City Aberdeen, South Dakota Division Central Colors Red, Black,and White Arena Odde Ice Center Founded 2010 | League NAHL Home arena Odde Ice Center Owner(s) Greg Odde Head coach Scott Langer Color Red, Black,and White | |
Location Aberdeen, South Dakota, United States | ||
Aberdeen wings recruiting pitch 2013 2014
The Aberdeen Wings are a Tier II junior ice hockey team based out of Aberdeen, South Dakota that began play for 2010–11. A member of the North American Hockey League in the Central Division, the Wings play their home games in the Odde Ice Center.
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History
Since the team's inaugural season in 2010–11, the Wings have held the highest attendance numbers in their NAHL division, boasting crowds over 1,700. In their first four seasons, the Aberdeen Wings have made the NAHL playoffs twice. The goal of any junior hockey team is to help develop players for the next level. In four seasons, the Wings have had 22 players Division-I college commitments, three players sign professional contracts overseas, and two players drafted in the NHL. During the 2014 NHL Draft, two Aberdeen Wings players were selected. Both taken in the 4th round, goaltender Zach Nagelvoort was drafted by the Edmonton Oilers and defenseman Steven Johnson was selected by the Los Angeles Kings. Wings forward Lennart Palausch signed a professional contract during the 2014 off-season with Heilbronner Falken of the DEL2 in Germany. In the 2013–14 season, the Aberdeen Wings had two players selected to play in the 2014 World Junior Championships for their home countries, including forward Lennart Palausch (Germany) and forward Bjorn Sigurdarson (Iceland).
The 2014–15 was the first season under new head coach Francis Anzalone. A native of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Anzalone served as the associate head coach and director of player personnel during the previous season under Wings head coach Travis Winter. During the 2014 off-season, Winter accepted the assistant coach position at his alma mater, Bemidji State University, where he led the Beavers hockey team as captain to the Frozen Four in 2009. Anzalone comes from a very strong hockey family including his father, Frank Anzalone who was a National Championship college hockey coach, minor league head coach, and scout for the Calgary Flames. Anzalone was fired as head coach at the end of the 2015–16 season after two losing seasons and missing the playoffs.
Two days after releasing Anzalone, the Wings announced it had hired long time NAHL coach Scott Langer as head coach. Langer had coached the previous 12 seasons with the Santa Fe/Topeka RoadRunners organization before being released during the 2015–16 season.