think everyone feels that, and we always say we play for the guys in the room, but I think we’re also playing for him and the coaching staff as well.”

But to get there, that took work.

Tourigny began his career in November 2002 when he was hired as coach by Rouyn-Noranda of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, a post he would hold for 11 seasons before becoming an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche (2013-15) and Ottawa Senators (2015-16). Pierre Cloutier, then-part owner of the team, saw the hunger in him, the want to be great.

“He was a tough coach, a demanding coach, but he was smart enough to adjust himself through the journey,” Cloutier said. “He always evolves. He was able to adapt to the new era.”

It was that open-mindedness, that desire to improve and to do better, that Cloutier noted.

“Like my parents did with me -- and they were great parents -- they were very demanding, they were tough on me,” Cloutier said. “But they showed me a lot of love. That’s what Andre was. And he was smart enough to understand what was better for the players, the message, how it has to be communicated.

“That’s the way he evolved.”

There was a moment that sticks with Tourigny 15 years later, one that seems to bother him even now. It was 2008, and Tourigny was blindsided by a player.

He asked for a trade.

“I had a really good player in junior who I was really hard on, but I treated him like he was my son,” Tourigny recalled. “I really liked him. At that moment for him in his career, he thought he needed a change. And I think that was a kicker for me. I was wondering, having that kind of relationship with him, why? Why did we arrive at that point?”

Rouyn-Noranda had just reached the QMJHL championship series as a favorite, losing to Gatineau.

Tourigny took time to reevaluate himself, his interactions with his charges, his manner.

“I think that started a process with myself saying, ‘Hey, why did you burn [a] bridge?’” he said. “’Why did I get there? How come that was possible?’ Because I think we were a good match. We had success together and all of it. I think that was a breaking point for me where it started a deep reflection on how I can adjust.”

Cloutier, too, recalled that same moment when he was asked about how Tourigny’s relationships with players have changed over the years. He praised Tourigny’s ability to reexamine his coaching, to go back over his methods and determine what was right and what was wrong and what he could have done to have avoided the situation.

“That’s part of his evolution today,” Cloutier said. “Those players are saying they want to come back because of him. That’s because Andre was smart enough to remember all of those little things that happened in the past and adjust himself on that side.”

The emotional, fiery Tourigny was encouraged to curb his anger when it flared, to wait for the next day, the next week, the next month, to wait for things to settle, to balance a firm manner of communication with love and comprehension, with purpose.

“As an emotional guy, sometimes you do things when you’re emotional and you have that kind of an edge, you cross some lines,” Tourigny said. “I learned from there. From there, you start to have success with that. From there, it’s easy. You buy into it.”

There has been a tension in coaching of late, a question of how far is too far, of where old school becomes problematic. It’s a lesson that Tourigny has learned and internalized.

“It’s important for the player to leave their ego at the door,” he said. “And it’s important for you as a coach to leave your ego at the door.”

It’s the way he hired an American assistant, Eric Soltys, in 2005-06 with Rouyn-Noranda when he finally came to realize that he needed to learn English to coach the way he wanted to, where he wanted to, to move up in the ranks. He let his players help tutor him, after not knowing a single word.

“Most (coaches), they don’t want to show vulnerability,” Cloutier said. “And that’s the difference with Andre. Andre is not afraid of showing a vulnerable side.”

It’s why Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong hired him. It’s why he gave him a new contract. It’s what he saw when he first spotted him as “a junior coach in the middle of nowhere,” as Armstrong put it.

“He had an effect on players,” Armstrong said. “They liked to play for him and they play hard for him, and that hasn’t changed. … He doesn’t cross the player, he makes them involved, and he gets them to buy in. That’s one of his strengths, and you can see that by the way that players have come back to play here.”

For him.

It’s a position he has worked so long to attain, so hard to achieve.

Now, in his third season with a team that is still far from a lock for the playoffs, he is asked what the task in front of him feels like.

“It feels urgent,” Tourigny said. “Make sure you don’t screw it up. Make sure you’re on your best behavior every day because you realize how hard it was. Sometimes we say that about guys who have been in the [American Hockey League] for quite a time and they have an opportunity. We sometimes think they play with a different urgency. I believe that.

“It’s the same thing for a coach. When you grind that long to have an opportunity, I think you appreciate every day and you make sure every day, you approach it like it’s Game 7.”