The Chicago Blackhawks organization is ready to put a solid developmental staff around their young prospects as their AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, announced the hire of Josh MacNevin as an assistant coach. It will be MacNevin’s coaching debut in professional hockey as he’s spent the last decade coaching in the Western Hockey League.
As a player, MacNevin had a halfway productive career with the Providence College Friars in the NCAA and was ultimately drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the fourth round of the 1996 NHL Draft. He would never play in the NHL as MacNevin put together most of his professional career overseas in Finland, Italy, and Sweden. He ended his pro career after the 2012-13 season and would wait only one year before joining the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes as an assistant coach.
Primarily serving as a defensive coach with Lethbridge, the only notable NHL defenseman developed by MacNevin was Calen Addison who played for the Hurricanes from 2015-19. Addison’s playmaking ability from the blue line was certainly enhanced under MacNevin’s tutelage as he racked up 174 assists and 215 points in 252 games in Lethbridge. The team never made it farther than the Eastern Conference Final during MacNevin’s tenure and he left the team for the Kelowna Rockets in 2022.
Caden Price served as MacNevin’s primary resource on the blue line in Kelowna and was recently drafted 84th overall by the Seattle Kraken in the 2023 NHL Draft. Additionally, MacNevin briefly coached Colton Dach in his first year with the organization who was drafted by the Blackhawks in 2021 and should suit up for the IceHogs again next year.
Chicago has several notable defensive prospects that could appear in AHL Rockford this year including Artyom Levshunov, Ethan Del Mastro, and Wyatt Kaiser. As the IceHogs’ new primary defensive coach, MacNevin will have a hand in each player’s overall development and will be instrumental in the Blackhawks’ future success on the back end.