Patrick Williams, TheAHL.com Features Writer
Last week Pittsburgh Penguins assistant coach Mike Stothers stepped aboard a plane and flew to Sweden.
Stockholm, home to the NHL Global Series doubleheader between Pittsburgh and the Nashville Predators, is a long way from where Stothers stood two-and-a-half years ago. November is Hockey Fights Cancer Month, and Stothers as much as anyone has an all-too-real direct connection to it. The Penguins host their Hockey Fight Cancer Night tonight, and Stothers will be back standing behind a bench where he belongs.
In March 2023, Stothers – who made his name in the AHL as a hard-nosed defenseman before making five coaching stops around the league – went public with his diagnosis of stage 3 melanoma of the lymph node.
Then an assistant with the Anaheim Ducks, Stothers – who was head coach of the Los Angeles Kings’ AHL affiliates in Manchester and Ontario from 2014 to 2020 – followed a hunch. Something felt wrong. But while receiving tough news, he still made sure to think of how he could help others.
“If I could share one simple message to all: Listen to your body,” Stothers said in announcing his diagnosis. “If you notice something unusual, or don’t feel like yourself, consult a doctor immediately. Please do not wait. It could be the best decision you ever make.”
That intuition may well have saved his life. Maybe it can save someone else’s life, too. Stothers’ news came early enough to give him and his medical team time to fight back.
“Actually, I feel terrific,” Stothers said earlier this year, “and I say that honestly. Like, I’m not just saying it for the sake of saying it. I was very fortunate that I had some great care from the doctors and the nurses and everybody in Anaheim. Obviously there were some ups and downs, emotional situations that you go through, but I couldn’t have asked for better health care.”
Popular and outgoing wherever he has gone, Stothers has always been someone to look for bright spots. The definition of a tough stay-at-home defenseman for Hershey’s gritty teams of the 1980’s, his open, friendly and direct manner earned him considerable respect from his players through the years after he went into coaching. That mentality also served him well when cancer came calling.
Stothers and his medical team worked to beat back the cancer, and he transitioned to an advisory role with the Anaheim organization in 2023-24. By 2024, Stothers went back home to Owen Sound, Ont. One of the bright spots involved much more family time than normal.
“I’m just kind of laying a little bit low,” Stothers said last year. “I told my family I’d be a little bit more present in their lives, and so I’m just living my life through my grandkids and their activities and their sporting events. I’m enjoying it. [The stress of] wins and losses, power play, special teams, everything, it adds up.”
In January came news of Stothers’ selection for the Hershey Bears Hall of Fame. He played parts of eight seasons in Hershey before beginning his coaching career there. When the Flyers moved their affiliation to Philadelphia, he remained an assistant with the Phantoms, winning a Calder Cup in 1998. His first AHL head-coaching assignment came with the Grand Rapids Griffins in 2007, and he took the Manchester Monarchs to a championship in 2015.
It has been a long hockey life for Stothers and his family, one that started when he was picked by the Flyers in the first round of the 1980 NHL Draft. Cancer meant having to slow down for one of the first times in his life. Being home with his wife Judi, their children and grandchildren made sense.
But Stothers is also meant to be in hockey. He returned to the bench this season, joining Todd Nelson, Nick Bonino and Rich Clune as assistants on new Penguins head coach Dan Muse’s staff.
“I’ve been with a lot of different organizations, and I’ve enjoyed my time with each and every one,” Stothers told pittsburghpenguins.com. “But there’s something about the Penguins and how they operate…that appealed to me, and I did feel like there was some unfinished business. I’d kind of like to ride out into the sunset.”
On the American Hockey League beat for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams also currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor on SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for his outstanding coverage of the league in 2016.
