Just as Brian Leetch had freedom on the ice to roam and create plays, so, too, will the Hall of Fame defenseman have freedom now that he has joined the Rangers front office.
Leetch was announced as a “hockey operations adviser” on Tuesday — along with another former Ranger, Brad Richards — and he began his ambiguous role by being on the ice Thursday at the training facility in Westchester with the prospects who practiced and then were leaving for the Traverse City tournament in Michigan starting Friday. Leetch’s focus is to learn more about the players within the organization and then figure out how he best fits into the picture.
“They’re pretty much leaving it to me to find something that I want to put more time into and see if I want to do this going forward more and more each year,” Leetch said. “But it’s up to me to try to figure that out.”
Since Leetch retired in 2006, he has done a little bit of TV work for MSG, but mostly was occupied with his young family in the Boston area. His friends within the franchise, including Adam Graves, kept in constant contact and said that whenever he was ready to come back into the fold, they would try to find something for him to do.
Now that Leetch’s oldest son is a senior in high school, he thought the timing was finally right to get back into the NHL.
“I was lucky enough that my kids all play in house leagues, I’ve been able to be involved in that, coaching three teams in the winter for eight months, that keeps me in the rink and involved. And you’re at home, watching TV, and you see your friends become coaches or get into management, and you talk to them,” said Leetch, who at 49 years old looks like he could still put up a few power-play points.
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“So it feels like you’re part of the game without having an official role with a team. So I think this is just kind of the next step, to get involved and see if you can be of some value to the organization.”
The immediate plan was for Leetch to go to Traverse City and watch some games, which will include watching the No. 7-overall pick from this year’s draft, center Lias Andersson, as well as a couple young defensemen who could contribute this year — Sean Day, Alexei Bereglazov and Neal Pionk. Leetch also said he wants to be on the ice for some practices, likely with Hartford, which Chris Drury occasionally did last year during his role as assistant GM.
“I think that’s pretty much what I want to do,” Leetch said. “You have to have a relationship with the coaches there, and they’ve been very good with expressing that. That’s all to be determined going forward. All that can happen, or it might not happen.”
The game has changed quite a bit since Leetch left, but there are many former players who are now in front offices — and this is a first step in that direction, if that’s what Leetch wants.
“It’s not like I have a defined role,” Leetch said. “I think it’s my job to learn as much as I can about the organization, about the players, and then if there is an opportunity to give my opinion and help some players along the way, that would be great.”