Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
J.D. Forrest is coming home at long last.
The native of Auburn, N.Y., has joined the Tampa Bay Lightning organization as an assistant coach with the Syracuse Crunch.
After eight seasons with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – including the past four as their head coach, going 113-102-24-13 – his new post puts him 30 miles away from his hometown. Forrest’s nine-year playing career took him through the AHL, ECHL and Europe, and after retiring in 2014 he spent a year with USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program followed by a season in Austria with EC Red Bull Salzburg’s under-20 team.
Forrest called the Lightning “one of the premier destination organizations in the NHL and in the AHL” in terms of their operations.
“It’s one of the models that people look to around the league as to how to win,” he said. “I’m really excited about that and being able to learn from different people.”
Those people will include the players who ultimately begin the season in Syracuse. The Tampa Bay organization has remade its organizational depth chart this summer, particularly on the blue line. New Lightning signees Tobie Bisson, Derrick Pouliot and Steven Santini all spent significant time in the AHL this past season, and however the Crunch roster shakes out, Forrest – who will be handling the Crunch penalty kill – and head coach Joel Bouchard should have strong options among their defensemen.
“I have a lot of respect for what players go through,” Forrest said, “how hard it is to get where they want to get, the daily endeavor of it. It can be a challenge, and I’m just there to try to help and guide when I can.
“Also, players are a valuable resource for me to learn from. It’s such a give-and-take relationship with the coach, and I think it starts with having that mutual respect and understanding that what they’re going through isn’t easy. As an assistant, especially, working with the ‘D,’ it’s a little team within a team, and those relationships get very tight.”
Working with Bouchard will be another opportunity for learning as well. The two have spent this summer getting to know each other better, exchanging ideas and talking hockey.
“I’m there to help Joel with the areas that he wants help in,” Forrest continued. “He’s been great communicating with me. He’s laid out some expectations – and I know they’re high in Syracuse – continuing to build on what he began in his first year.
“I’m in a support role now, and I think I can help in that area.”
Forrest’s playing career put him at various places in the pecking order, a journey that began when he left Auburn to join the USNTDP’s first under-18 team in 1997. He was drafted by Carolina in 2000, and spent four seasons as a standout defenseman at Boston College, where he won a national championship as a freshman. His 10-year pro career included 35 games in the AHL, but was spent mostly in Europe with turns in Finland, Switzerland, Sweden and Germany.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve lived around home,” Forrest said, “We’re really excited. I understand the connection to the community, and the ownership has been so involved in making it a part of the fabric of Syracuse and the greater Central New York area.
“I’m just looking to contribute to that.”
TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams has been on the American Hockey League beat for nearly two decades for outlets including NHL.com, Sportsnet, TSN, The Hockey News, SiriusXM NHL Network Radio and SLAM! Sports, and was most recently the co-host of The Hockey News On The ‘A’ podcast. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
