Earned, never given. That was the slogan of Troy Mann in his coaching career with the Hershey Bears, from his journeyman start as an unofficial assistant coach in 2005-06, to assistant coach in the Calder Cup years of 2009 and 2010, paying his dues in 2013-14 in the ECHL, and finally coming full circle to a Calder Cup Final run in 2016. Mann earned each step of his growth as a coach in the years since he stopped playing.
So too was Ryan Murphy, who initially came over as Mann’s video coach, a new role created so that the former Manchester Monarch could come with Mann from Bakersfield, where he was a huge part of the turnaround Mann’s Condors had after a 1-10 start. They’d go 35-20-2-3 after the start. Add in then assistant coach Bryan Helmer, and you have about as ideal of a group as could be asked for after a season where the entire Hershey organization was looking for a spark after missing the playoffs. All three are passionate about winning, and particularly with the Hershey Bears.
Now, it’s been just over a month since the Washington Capitals announced that Troy Mann and Ryan Murphy would not be renewed for head coach and assistant coach, respectively, for the Hershey Bears in 2018-19. The move came just two days before the Caps began their second round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
“Troy is a dedicated and hard-working coach and we appreciate all he has done for the Hershey Bears,” Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan said at the time. “At this point, we feel a fresh approach and a change in leadership is needed in order for us to continue to develop our young players towards the next level and for success at the AHL level. We also want to thank Ryan for his contributions to the Hershey Bears and wish him all the best.”
Those words hurt from a fan perspective as well as an organizational standpoint. Aside from this past season, Mann’s teams had gone at least to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs in three years, one of which was to the Finals. Prior to Mann taking over as head coach, the Bears had gone through a period of four years in which they hadn’t made it past the first round. Mann stepped in and took an exceptional core group in his first season to the second round, where they were outdone by a Chris Bourque led Hartford team that seemed to have every answer. Bourque would join the Bears the next season.
The 2015-16 season has to be Mann’s own masterpiece of a year. As highlighted in our Season in Review series earlier this summer, that year the Bears had a major departure of talent and were forced to lean on a group of rookies and new veterans. Not many people had Hershey pegged for an exceptional year, and yet the team ended up dramatically advancing to the Calder Cup Finals.
The move looks pretty interesting considering what had been in recent past and what was to come. The Capitals were benefitting from players that Mann had been developing in Hershey for two and three years prior to 2017-18: Jakub Vrana, Christian Djoos, Madison Bowey, Chandler Stephenson, and even Philipp Grubauer all played for Mann during his tenure as head coach. They continued to benefit from them in the days after the announcement.
The “fresh approach” MacLellan mentioned seemed to be coming for the Capitals if they weren’t able to get over the second round hurdle that’s been so elusive for them in recent years. The team was beginning its third playoff meeting with the Penguins in as many seasons, and if the Caps couldn’t find a way it could mean their head coach, Barry Trotz, could be next on the chopping block.
It’s fitting in some ways that the talent Troy Mann and Ryan Murphy developed would save the Capitals. Jakub Vrana scored a pivotal goal in Game 5 that broke a 3-3 deadlock, then after injuries and suspensions held key players out for Washington in Game 6, Hershey regulars Travis Boyd and Nathan Walker stepped in and helped deliver the Caps the victory. Walker even potted an assist in the game. The young players have been described as keeping the older veterans loose and contributing to a different atmosphere in the room as compared to previous seasons.
Keep in mind that NHL level success has been something that MacLellan has been pursuing, too, since taking up the role in 2014 (ironically, the same year that Mann took up the head coaching role in Hershey), and ended up keeping prospects in the AHL while buying veteran NHL talent in hopes of making that one glorious postseason run. Out of the last three Capitals teams, this one seemed to be least likely to make a run to the Stanley Cup Finals as they are poised to begin on Monday.
Some players made note of experiences in Hershey, particularly the run to the Calder Cup Finals in 2016, that helped ready them for the big league. Bears fans know particularly well that success at the AHL level builds to the NHL, just like the glory days of the back to back Cups in 2009 and 2010.
None of the issues that prevented the Bears from making the playoffs in 2017-18 fall on Troy Mann and his staff. In a similar vein to what happened after Mann’s first season as the Bears’ bench boss, a boatload of talent departed to the NHL or otherwise – Mann lost 69 goals and 75 assists for 144 points combined between Stan Galiev, Christian Thomas, and Paul Carey – and without much to fill the void from the offseason in terms of signings or young new forwards, scoring became a challenge from the outset. The lack of scoring exacerbated the young defensive group, who took their licks over the course of the season. Overall, there’s a lot to look forward to in Hershey, and it feels like the plug was pulled on Mann too soon. Missing the playoffs is never a good thing, and Mann was as disappointed as the rest of us that it happened.
This all comes back to a point that was revealed on Twitter recently, when Barry Trotz mentioned that he called and thanked Mann for his efforts developing the talent that got the Capitals to the Finals: