What did Mike Vellucci miss most during his recent coaching hiatus? Read on.


  Mike Vellucci couldn't stay away -- and fans of the Plymouth Whalers are grateful for it.
  The successful multi-tasking executive of the area's Ontario Hockey League franchise -- he serves as the franchise's president, general manager and head coach -- relinquished his head-coaching duties early on in the 2007-08 season, several months after leading the team to an Ontario Hockey League championship.
  However, Vellucci returned to the bench early last season, and with his return came a success-filled second half of the season for Plymouth, which advanced to the second round of the OHL playoffs before getting knocked off by eventual champion Windsor in a thrilling six-game series.

 

  PlymouthCantonSports.com's Ed Wright sat down with Vellucci recently for an interview.

ED WRIGHT: How do you like the way the off-season unfolded for the Whalers?
MIKE VELLUCCI: I think it went better than we expected. I really love our draft. I know everybody says they got what they wanted, but we really did. Things went back and forth a little bit with our European Draft. We picked up Gabriel Landeskog from Sweden, but he wasn't going to report, so I was able to flip him for a guy the Red Wings drafted, Tomas Tatar, and we picked up two second-rounders and a fourth-rounder, so that turned out to be a great deal there. We also signed Austin Mattson, a Livonia kid who was playing in the USHL.

EW: What returning players do you see poised to have a break-out season similar to the one Matt Hackett had last season?
MV: I think AJ Jenks will have a break-out year offensively. He had fewer points last year than he did his draft year, but I think he'll have a very good season. Tyler Seguin is something special, too. He's going to be a top-10 pick someday (in the NHL Draft). Either of the Tyler Browns are capable, too, of breaking out. Tyler G. Brown was very good in the playoffs. I look for both of them to put up good numbers. And R.J. Mahalak will score a lot of points for us this year if he's healthy.

EW:
What did you miss the most about coaching when you weren't behind the bench last year?
MV: Winning (smile). We weren't winning games and I can't stand that. I couldn't take it any longer. I missed being on the bench with the players. I missed the interaction. When you're just the GM, you don't have that much interaction. I like being there for them in the good times and the bad. It's not always about wins on the ice. I like it when they sign an NHL contract and they call me or when they call me to play golf five years after they stopped playing with us. That's what means the most to me.

EW: What is the most important thing kids learn in the OHL that will help them become successful in their post-hockey lives?
MV: Time management. There's no doubt about it. From school work to practice to weight training to having a social life -- they have to have a social life or they're going to get burned out on sports -- time management is the No. 1 thing we need to teach them. They can't keep putting off their school work or they can't take their weight training off. The hockey part will take care of itself, but if we can help them with their time-management skills, it goes a long way.

EW: Do a lot of ex-players still keep in touch?
MV: Oh yeah. Jared Boll texts me and I'll hear from James Neal, James Wisniewski and John Mitchell, all of whom are in the NHL. It's a lot of fun to hear from them. Jared Boll got scratched from the playoffs against the Red Wings this past spring and I told him, 'Do what the coaches tell you and you'll be all right."


EW: What kind of impact has the economic downturn had on the Whalers and the OHL?
MV: Our ticket sales were only down about 3 or 4 percent last year, so not much. We're a cheap ticket compared to the Red Wings and we put on a good show. People see the value in our product.




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Plymouth Whalers President, General Manager and Head Coach Mike Vellucci lit a fire under the team last winter after he returned from an 11-month hiatus. (photo by Walt Dmoch)
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