PHOTO BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
Lynn native Tom Rowe returned to his home area on Monday as his Florida Panthers lost to the Bruins, 4-3.
By MIKE ALONGI
Lynn native Tom Rowe has worn a lot of hats in his long hockey career, as a player in the Ontario Hockey Association and National Hockey League to a scout, a broadcaster, an American Hockey League coach, a Kontinental Hockey League coach, an assistant general manager and as a general manager. And now, add NHL head coach to that long list of hats.
Rowe served as the assistant general manager of the Florida Panthers before being promoted to general manager of the organization on May 16. Now, a little over six months later, Rowe is behind the bench of the NHL franchise.
“It’s obviously been an adjustment, not just for me but for everyone,” said Rowe. “But we have a lot of great guys here and everyone is working hard to turn things around and get it going.”
The Panthers started the season 11-10-1 under previous head coach Gerard Gallant before he was fired after a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on November 27. There were rumors circulating in the immediate aftermath that the move was planned long in advance, rumors that Rowe himself called “a bunch of garbage.”
Monday, about a week into his tenure as head coach, Rowe returned to his home area of Boston for the first time as an NHL coach.
“I grew up here, it’s always fun coming back home,’’ he said. “A lot of family and friends (were) in the stands tonight, which was great.”
Although his team fell to the Bruins, 4-3, in overtime after battling back from behind three times, Rowe was happy with how his team played.
“I said we’ve got to pull together and I thought the guys did that in the third,” he said. “That third period is what we are capable of.”
He also talked about how special it is to come back home.
“It’s always exciting coming here,” Rowe said. “It’s the same feeling I had when I came here as a player.”
A graduate of Lynn English in 1975, Rowe played three seasons in the OHA (1973-1976) for the London Knights, tallying 197 points in 193 games. He went on to play 357 games in the NHL with the Washington Capitals (1976-1980), the Hartford Whalers (1980-1983) and the Detroit Red Wings (1983-1984), scoring 85 goals with 100 assists in his career. He became the first American-born player to score 30 goals in an NHL season when he notched 31 goals in 1978-79 with Washington.
After retiring in 1984, Rowe spent years in various capacities around hockey, from scouting to broadcasting. He became an assistant coach for the Lowell Lock Monsters of the AHL in 2001, eventually becoming head coach in 2004. He moved on to become head coach of the Albany River Rats from 2006-2008 before moving up to become an assistant coach in the NHL for the Carolina Hurricanes, where he stayed until 2011.
In 2012, Rowe accepted a head coaching job in the Russian KHL for the team Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. The job was a daunting one, as Lokomotiv’s team was decimated in a 2011 plane crash that killed 44 people, including the entire roster and coaching staff. After cancelling the 2011-2012 season, Lokomotiv returned in 2012 with Rowe at the helm and made the playoffs.
Rowe moved on to become head coach of the San Antonio Rampage (2014-15) and later the Portland Pirates (2015-16), both AHL affiliates of the Panthers, before moving up to the Panthers’ front office on January 1.