Michael Peca, who most recently served as assistant coach for the Rochester Americans, has been named assistant coach for the New York Rangers. In this role, he will work with new head coach Peter Laviolette and the rest of his coaching staff. Peca has been with the Amerks for two years, serving as the team’s offensive coordinator. The Rochester Americans have qualified for the playoffs in each of the past two years, most recently reaching the Eastern Conference Finals last spring. Peca received the role of honorary captain for the AHL All-Star Classic held in Syracuse in 2016.
Over the past two seasons, Peca has played an important role in the growth of a number of the Buffalo Sabers’ most promising young players, including but not limited to Jack Quinn, Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosen. , the first of the team. round picks in each of the previous three seasons, as well as the team’s 2020 second-round pick JJ Peterka, along with Brandon Biro, Linus Weissbach and Brett Murray. Peca served as player development coach for the Washington Capitals for the 2020-21 season, working largely with players on the taxi team. This position was held under the direction of Laviolette.
Peca’s first year as a professional athlete was spent with the Syracuse Crunch of the American Hockey League (AHL), where he had 34 points in 35 games in 1994-95. After that he played in the National Hockey League for 15 years with Vancouver, Buffalo, New York Islanders, Edmonton, Toronto and Columbus. During that span, he appeared in 864 games and was twice awarded the Frank J. Selke Trophy for being the NHL’s top defensive forward. Peca was a member of the Canadian national hockey team that won the gold medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In addition to leading the Sabers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 as team captain, Peca also led the Oilers to the Finals in 2006.
