One of Steve Potvin's constant calling cards has been his ability to build relationships with players, whether it's a future NHL star or a veteran who will never be more than occasional call-up. All of that said, the 2024-25 season is special to the Roadrunners coach because a long-awaited crop of talent has arrived.

— Craig Morgan

Future is now for Tucson Roadrunners

Steve Potvin has impacted countless players in his eight seasons with the Arizona Coyotes, Tucson Roadrunners and Utah Hockey Club. You can circle back to his early years and hear nothing but gushing praise from players such as Conor Garland and Michael Bunting, or you can get the same reviews from recent prospects such as Josh Doan and Matias Maccelli.

“In a business where you are just an asset that the team wants to use, or an asset that the team wants to trade to get someone else back, he always had this way of making you feel like you were not just that asset," said Garland, now with the Vancouver Canucks. "You really feel like he cares about you and he cares about where your career ends up. He is not doing it to look good or to get good reviews at the end of the year."

One of Potvin's calling cards has been his ability to build relationships with players. Whether it's a future NHL star or veteran who will never be more than occasional call-up, Potvin has always taken the time to connect with his players on a personal level while working tirelessly on their skill development.

All of that said, the 2024-25 Roadrunners season is special. Ever since Bill Armstrong took over as GM, the franchise has been stockpiling draft picks and prospects, promising that one day the brunt of them would make their way to the NHL.

When the Roadrunners drop the puck this season, a large group of those prospects will be one step away in the AHL city that the franchise has called home for the past eight seasons.

"No matter the age or the status or how long they play in the American Hockey League or in the NHL, if they come every day with the willingness to compete, to learn and to push forward, we're going to have a successful team," Potvin said.

It remains to be seen whether Doan will spend a little more time in the AHL after his stellar NHL cameo late last season, but the Roadrunners roster will feature newcomers Maveric Lamoureux and Artem Duda on defense alongside second-year AHL player Maksymilian Szuber. Up front, the team will introduce Julian Lutz, Noel Nordh, Sam Lipkin and Miko Matikka to a forward mix that also includes Ben McCartney and Aku Räty.

"It's happening now and it's exciting," Potvin said. "This is what we've been longing for. There have been seasons where we didn't have a lot of prospects and our process is not only tied to the prospects. We do care about the players and we treat them like they're humans whatever their paths, but as a coach you do really look forward to developing the potential that this group of guys has.

"You want them to be able to push the guys up with the NHL club. We want to make those guys feel a little bit uncomfortable that there's young guys coming in. We've got to get them to a position and a place where they can push the pace first before they can add a little fear to the guys up top. We're not quite there yet, but it's coming."

Calgary goalie Dustin Wolf stoned the Roadrunners in a first-round playoff upset last season; one that Doan openly admitted was a bitter disappointment because he wanted to give the fans in Arizona something to feel good about after the news of the Coyotes relocation.

Potvin used that sting as another lesson.

"I made sure that everybody understood that of course, every time you drop the puck, everybody wants to win, and every time you get into playoffs you want to do everything that you can to win regardless of the fact that it is a developmental league," he said.

"But I also reminded them how much success we actually had, and if you looked around the room, there wasn't a player that didn't grow and develop and become the next best version of themselves when the season ended. To me, that showed that there was a lot of success and that the guys had really bought into it. We had a lot to be proud of."