Corridor Cross Checks: Derek Damon puts together a winner with Iowa Heartlanders

CORALVILLE - Players want to get to the next level. Actually it’s two levels when you’re in the ECHL, the hockey equivalent of Double-A in baseball.

Coaches want to do the same. Most coaches.

Derek Damon of the Iowa Heartlanders has his sights set on the National Hockey League some day as well. Only in another capacity.

“Ultimately my goal is to get to the National Hockey League and be a general manager,” Damon said Sunday, after his Heartlanders clinched a spot in the ECHL playoffs for the first time in the franchise’s four-year history. “I knew I had to go through the coaching route to get there. But my goal is to one day be a NHL general manager.”

Let’s explain how Damon can get from here to there. In the ECHL, head coaches don’t just run the show on the ice for games and practices and stuff but off of it as well.

It is his responsibility to bring players into the organization: recruiting and signing guys to ECHL contracts. That’s generally the bulk of the team.

But there’s way more to it.

The Heartlanders are affiliated with the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and American Hockey League’s Iowa Wild and at the whims of both clubs. Minnesota might have a contracted player it feels needs some ECHL time, so it assigns him to the Heartlanders, sometimes only for a couple of games or so.

The Iowa Wild might have injuries that necessitate it bringing in a Heartlanders player. The Minnesota Wild might have the same predicament, which means it calls up an Iowa Wild player, with a Heartlanders player called up to replace him.

The ECHL is known as the Ever Changing Hockey League for a reason.

“It is a challenge, but that’s why I signed up for this job,” said Damon, who was an assistant coach for Gerry Fleming in the Heartlanders’ inaugural season of 2021-22 before taking over for him the following season. “Gerry told me when he hired me that the best way to learn, for sure, is to coach in this league. Because you wear so many hats.

“It’s been tough. Going into this job, I had what I thought I wanted as a team. But I had to pivot and realize that’s not what I want here. This year, we totally changed the type of player that we were looking for, and I think it’s worked out and it has built a culture.”

This season, Damon wanted good team players who bought into a system of playing a simpler, hard-working game and who would stick with it. That not only wanted to improve individually but wanted to play together as a team and win games accordingly.

The Heartlanders have had their best season by far and will be one of four teams in the ECHL’s Central Division to play in the postseason. The first-round opponent very likely is Fort Wayne, with the Komets having home-ice advantage in a best-of-7 series that begins in about three weeks.

“I (initially) thought this place was incredible and had potential to be an incredible place to have an ECHL team,” said Damon, 44, a Maine native who played college hockey in his home state before embarking on a 14-year pro playing career in the U.S. and Europe. “It was tough sledding at the beginning obviously. We got a late start with recruiting when Gerry and I were hired.

“But we have the facilities, we have the area, it’s a beautiful area. It’s a great area. We haven’t had the success on the ice, but that’s coming. Again, that comes down to that group that’s in the locker room right now. They battle every day, and I’m so happy for those guys.”

Cedar Rapids RoughRiders

It was a huge and successful week for the RoughRiders, when it came to cementing and potentially improving a playoff spot.

The Riders brushed past the United States National Team Development Program’s U17 team twice at ImOn Arena, winning Friday night, 7-1, and Saturday night, 6-4.

Six different players had goals Friday night, with Amine Hajibi picking up two. He also added an assist.

Saturday night, the RoughRiders again had six different goal scorers. Forward John McNelis was the only Rider to have more than one point, scoring a goal and adding an assist.

Cedar Rapids is 25-27-2-3 for 55 standings points. That places it in sixth place and in possession of the final playoff spot in the United States Hockey League’s Western Conference.

The RoughRiders have an eight-point lead on seventh-place Team USA and holds a magic number of just one. The only way C.R. doesn’t make the postseason would be if it loses its remaining five regular-season games in regulation and Team USA wins its remaining four.

The Riders are one point back of fifth-place Green Bay and have a game in hand. The top four spots in the conference are very much in flux, as the teams (Madison, Dubuque, Muskegon and Youngstown) are separated by just three standings points.

The top two teams in each conference receive first-round playoff byes, with the third-place team hosting the sixth-place team and the fourth-place team hosting the fifth-place team in a best-of-3 opening series.

Cedar Rapids plays Friday night at Des Moines, Saturday night at Sioux City and Sunday afternoon at Omaha.

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com