Developing tomorrow's players

When you’re a longtime NHL player who has had a stellar career and it’s time to hang up the skates once and for all, what do you do?

If you’re former all-star Tom Poti (who played for Edmonton, the Rangers, the Islanders and Washington), you don’t hang them up at all; you lace them back up and start producing future generations of players as a youth hockey coach.

Poti, who lives in Sandwich, has recently merged his Cape Cod Penguins organization with Total Athletics of Cape Cod to create a developmental league of first-year Mites Minor and Mites Major, now known as the Total Athletic Penguins (5 to 8 years old).

“I’m very impressed that they were able to bring elite hockey on the Cape, no one’s ever been able to do that before,” said Poti. “This will be pretty special. The Cape is an untapped market for hockey.”

While Poti noted that about 30 years ago the Cape Cod Seahawks played out of the Gallo Rink in Bourne, that team folded and hockey people have been trying to get it back ever since.

Warren Nighan, who is a partner in Total Athletics with former NFL coach Mike Sherman, is thrilled about getting a big name like Poti to hitch on with their organization.

“Coach Sherman and I could not be more impressed with Tom’s passion for coaching and instilling confidence in these young boys and girls,” said Nighan. “To be instructed by an NHL All-Star and Olympic silver medalist, these players and parents are in for a great season of hockey.”

Poti has been coaching locally for several years, ever since his six-year old son Tyler began skating. Fellow NHL alumni Dan LaCouture (who spent the bulk of his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins) and Barnstable native Eric Nicklas (who played four seasons with the Bruins) decided to join forces to form the Penguins.

“We wanted to coach our kids and help them out,” said Poti, “so we were able to carve out some ice for ourselves, and we started the Cape Cod Penguins.”

LaCouture has a six-year old son presently with the team, while Nicklas’ seven-year old son is now playing with an older-aged group team off Cape.

“If you start the kids off the right way and coach them the right way, starting with development, we’ve shown that they can be successful like my team is in the Boston league,” said Poti.

“I think the sky’s the limit for the Cape kids,” he continued. “Warren (Nighan) and Coach Sherman are trying to change the culture and do things the right way to make (Total Athletics) a great hockey facility.”

Poti, a native of Worcester, got his start playing at Mid-State Youth Hockey out of the Auburn Rink. “I was a late-bloomer,” he said. “I started skating when I was about seven or eight.”

Becoming quite adept at the sport, he quickly moved through the ranks with the Worcester Crusaders, who played in the Metro Boston league.

“My dad suggested we go there and try it out,” Poti said. “I made the team and I stayed there for five or six years.”

Once he got to junior high school, he spent three years at St. Peter-Marian Central Catholic High School in Worcester before moving on to Cushing Academy in Ashburnham.

“At Cushing it was 45-50 games a year and you practiced every day for two hours,” he said. “There was three or four times more hockey and it just became the perfect fit for me; one of the greatest experiences I ever had in my life.”

Since each game at Cushing attracted nearly ten NHL scouts per game, Poti received almost instant exposure.

He was was drafted in the third round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft by the Edmonton Oilers, but continued to play for two more years at Boston University where he was named MVP of the Beanpot Tourney in 1998.

A standout defenseman, Poti debuted with Edmonton in 1998, was traded to the Rangers and played from 2001-06, then spent 2006-07 with the Islanders before joining the Washington Capitals in 2007 and playing through the 2013 season.

In 824 games played over a 15-year NHL career, Poti scored 69 goals and 258 assists for 327 points. He was named to the NHL All-Star team in 2003.

Poti also helped the 2002 U.S. Olympic hockey team to a Silver Medal at the Salt Lake City games and represented the country twice in the World Junior Championships (1996, 1997), including the 1997 Silver Medal-winning U.S. team in Switzerland.

“It was awesome, being able to do what you loved to do, for as long as you wanted to do it,” said Poti. “To do it against the best players in the world day in and day out, and get paid very nicely for it, it was pretty special.”

His NHL career came to an end with his retirement in May of 2014. An injury suffered in 2010 – when he went into the boards hard with New Jersey forward Dainius Zubrus and suffered a fractured pelvis – caused complications into the future.

“It’s sad that it’s over, I wish I could have played a couple more years but I got injured and wasn’t able to continue,” Poti said. “But it worked out good where I had to stop playing, because that was the time when my son first started skating. I’m excited to coach him."

Poti and his wife, Jessica, also have a 4-year old daughter, Dylan, who participates in soccer, swimming and gymnastics. In addition, the couple also have two oceanfront properties that they manage, and do some house flipping.

“My wife loves interior decorating and design and I’m into real estate,” Poti said. “It’s something to keep us busy while the kids are at school.”

And then there’s the aspect of coaching the Total Athletics Penguins.

“They wanted me to bring my logo over and merge with them,” said Poti of Total Athletics. “They really like the model we were using for practices and skates, and since they have a tie-in with one of the best leagues in New England, it was a great fit for both of us.”

Mike Richard can be contacted by email at mikerichard0725@gmail.com.