Of course, South Carolina Stingrays forward Jack Adams wants to be a hockey coach someday. With that name, how could he not?

The NHL’s Coach of the Year award is named after another Jack Adams, who coached the Detroit Red Wings to three Stanley Cups in the 1930s and 1940s and won six other Cups as a player or general manager.

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Asked if his name made him predestined to become a coach, the Stingrays’ Jack Adams said Thursday with a laugh: “I feel like you can’t not coach at that point. It’s too well scripted.”

His dream job would be at Notre Dame, where he played college hockey from 2021 to 2023. He calls the staff there – head coach Jeff Jackson, and associate coaches Paul Pooley, Andy Slaggart and Brock Sheahan – “family.”

Adams had been through some terrible times – the death of his older brother and best friend, Mark “Roo” Adams, and a knee injury that almost derailed his own hockey career – but time in South Bend, Indiana, turned Jack Adams back into a stellar pro prospect, and he’s now one of the ECHL’s brightest rookie players.

“Everyone at Notre Dame, it’s just the best place in the world, and they literally saved my life,” the 27-year-old Adams said.

A native of Boxford, Massachusetts, Adams was a sixth-round draft pick of the Red Wings and a rising star at Union College in the fall of 2018 when Roo died at 27 of a heart attack. 

Roo had been a great hockey player, too. He was a defenseman who helped Providence to the 2015 NCAA championship. But his hockey career ended when he developed a blood clot during the Los Angeles Kings’ training camp in 2015. 

Roo was working in the pharmaceutical industry when he died; he had what’s known as an athlete’s heart, in which it’s enlarged, and that led to congestive heart failure.

“He was a mix of being my best friend and my second dad, almost,” said Adams, one of four siblings. “He was incredibly hard on me. But he was also, by far, my biggest fan in the world, not even close.

“I remember, I was going through the (NHL) draft process and he called the head scout in Buffalo, just out of the blue, and told him, ‘If you don’t draft Jack Adams, you don’t know hockey whatsoever.’ He was that kind of guy. He was over-the-top loyal and supportive, my workout partner in the offseason and he was everything to me. He still is.”

Roo had coached Jack Adams in many ways – they’d talk on the phone after Jack’s games and break down what had just happened – but Adams said that his older brother’s death didn’t make it hard for him to lace up skates. Much the opposite.

“Hockey was kind of my escape,” Adams said. “Away from the rink was really difficult. Going home at night, sleeping and eating, that was tough. But being at the rink was my safe space. (Coach) Rick Bennett was so amazing at Union for me. It was amazing how well they treated me, and that was honestly my safe space.”

In 66 games at Union between 2017 and 2019, Adams totaled 14 goals and 35 points. But he suffered a knee injury at the Red Wings’ 2019 developmental camp, tearing two ligaments and damaging cartilage. 

He missed the entire 2019-2020 season and then, because Union College didn’t play in 2020-2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, decided to transfer.

He couldn’t get into his first choice, Notre Dame, as an undergraduate, and decided to play at Roo’s old school, Providence, for the 2020-2021 campaign. Unfortunately, a bout with COVID, and then his aching knee, limited him to only six games.

“I wasn’t really ready to play, but I thought I was,” Adams said. “I didn’t realize how far behind the 8-ball I was until I got there. I was kind of left with my feet in the sand at that point.”

He had problems bending, squatting, doing anything without pain, and he was coming to grips with it being the end of his hockey career and maybe his start in coaching.

That really hit him while eating dinner at a Boston restaurant with his parents around March 2021.

“I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror and I started breaking down,” Adams said. “All these things I’d worked for my whole life were potentially coming to an end. Ironically, Notre Dame called the next day. I’ll never forget that. It was probably a sign I was meant to be there.”

As a graduate transfer, Adams resurrected his career with Notre Dame; he played 70 games between 2021 and 2023 and totaled 13 goals and 29 points, then signed with the Stingrays last summer.

?Adams
? O'Neil
? Swoyer pic.twitter.com/1aJ4IPG8ZZ

— SC Stingrays (@SCStingrays) February 21, 2024

South Carolina (33-20-3) is in third place in the South Division, arguably the ECHL’s toughest, and he’s totaled 19 goals and 51 points (fourth among ECHL rookies) in 57 games.

He uses his 6-foot-6 size to overwhelm opponents and screen goaltenders, and he’s been ably taught by South Carolina coach Brendan Kotyk, who was a 6-foot-5 ECHL defenseman.

“I live in the blue paint,” Adams said. “I take a lot of pride in my hockey sense. And I really like to make my teammates better. I try to (read) the situation and get in the right spot, and I think I move pretty well for a big guy. 

“I try to spend most of my time trying to create havoc in front of the net, create space for my linemates, get in the goalies’ eyes, tip pucks in front of the net. But also, I’m trying to play a hard, skilled game, and it’s paying off so far.”

Adams, who began the season at the bottom of the depth chart, is spending a lot of time playing on a forward line with Austin Magera, who has 22 goals and leads ECHL rookies with 57 points in 55 games, and Jonny Evans. 

But the Stingrays’ lineup is balanced from top to bottom including forward Tyson Empey, forward Garet Hunt, defenseman Connor Moore and rookie goalie Mitchell Gibson, who all are among the ECHL’s best.

“We’re relentless,” Adams said of the Stingrays’ style of play. “I know it sounds cliché, but I think we’re a family. This is the closest hockey team I’ve ever played on. That starts at the top with our management and our staff, and especially our captain, Huntsy. He’s done an amazing job of gluing this team together and making us all buy into what Kotsy puts in front of us. I couldn’t be luckier to have a captain like that in my first year. It makes us relentless and hard to play against.”

Adams looked back at all he’s been through since 2018 – Roo’s death, the injury, the transfers – and acknowledged that it has given him a perspective and level of grit some players may lack. 

As many rookies flounder this time of year, unaccustomed to the rigors of the ECHL schedule, he’s continuing to flourish. He has four assists in his last three games.

Roo remains a strong presence for Adams, who incorporates his brother into prayers every time he takes to the ice, and that’s never going to change.

“It’s something that gives me a lot of peace and kind of calms me down,” Adams said.

And he’s one of many who keep Roo’s memory alive. 

The Mark “Roo” Adams Foundation has raised money for youth hockey, foster children, rescue animals and to benefit a scholarship at Providence for students – not necessarily athletes – who align with Roo’s character. 

“I love talking about him as a person, most importantly, and his values. He was a great fiancé, great brother, great sibling, great friend, great teammate. Those are the things I love to talk about.”

- Stingrays Forward Jack Adams pic.twitter.com/afXwMImUKv

— SC Stingrays (@SCStingrays) February 29, 2024

There’s an annual golf outing at Turner Hill Golf Club in Ipswich, Massachusetts, and Jack Adams recommended people stay tuned to the Stingrays’ social media channels for information on that closer to the summer.

“It’s nice having old friends, teammates, everyone come on board to visit and share old stories,” Adams said. “It brings a lot of peace to our family.”

For now, Adams is focused on helping the Stingrays make the playoffs – they have 16 games left in the regular season – and he’s soaking up information along the way.

Someday, he hopes to put that knowledge to use as a coach.

“I have a lot that I want to do before that,” Adams said. “But my dream is to be a college hockey coach when all is said and done.”

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