Spirit hire Rick Ice as goaltending coach
Saginaw, MI – Saginaw Spirit General Manager Dave Drinkill announced today (July 27) the organization has hired Rick Ice as Goaltending Coach.
“We are excited for Rick to join our staff as our new goaltending coach,” said Drinkill. “He is an extremely hard worker and very dedicated to his craft. We feel our goalies will really benefit from working with Rick and can’t wait for him to get to work starting with our training camp in a week.”
The 29-year-old native of Sterling Heights, Michigan has a wealth of experience coaching at various levels of hockey including NCAA, Tier III Junior, and Major Midget.
Along with his coaching endeavors, Ice has taught at Future Pro Goalie School with former NHL goaltender Steve McKichan and Michigan native Jeremy Kaleniecki and Legace Hockey Academy with longtime NHL goaltender Manny Legace and outgoing goaltending coach AJ Walczak.
Ice is the owner of Elite Goaltending Development, where he develops goalies that play in the Ontario Hockey League, NCAA, United States Hockey League, and various other leagues throughout North America. Ice is also an assistant coach at the Under-18 level for the Belle Tire Minor Hockey program with coaches Scott Syring and Steve Dickinson.
“I couldn’t be more excited to be joining the Spirit family,” said Ice. “The culture the organization has going is something to be excited about. I’m looking forward to working with our talented group of goaltenders and being an asset to the team any way I can.”
After four years as goaltending coach, AJ Walczak has accepted a similar role with the University of Michigan.
“We will miss AJ and thank him for everything he has done for the organization,” said Drinkill. “AJ was a big part of our success over the last few years and wish him nothing but the best at Michigan.”
