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Getting to know U-tah: Tucson Roadrunners coach Steve Potvin
Through training camp, ALLCITY Network will publish profiles of players and staff on the Utah Hockey Club’s hockey operations side to help Utah fans get to know their new team before the first puck drop on Oct. 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center.
Steve Potvin
Position: Tucson Roadrunners coach
Years experience: Entering fourth year in current role
Previous work: Served one year as Coyotes skills coach; four seasons as Roadrunners assistant coach (one of them as associate head coach)
Contract status: Signed through the 2026-27 season
Roadrunners assistants: John Slaney (defensemen, PK), Zack Stortini (forwards, PP), Jeff Hill (goalies), Parker Poore (performance), Jake Wagman (director of hockey ops, video).
Wife: Nada
Kids: Max, Nash and Eliana
(Photo courtesy of 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. No matter the team’s make-up — even if it was chock full of veterans who were never going to be more than occasional NHL call-ups — 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 full of anticipation for the Roadrunners coach. Ever since Bill Armstrong took over as GM, the franchise has been stockpiling draft picks and prospects, promising that one day, many 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. Potvin and his staff are the last line of development — and the AHL is, at heart, a developmental league — before these players reach the NHL.
“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.
The future is close.
“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 I don’t want it to seem like our process is 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 really look forward to developing the potential that this group of guys has.
“You want them to be able to push the guys that are already up with the NHL club. We want to make those guys feel a little bit uncomfortable because 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.”
(Photo courtesy of Tucson Roadrunners)
As is customary, Potvin and his AHL staff will guide the team in the upcoming Rookie Faceoff from Sept. 13-16 at Toyota Sports Performance Center (the Kings practice facility) in El Segundo, California.
“It’s a good way for the young guys to get acclimated and get ready for the season, but it’s also a good starting point for us to get to know them and understand their strengths and weaknesses,” Potvin said. “Some of their strengths and some of the weaknesses may not be the same when they get here. They may respect the level a little bit more, and that may change their habits. I’ve got to be open minded about what their turn might look like when they get here.”
Potvin will have a healthy cast of veterans in Tucson to shepherd the glut of youth that is pouring into the Old Pueblo this season. Travis Barron, Kevin Connauton, Patrik Koch, Ryan McGregor and Cameron Hebig will all play a role, but Tucson will be young this season and that will bring its own set of challenges after a 2023-24 season in which the Roadrunners finished with the fifth best record in the AHL.
“We’ll practice a lot, and we’ll have a lot of video,” Potvin said. “We’re going to try to do the best we can to just inundate them with information early on. The game is going to be fast at the start and it might feel like a lot, but we’ll make it as simple as we can at the start of the season. We’re hoping by the time we get to December, the game will slow down for them and the thinking process will slow down for them.”
The distance between the NHL club and the AHL club has created another challenge that didn’t exist when the two teams were separated by a little more than 100 miles.
“In past years after training camp was over, Tucson was an hour and a half away or I could literally stay in my own home [in Scottsdale],” Potvin said. “For the players, if you had to go up for a practice, it was an easy call-up.
“I suspect that might be a little bit different this year and a little bit more difficult, so it’s just going to require a little bit more planning; a little more thought.”
(Photo courtesy of Tucson Roadrunners)
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 in the players’ development.
“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.”
(Photo courtesy of Tucson Roadrunners)
Related Potvin links
Steve Potvin’s genuine approach helped him earn this critical role as Tucson Roadrunners coach
Pride of the Old Pueblo: Tucson coach Steve Potvin deserves attention for Roadrunners’ success
What’s ahead for Steve Potvin and the Tucson Roadrunners after the Coyotes relocation
Top photo of Steve Potvin courtesy of Tucson Roadrunners
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