Rod Aldoff retires from Pensacola Ice Flyers after nine years

It didn’t take long for Pensacola Ice Flyers head coach Rod Aldoff and team owner Greg Harris to click.

There was the obvious feeling-out period to understand each other leading into the 2013-14 Southern Professional Hockey League season. The Ice Flyers were fresh off a President’s Cup championship. Harris noted “it’s not easy for a new coach to come to a team after winning a championship under another coach.”

But that didn’t matter to Aldoff. In his first season in Pensacola, Aldoff led Pensacola to a first-place, regular-season finish, a second consecutive President’s Cup that the Ice Flyers won in dominant fashion, and he was also named the SPHL Coach of the Year.

“Instantly, it was like, ‘I’ve got a good guy here.’ It didn’t take long in any way,” Harris said. “The proof was in the pudding, and he definitely set the bar extremely high. It was amazing.”

High Attendance: Ice Flyers' record attendance in past season leads to windfall for area charities

Three's Company Ice Flyers hire Rod Aldoff for third go-round as head coach

After a career regular-season record of 237-154-54 and a playoff record of 22-11, plus a trio of championships in 2013, 2016 and 2021, Aldoff, 52, has decided it’s time to return home. He announced his retirement from the Pensacola head coaching position on Wednesday following nine seasons with the Ice Flyers.

Harris said the expectations in Pensacola are to win championships. That’s exactly what Aldoff brought to the Ice Flyers.

Aldoff noted that it was thanks to Harris, who helped bring in “good people that push hard. It’s tough to lose with those people,” Aldoff said.

“Without Rod Aldoff, the Ice Flyers aren’t where we are today. That alone says it all,” Harris said. “Even after we won the championship, I’d bug him every now and then and say, ‘Hey Rod, smile, we just won.’ His response would be, ‘Well, this is what we were supposed to do.’ That was just his mentality. I’m not saying he didn’t smile, but that was his approach to things. When you have those expectations and those standards, it’s hard to not radiate across the organization and across the city and across our fans.”

Following a 15-year playing career and a 12-year coaching career, Aldoff said “hockey’s been what (he’s) done (his) whole life.” But now it’s time to be with his family.

“My son’s 14 (years old) and I have a daughter who’s 26. I’ve been gone most of their lives. It’s time to be home and spend time with them and my wife,” Aldoff said. “I’m very fortunate and lucky to do what I do. But it’s time to be home with them, and then move forward from there.”

Harris said he knew it was a possibility that Aldoff would call it quits after this season. While retirement may have been on Aldoff’s mind before it became official, Harris complimented Aldoff because “he was still taking care of things. It wasn’t like he just fell off the face of the map.”

“After some time at home with his family and talking with his family, he made that decision,” Harris said. “I 100% respect it and understand it.”

Similar personalities

When Harris initially hired Aldoff, he wasn’t expecting him to have a long tenure as head coach. There’s always the hope that a coach will stick around for the long term and be “committed to the organization,” Harris said.

It was Aldoff’s experience and knowledge – both as a player and the business side of hockey – that made him stand out, Harris said. “Everyone that I talked to about him spoke extremely highly of him,” he added.

Aldoff said he and Harris have similar personalities: they’re both pretty humble but they want things done professionally. They both have similar expectations for players on the ice and off the ice.

“We not only want to win championships and first class as a hockey team, we want to be first-class people away from the rink. You’re dealing with older guys that have been through college. It’s a learning experience to be a professional and to take care of yourself, and to be the great person in the community because people are watching, kids are watching,” Aldoff said. “It should just be normal. That’s what Greg preaches. That’s what I believe in as well.”

“To find a guy that can meet our expectations on the ice but also meet our expectations off the ice, those are the players we want,” Harris said. “It was natural to Rod on what he wanted, and it was natural to me what I wanted out of a player. It was easy to have that synergy. … We were pulling on the same rope at the same time in the same direction, and it all worked out.”

It was that synergy and matching personalities that not only allowed Aldoff to have the long tenure in Pensacola, but to come back for multiple stints.

Aldoff went to become the head coach of the Norfolk Admirals in the ECHL during the 2016-17 season, but was fired just months in after the team went under an ownership change. “He got a tough crack at it. I hated that for him, I really did,” Harris said.

Aldoff came back that season as head coach, while remaining with the Edmonton Oilers as a scout. He continued that role full time during the 2017-18 season, but came back a third time to Pensacola before the 2018-19 campaign.

“I knew Greg and his standards. I knew the organization’s standards as to how we want things done,” Aldoff said. “That part was easy to come back to, and to step into something I already was a part of. I knew the organization well, I knew Greg well, so it was pretty easy to come back and keep things rolling along.”

“It was just something where we had such a good working relationship that it was, ‘Hey, if you want to come back, it’s yours,’” Harris said. “He had the ultimate flexibility to do whatever he wished his with career.”

What’s next?

For Aldoff, who lives in Wisconsin, he’s not sure if he’ll return to professional coaching. “I haven’t thought any further ahead than now,” he added. For now, he’s looking into some other things that he’s had “on the backburner” that he now has more time for.

After 20-plus years of being involved in the game of hockey, “you don’t do this game that long if you don’t have a love for it,” he said. Aldoff said it was a tough decision to step away but after realizing it was harder for his family to visit now that his son is in high school, “it’s the right move at this time.”

“But you have to love the game to do it every day and to want to do it again and keep doing it. I’ll always love the game no matter what capacity it’s at,” Aldoff said. “(My son is) 14. He needs me to be there for him, and he wants me to be there for him. … I hope to help out my son’s high school team and help when I can and still be part of the game.”

Even though he won’t be coaching in Pensacola anymore, he knows he’ll come down to visit and see some people – including Harris, who’s “become a great friend” – and hopefully catch an Ice Flyers game or two.

“I’m going to miss the people. The people are very nice in the community of Pensacola. It’s a beautiful area. … They love the game as well, and they can’t wait for another hockey game. When the season’s over, everyone can’t wait until next year, just like the players and coaches,” Aldoff said. “I’ve been the luckiest coach in the world for the last nine years. … I’m going to miss it for sure. It’s just time to move on.”

For Harris, he’s not setting a strict timeline of when the Ice Flyers will announce their new head coach. Whether it’s by the end of the week or two months down the road, Harris is focused on one thing: finding the right person.

“I’m more worried about making sure I have the right coach instead of fitting it into a timeline because at the end of the day, the time here is short compared to the longevity of a potential new coach,” Harris said. “I just want to take my time and make sure I’ve got everything in place.”

That’s not to say there’s a lack of potential skippers. Harris said he has a lot of “great qualified coaches knocking on (his) door already.”

“We’ve built the organization into a very well-known and well-respected organization. People want to be a part of it. They want to be a part of what we do here and the success we have and the championships we have,” Harris said. “And living on the beach or near the beach does not hurt at all, either. It’s just a great combination of what we can offer a potential new coach.”

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Rod Aldoff retires from head coaching position with Pensacola Ice Flyers