by Patrick Williams
For 26 years Dave Andrews operated as the AHL’s conscience, as well as its sounding board for a parade of teams, owners, general managers, and other constituents.
But the long-time AHL President and CEO had his own panel of advisors, too.
First there was Marleen, of course, the woman he married in 1974 while playing pro hockey as a goaltender in the Netherlands. She has been right there with him for every stop across Canada and the United States throughout this life in hockey.
First, it was Vancouver in 1975 for a role as the province’s hockey development coordinator for five years. He also spent 10 years with the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association’s Developmental Council and chaired its coaching committee.
There was a Western Hockey League posting with the Victoria Cougars, first as an assistant coach and later as head coach, in the early 1980’s. A 1984 move into a government role with SportCanada, preparing for the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary. Then came a step back into hockey in 1987 that featured two stops in Nova Scotia leading AHL operations in Halifax and Sydney for the Edmonton Oilers.
Marleen and their three children — Chrissy, Brad and Jeff — were a part of that ride long before hockey brought them to Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1994 to succeed the retiring Jack Butterfield.
For more than a quarter of a century, Andrews reshaped the AHL, made it into the top developmental league in the world, grew it from 16 teams to a record 32 clubs and brought the NHL’s top prospects from coast to coast in Canada and the United States. And his pool of confidantes and mentors continued to grow.
Now comes the AHL Hall of Fame for Andrews, who left his long-time post on June 30, 2020, and has transitioned to a role chairing the AHL Board of Governors.
The AHL Hall of Fame Selection Committee made Andrews, 74, the sole enshrinee for the Class of 2021.
But he will be honored in Laval this weekend along with the Class of 2022, a group that features one of his closest friends in hockey, the late Bill Torrey.
A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Torrey’s front-office roots began in the AHL back in 1961 when he started as publicity director for the Pittsburgh Hornets. While Torrey eventually advanced to the NHL to guide the New York Islanders to four consecutive Stanley Cup championships in the 1980’s as general manager, president, and chairman, his AHL ties remained as solid as ever. Following his time on Long Island, Torrey went on to spend 25 seasons in a variety of executive roles for the Florida Panthers, remaining active until his death in 2018.
Torrey served on the Executive Committee of the AHL Board of Governors for two decades. Early in his time with the Edmonton organization, Andrews first met Torrey via an introduction by Glen Sather.
Andrews can still recall that introduction.
“Bill seemed to be way more interested in me and my career and what I was doing than I could imagine,” said Andrews. “He was treating me as kind of an equal. I just think that he was such a kind person to be accepting in that way.”
That relationship grew through the years and Andrews eventually invited Torrey to join the Executive Committee.
“He was a tremendous help to us and in a way that was so unassuming and for someone who had his pedigree in hockey,” Andrews recalled. “He was in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but would never miss one of our meetings. He would never want to be in a lead role; he was just there to help when he could and offer whatever advice he could in various circumstances. He wouldn’t sit at the Board table. He’d sit along the wall of the boardroom. I mean, for people in our league to look around and see Bill Torrey sitting in the room at every meeting and have him available as counsel to any of them was really special.
“I look back over my career and people that I’ve met, and there’s hundreds and thousands of people. They’re all great people in hockey. Bill’s right at the top, and he treated the American League really, really well. He loved the league, and I think clearly that we loved him. Our staff loved him. He was a special, special guy.”
Andrews was a part of Torrey’s memorial service, one that featured dignitaries from throughout hockey.
“I think everybody hockey just knows him as such a nice person, but he also had an amazing career,” Andrews continued. “Well loved by everyone.”
Institutional knowledge matters to Andrews, and people like Torrey had it. So did Jack Butterfield and team executive Macgregor Kilpatrick, both also honored members of the AHL Hall of Fame.
“I think the institutional knowledge, support, and history that they bring is important,” Andrews said of mentors. “There are a lot of decisions that are made where you if you don’t have the luxury of knowing why things are the way they are — because they’re shaped by history — you tend to move in directions that probably have some unintended consequences.
“Those people that have the history can really help you avoid going in the wrong direction sometimes. But it takes a special person, because if it’s the wrong kind of person just living in the past, they often will get in the way of progress. They (Torrey, Butterfield and Kilpatrick) had the particular knack of speaking at the right time with the right message about the history of our league or the history of the game or things they had seen in the NHL or in other leagues… You could say, ‘You know, let’s just take a few minutes here and think this through before we go any further.’”
As the AHL staked its fortunes on a full-steam move toward making player development its top mandate, Andrews leaned on that sort of advice and institutional knowledge. He also did so when the league faced ongoing competition from the International Hockey League in the late 1990’s. And after the IHL’s 2001 dissolution, he spearheaded the absorption of six clubs that opened up brand-new geographical territory for the league across Canada and the United States.
Years of further expansion, rule changes, safety initiatives and other moves to facilitate better player development followed. Another massively complex period came in 2015 when the AHL relocated five clubs into California, a move that has opened opportunities across the western half of the league map. Today’s AHL has come a long way from its humble 1930’s roots. Or even from the AHL that Andrews entered in 1987, one that was geographically confined and facing difficult economic headwinds.
The first AHL Hall of Fame Class in 2006 included Butterfield, Johnny Bower, Jody Gage, Fred Glover, Willie Marshall, Frank Mathers and Eddie Shore to immortalize the figures who helped to build this league. Andrews followed some of those names reading The Hockey News while growing up in Montreal and Nova Scotia.
Honoring those legends and linking the AHL’s roots to the sprawling league of the 21st century inspired the league’s decision to begin the Hall of Fame.
“They were the real backbone legends of the American Hockey League,” Andrews said of that group. “As a kid, I knew all about Frank Mathers, and I knew all about Jack Butterfield, Fred Glover and Willie Marshall.”
All these years later, Andrews continues his life in hockey. He and his wife spend their winters in Arizona. Today’s far-flung AHL means he can catch a game when the Tucson Roadrunners play. Summers are for time in Digby, Nova Scotia. Monday’s induction ceremony in Laval, along with Torrey, Nolan Baumgartner, Keith Aucoin and Dave Creighton, will continue that connection for Andrews to the league that he led.
But it will be a much different role for him this time. For years Andrews enshrined the best and brightest figures who came through the AHL. Now it will be his turn to be immortalized.
“What I hadn’t anticipated was how much it would mean to the players and coaches and especially their families,” Andrews said of past induction ceremonies. “Every year when I managed those induction ceremonies, it was just an amazingly emotional experience to see how much it meant to all of those individuals.
“It’s going to be really different. I know it meant a lot to them… I felt it over the years, and I know it’s going to mean the same thing to me.”
