ST. PAUL, Minn. — Ask Marco Rossi about André Tourigny, and the Wild’s first-round pick gushes.
“One of the best coaches I’ve ever had — the best coach you could ask for in junior hockey,” Rossi told The Athletic when asked a few weeks back about his former Ottawa 67’s coach.
In fact, during that conversation, Rossi talked about how excited he would be to play in front of Tourigny, the second-year Arizona Coyotes coach.
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Unfortunately for Rossi, Sunday was the day of that game. And instead of skating up and down the rink in front of his old junior coach, the 21-year-old rookie spent a fourth straight game in the press box and only saw Tourigny from high above the ice directly across from the Coyotes’ bench.
Not only hasn’t Rossi played since logging less than nine minutes on Nov. 17, the Wild used seven defensemen during Sunday’s 4-3 win over the Coyotes and opted to sit Rossi and recently-recalled veteran forward Nic Petan.
As has been speculated for more than a week, Rossi was informed after the game that he was being assigned to Iowa for the first time this season, according to two people who had direct knowledge of the conversation, speaking anonymously because the move won’t be announced until Monday.
Rossi, who set an Iowa rookie record with 53 points in 63 games last season, will fly to San Jose, Calif., and is expected to be in Iowa’s lineup Tuesday and Wednesday against the Barracuda.
Wild general manager Bill Guerin and coach Dean Evason have acknowledged for more than a week that sending Rossi to Iowa was probably in the cards. In fact, it’s believed the Wild came close to sending Rossi down last week until Brandon Duhaime sustained an upper-body injury, then kept Rossi a little while longer because there were some game-time decisions the past two games due to illness and some banged-up bodies among the forwards.
The Wild don’t play again until Thursday, so the timing of the decision on Rossi makes sense. In fact, Evason telegraphed it after Saturday’s practice, saying, “You don’t want a guy sitting obviously that long, so have we talked about it? Yeah, I’d be lying if we didn’t obviously. Have we made a decision? Most likely.”
Tourigny said the Wild and their fans should not be worried at all about the 2020 first-round pick who had just one assist, 11 shots and a 45.5 faceoff winning percentage in 16 games this season and no goals in 18 career NHL games.
Marco Rossi scratched for fourth straight game. Would have to imagine an assignment to AHL Iowa could be coming. More on that in here… Also Brodin back, McIntyre backing up Fleury today with Gustavsson out https://t.co/5T2vdBWgLH — Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) November 27, 2022
“He’s in a good spot, in a good organization, and he has a bright future here,” Tourigny told The Athletic after the Coyotes practiced at Xcel Energy Center on Saturday. “It’s not like they don’t like him, it’s just a matter of the situation they’re in. They’re trying to win, they’re working with him and he’s growing in his game. Marco Rossi will be a really good NHL player.
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“Trust me. He’s an unbelievable pro. Takes care of his body, takes care of every detail, he’s super driven, super competitive. He’s really shifty. He has an unbelievable IQ, great hockey sense. It’s a matter for him to keep getting more mature in all of it. But Marco Rossi’s a hell of player. On and off the ice, he’s as low maintenance as you can find. He’s the most prepared guy you can find. He was a blast to coach.”
Tourigny saw the best of Rossi, who before the import draft made clear to all Canadian Hockey League teams that he so wanted to play in Ottawa and would remain playing in Zurich, Switzerland, if another team drafted him.
Rossi played for Tourigny for two years with the 67’s, scoring 65 points in 53 games his rookie year. Then, during his draft year, Rossi scored 39 goals and 120 points in 56 games to become the first European in history to lead the Ontario Hockey League in scoring and the first European to lead the entire CHL in scoring since Alex Radulov had 152 points for Quebec in 2005-06.
Rossi led the OHL with 81 assists and a plus-69 and was the second European import in OHL history to be named MVP. His 2.14 points per game ranked second in the CHL behind 2020 No. 1 pick Alexis Lafrenière (2.15), who played in the Quebec League for Rimouski.
“It’s his IQ for me, it’s first quality,” Tourigny said. “I compare him a lot to Ryan O’Reilly, who I coached (with the Colorado Avalanche). Read the play, really competitive, good with and without the puck. I think they’re not the biggest guys, but they’re really, really competitive and they understand the game and what they have to do to be effective and how the opponent can generate their offense. So they are high IQ, special players.
“Wild fans need to understand this is a process. This is a hard league. Look at a lot of the recent first-rounders and how long it takes them to adjust. I’m not nervous at all about Marco Rossi. Not at all. But I always say Marco is not a point producer. He’s a Ryan O’Reilly. Did you ever see Ryan O’Reilly be a top-10 scorer in the league?”
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Now, O’Reilly, the 31-year-old St. Louis Blues captain who stands four inches taller than the 5-foot-9 Rossi, has scored 682 points in 959 games (.71 points per game), finished 19th in scoring in 2020-21 and tied for 31st in 2018-19. But you get Tourigny’s point. He believes Rossi will be an effective, all-around player like O’Reilly that can check good players, win key faceoffs and contribute offensively.
It hasn’t happened for Rossi yet as he continues to get used to the pace of play in the NHL and learns how to play in a league that’s tight-checking with little time to make plays. The Wild want him to be more assertive, not just with the puck, but when it comes to playing in high-traffic areas and not looking intimidated against physical teams. It’s clear a recent game against Nashville where Rossi struggled was an eye-opener to management that Rossi may need more seasoning in the minors.
Guerin discussed the Rossi situation and the Iowa option last week. Rossi, who led the NHL in preseason scoring, had played with just about every linemate in the regular season except two.
Rossi got some games next to goal scorer Matt Boldy earlier this season, but on a team that’s giving unwanted Anaheim Ducks first-round pick Sam Steel a try on the top line and earlier this season used Tyson Jost and Freddy Gaudreau after Ryan Hartman got hurt, the one place the Wild hadn’t given Rossi a shot was between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello.
But it was clear Evason wasn’t just going to hand him that spot unless he earned it.
“Clearly we don’t want anybody sitting out any length of time. You don’t want a young player sitting out any length of time,” Evason said Saturday. “But again, we talked a lot about turning things positively and learning. You can do a lot of thinking and evaluating and as long as it doesn’t get to the point where it turns real negative, then you can use it in the right direction. His attitude has been real good. Practices have been real good. He’s handled it so far real well. He’s not happy obviously. We don’t want him to be.”
When Tourigny was told it sounded like Rossi would be sent to the minors after Sunday’s game, he rolled his eyes and gave a “who cares?” look.
“For me it’s long term, it’s a marathon for him, and if it does happen, it does happen, and it will be good for him to go there and play a lot of minutes, play a different role and have the opportunity to play really well,” Tourigny said. “So for me, I have zero worries. He will overcome whatever goes through his way.”
(Photo of Marco Rossi: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)