Americans introduce new Assistant Coaches

ROCHESTER, NY (WHEC) – Rochester Americans General Manager, Jason Karmanos announced the addition of Nathan Paetsch and Vinny Prospal as new assistant coaches on Monday.

Head Coach Seth Appert said on a zoom conference Monday morning that the “incredible experience that they’re going to bring to our staff and our players, their playing experiences, their post-playing experiences, their international experiences, all of those different things will add to them being role models for our players.”

Nathan Paetsch is very used to the Upstate New York area. He played for both the Amerks and the Buffalo Sabres, the Amerks NHL affiliate, and started his coaching career as a player development coach for the Sabres. Paetsch couldn’t imagine a better opportunity for him as he says Rochester has been home to him for so long.

“I’ve lived here for 20 years now,” said Partsch, “I moved here after getting drafted to the Sabres not really knowing what I was getting myself into in Rochester and it’s been home ever since and it will always be home.”

Vinny Prospal was born in the Czeck Repulic where he helped the national team win two world championships. He played for an assortment of teams over his 20-year playing career in the NHL. Prospal played over 1,000 games in the NHL and accounted for 765 points.

Prospal’s acceptance to becoming a new member of the Amerks staff was a big surprise for everyone including himself.

“It came as a huge surprise because pretty much two, three weeks ago I had my mind set on going back to Tampa for the third year in a row sort of away from pro-hockey but being just a full-time dad,” says Prospal on his journey to the Amerks, “I believe coaching is the next best thing to playing and you can’t play forever unfortunately and I think coaching is something I would love to pursue and as soon as I started talking to Seth I felt that this is going to be a great opportunity.”

Apert, Paetsch, and Prospal begin now in the off-season working together and working with their players to continue building a culture and environment to achieve their shared goal of winning a Calder Cup.