Coyotes' Nathaniel Brooks Settling into Coaching Role in Arizona's System

Nathaniel Brooks has faced countless obstacles throughout his hockey career, though the Coyotes' skills development coach said he's never looked at them as hurdles.
He instead uses them as learning opportunities, and as a result has become one of the most accomplished young coaches in the game.
Brooks, a Toronto-area native who
joined the Coyotes' development coaching staff
this past summer following 15 years of development work across all levels of hockey, has spent this season working with Arizona's prospects with the Tucson Roadrunners. The 36-year-old was most recently an associate coach with the Ryerson Rams men's hockey team (located in Toronto), and was the recipient of the Herb Ebisuzaki Coaching Award in 2019.

He participated in the Coyotes' coaching internship program alongside Daunte' Abercrombie - who joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as a Coaching Development Associate this past September - and said he's settled in well after earning the coaching gig back in July.
"It's awesome. Sometimes I have to pinch myself with where I am," Brooks said. "It's been an absolute privilege to become a contributor to the process that we're all trying to execute, so it's really exciting and I'm loving every minute of it."

Brooks has a stacked resume as a coach, and helped lead the Rams to their first-ever game in the University Cup Championship following a 15-7-0 season. He credited a number of individuals who have helped him climb through the coaching ranks in previous years, including former Ryerson University head coaches Graham Wise and Johnny Duco.
Wise hired Brooks in 2014, which gave him his first collegiate-level job, before Duco promoted him to associate coach following's Wise's retirement. That progression allowed him to leave his full-time job and dive head-first into coaching, and the rest is history.
Roadrunners head coach Steve Potvin said Brooks' commitment and unwavering dedication to his coaching ability sets him apart.
"When you make the choice to continue on well into your years where you're married, you have a wife, four kids, and you're still doing it. there's clearly passion there," Potvin said. "That's what he brings. He's got passion for the game, and because of his experience and knowledge he's been able to share that with us, and we're fortunate to have him."
Coyotes President and CEO Xavier A. Gutierrez said having Brooks in the first internship program was such a blessing that neither he, general manager Bill Armstrong, nor Coyotes head coach André Tourigny wanted him to leave upon its conclusion.
Ryerson's best-ever season that immediately followed confirmed what Arizona's brass already knew: They wanted Brooks within the organization permanently.
"If it wasn't for this program, we would not have met him, we would not have interacted with him, and we would not have had the opportunity to see how special and talented he is," Gutierrez said. "He worked incredibly hard, he took full advantage of the opportunity, and we are better for it.
"We as an organization are much better because Nathaniel Brooks is a part of everything that we stand for."
That very internship returned this past summer, in which Kelsey Koelzer and Kori Cheverie were the participants within the program. Brooks and Cheverie were already connected because she was an assistant coach with the Ryerson men's hockey team for five seasons from 2016-21, becoming the first female to be named a full-time assistant with a men's hockey program in U SPORTS history.
Gutierrez said the Coyotes plan to continue the internship program in the coming seasons, something that Brooks said would have had a lasting impact even had an NHL job not materialized.

"It validated some of the thoughts and processes that I had developed before the internship," he said. "I left there with a lot of new ideas and a lot of different thoughts and different ways to do things, and I left there feeling the best I ever felt as a coach."
That's not to say the road was easy, because it was anything but. Through hard work, dedication, and a commitment to always being open to new ideas, Brooks said he's striving to improve as a coach every day.
Much like the prospects he's in charge of developing, the young coach is also seeking to continually evolve. He continues to consult with mentor Steve Spott, who's currently an assistant coach with the Dallas Stars, by spending summers with him reviewing different coaching tactics.
Spott is in his ninth season as an NHL assistant coach, in which he's spent with the Toronto Maple Leafs, San Jose Sharks, Vegas Golden Knights, and Stars.
"He's been really instrumental in my climb to the NHL," Brooks said. "He gives me good advice, and he's obviously well versed in the league - he's been in it for a long time."
Tourigny said Brooks has the tools, and the mindset, to have a long, successful career in the league.
"He's fun to be around, he's enthusiastic, and he wants to learn," Tourigny said. "He's really positive in his approach."
Brooks said his ultimate goal is to become a head coach in the NHL, but knows it will take time, commitment, and dedication to get there. He stressed that just because that is his ultimate end-goal, his priorities have never been more prevalent - starting with developing the young talent within the Coyotes' organization.

As Arizona continues to progress and develop the latest crop of prospects into NHL players, Brooks is proud to have a hand in it.
"I'm somebody who strives to be the best I can every day, and while this is a huge accomplishment, it's also a huge challenge that comes with great responsibility," Brooks said. "I understand that at this level we have to execute, and we have to be effective and efficient, and that's something I work hard at every day."
Though Brooks said he feels a sense of accomplishment with where he's at, he's equally excited to continue developing as one of the best young minds at the NHL level.
"I definitely feel accomplishment, but not satisfaction," he said. "I want to keep getting better. It's one thing to get here, it's another thing to stay here.
"You have to continue working hard."