Now that Eli, as his friends in the Copper Country and in the Green Bay area call him, has graduated, his father is getting a new opportunity to be a leader of young men.

On Thursday, July 13, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye announced Mikesch as the fourth head coach in club history.

Walleye President and CEO Joe Napoli expressed his excitement in hiring Mikesch in a press release.

“We are thrilled to welcome Pat to the Walleye,” he said. “He is well respected within the hockey community and has a proven history of recruiting and developing elite hockey players.”

Former Michigan Tech forward Pat Mikesch skates up the ice with the puck during the 1995-96 season at the MacInnes Student Ice Arena in Houghton. (Photo provided by Michigan Tech University)

In fact, that is exactly what Mikesch was doing with the Gamblers for 11 seasons, three as an associate head coach and eight as a head coach. He is credited with coaching and assisting in the development of nearly 30 players who have been drafted by NHL teams, including Casey Mittelstadt, Nick Schmaltz, Jordan Schmaltz, Andrew Peeke, Andy Welinski, Mason Lohrei and Gustaf Olofsson.

He has barely been on the job a week, and he has already been assessing what life with the Walleye will be like.

“It’s been full throttle since I took the position,” he said. “I was in Toledo all last week leading up to the press conference, working with the staff there, figuring out who we had returning, and kind of trying to figure out who we’d be getting from the (Detroit) Red Wings throughout their organization, and then working on free agency. So, that’s just kind of continued into this week. It’s been good.”

The Walleye are the ECHL affiliate of the Red Wings, who are just 58 miles Northeast on I-75. The connections between the two clubs do not end there. Mikesch served under Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde in Green Bay before the latter moved on to become the head coach of the Walleye, opening the same role up with the Gamblers in 2014 for Mikesch to step into.

Also, the Red Wings’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, announced a new head coach in June, Dan Watson, who vacated the role with the Walleye that Mikesch has taken to move up to the next level.

For Mikesch, having those connections in the organization will help as he works with players who dream of moving up and eventually getting their shot at the NHL.

“Knowing Derek so well in Detroit, I’ve gotten to know Dan well, already, here in Grand Rapids,” Mikesch said. “So, you kind of see how the steps need to happen. Dan, having been the Toledo coach here previously, has been a tremendous resource for me.

“It’s nice to know who the guys are that I’ll be working with, and how that development model works.”

The Red Wings have been very careful with how they have managed getting resources to the Walleye. The goal, of course, is to develop the Wings’ talent base at each level.

“Detroit has put a lot of support into Toledo, and, obviously, Grand Rapids is that one step closer to the NHL,” said Mikesch. “So, our biggest role is to make sure that the Red Wing prospects are being prepared to get to the American League. Then, from that point on, Dan takes over, and he starts the next level of development to get them ready for Detroit.”

For Mikesch, developing talent at the ECHL level is not really different from developing talent at the USHL level. The main difference is that he is now preparing professional hockey players, rather than student athletes for NCAA Division I schools.

“There’s an expectation, and Toledo has had great success,” he said. “So, with that comes an expectation from an amazing fan base. I mean, they draw great, the community supports the team so well, and so, it’s a fan base that expects to have a great team every year, that has the ability to compete for a championship.

“So, I don’t think you get into coaching, and not have that expectation. You want that pressure. You want your players to understand that they’re in a position to win a championship. That has to be a mentality from day one.”

Mikesch is really excited to be back in an organization that includes Lalonde, whom he holds in high regard as a mentor and a friend. Lalonde joined the Red Wings last season after being an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning under Jon Cooper.

“Derek’s been a tremendous mentor for me, and whether he was in Toledo, and then off to Iowa with the American League team, and then on to Tampa, he’s always been a great resource,” said Mikesch. “We’ve stayed in touch. We think hockey very similarly. So, it’s somebody that (I can) always bounce things off of. It’s fun to be there, to see what he’s accomplished, and where he’s at. At the same time, he’s a great mentor that I’m able to learn from.”

At 50 years old, Mikesch still admits that his main goal in hockey was to be a player at Michigan Tech, which he did from 1992-96. During his four years in Black and Gold, he never scored less than 12 goals and 38 points. His best offensive season came in 1993-94, when he scored 14 goals and 50 points in 45 games. From there, he bounced around the ECHL, the AHL, the International Hockey League, and then on to Germany, where he spent three seasons with the Kassel Huskies and one with the DEG Metro Stars.

“I’ve always said my dream was to play at Michigan Tech, and then, after that, everything expanded into a further playing career, and then getting into coaching,” he said. “It was probably around that time of getting to Michigan Tech that I really started to think about wanting to be a coach in the future.

“As my career evolved, I kind of felt at every level that some coach gave me something that was going to help me to be a coach in the future.”

Mikesch felt he learned a lot from then-head coach Bob Mancini, who guided him through his four years with the Huskies.

Once he finished his career as a player, he returned to Michigan Tech as an assistant coach from 2004-11 under Jamie Russell. For Mikesch, the experience of being a coach at his alma mater opened his eyes to the larger hockey world.

“My time at Michigan Tech as a coach, I got to see the day-to-day, what it looks like hour after hour,” he said. “I think that sometimes, as a player, you didn’t really appreciate everything that went into being a coach, calls that need to be made at night. It’s a full 24-hour-a-day job.

“It seems like where your head doesn’t stop when you’re in season. That was probably the biggest thing, when I first got into coaching, you realize all the other things that have to happen. It’s just not putting a practice plan together. It’s the recruiting side of it, and the relationship-building to make sure that you’re connected in that hockey world, and you’re going to be able to bring players in.”

In fact, with free agency in full swing, Mikesch is already using his recruiting skills as he works to flesh out the Walleye roster.

“The ECHL still ties in that recruiting part,” he said. “If I look at our roster right now, there’s been some key veterans that have been re-signed in Toledo that we’re excited to have back. We know we’re going to be getting players from the Red Wings, but we don’t know who they are yet. So, we’re doing a lot of recruiting of free agents right now, and needing to sign them to contracts, so that we’ve got that base all covered.”

Adding in Wings’ prospects who need ice time to develop will be important to development for everyone involved.

“The Red Wings’ side of it will be something that’s a moving target,” said Mikesch. “There could be players down with me for one week, and then I don’t see them for the rest of the year. So, working with the staff in Grand Rapids and trying to get a clearer picture of, ‘OK, this is what we expect you to start with,’ but then, ultimately, that’s a moving target all year. As soon as you have an injury, now you’re trying to make sure you have that, that next player available and able to bring them into Toledo.

“So, if you look at what a roster size looks like by the end of the year with an ECHL team, it’s remarkable just because there’s so many different moving parts, guys getting called up and guys getting sent down, and everything that goes into it. So, there’s a lot of recruiting that goes into this process for me as well.”

Mikesch has been fortunate as a coach to be able to remain in the Midwest, and within driving distance of the Copper Country. He and his wife Aimee get back in the summer to enjoy the warm weather when they can.

“It’s been very convenient how much I’m able to get home in the summer and see family,” he said. “That is great. My playing career kind of took me away from my family with years in Florida and New Haven, Connecticut, (and) over in Germany. So, it’s been fortunate how it’s worked out in my coaching career so far.”

The Walleye open their season on Saturday, Oct. 21, on the road against Kalamazoo.