Amerks Peca was appointed Rangers assistant coach | TheAHL.com

Rochester Americans Assistant Coach michael pecca has been named an assistant coach for the New York Rangers, where he will work with the new head coach Peter Laviolette and his staff.

Peca spent the last two seasons with the Amerks overseeing the teams offense. Rochester made back-to-back postseason appearances, including a trip to the Eastern Conference finals this spring.

Peca was instrumental in the development of several of the Buffalo Sabres’ top prospects over the past two years, in particular Jack Quinn, Jiri Kulich and Isak Rosenthe team’s first-round picks from each of the last three years, plus the 2020 second-round pick JJ Peterka2022-23 team MVP Brandon Biro, Linus Weissbachand Brett Murray.

Peca spent the 2020-21 season as a player development coach for the Washington Capitals under Laviolette, working primarily with players on the taxi team.

As a player, Peca began his rookie season with Syracuse, scoring 34 points in 35 games with the AHLs Crunch in 1994-95. He spent 15 years in the NHL with Vancouver, Buffalo, New York Islanders, Edmonton, Toronto and Columbus, appearing in 864 games and twice winning the Frank J. Selke Trophy as the NHL’s outstanding defensive forward. Peca, who captained the Sabers to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999 and returned to the Finals with the Oilers in 2006, was also part of Canada’s gold medal team at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.

In 2016, Peca was the honorary captain of the AHL All-Star Classic in Syracuse.