IceHogs interim coach Anders Sorensen is pairing development and winning for Blackhawks prospects
IceHogs interim coach Anders Sorensen is pairing development and winning for Blackhawks prospects
The Athletic – By Scott Powers
ROCKFORD, Ill. — Anders Sorensen spends about an hour — sometimes longer depending on traffic — driving to and from his house to BMO Harris Bank Center to coach the Rockford IceHogs.
Sorensen didn’t want to move his family from its Chicago suburban home when he began taking on a larger role with the Chicago Blackhawks, first as a development coach, then as an IceHogs assistant and most recently as Rockford’s interim head coach. The drive doesn’t bother him. It’s not too long. Plus, it gives him the opportunity to continue his ongoing hockey education. He calls fellow hockey coaches back in his native Sweden. He talks to coaches in Switzerland. He listens to podcasts about coaching and development.
A lot of Sorensen’s coaching philosophies stem from his own career path. After playing professionally in Europe and North America, he moved to the Chicago area with his wife and began coaching youth hockey in the early 200s. He eventually got a position with the Chicago Mission, one of the area’s top AAA hockey clubs, and his experiences there helped further mold his thoughts on development. Future NHL players Ryan Hartman, Vinnie Hinostroza and Nick Schmaltz were among the players he coached with the Mission. Sorensen returned home to be an assistant coach for Sodertalje in Sweden’s second division in 2011 and spent three seasons in Sweden before heading back to Chicago. He rejoined the Mission and later took a development coach position with the Blackhawks. He had been training AHL and NHL players during the offseason.
Mission hockey director Gino Cavallini, who played in the NHL, hasn’t been surprised by Sorensen’s success with the IceHogs.
“He’s pretty detail-oriented, you know, he’s got an unbelievable understanding of the game, and I think he’s able to translate it over to his players,” Cavallini said. “He can get his message across where it’s understood. Once you get into the development part … like at our club, our motto was we never talked about winning, we talked about the process. The way we teach and develop our players, the byproduct is, of course, you’re going to win games because you’re teaching the players to play the right way. And for he and I over the years, it was always important that the kids were prepared when they left the club. I don’t want to say they were coveted, but I think when our players left the club and went on to juniors or college or whatever level, we were never fearful that this player doesn’t understand (something).
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