TORONTO — When it comes to handling professional turbulence with grace, John Gruden has pretty unique experience. In November 2015, his single, truncated season as coach of the Flint Firebirds was briefly interrupted when owner Rolf Nilsen axed him. While no clear explanation was ever offered up, Nilsen was believed to be upset that his son — Firebirds defenceman Hakon Nilsen — was not receiving as much ice time under Gruden as the Sr. Nilsen thought he should.

Whatever the case, a wild few days ensued in Flint, as players — including Hakon Nilsen — walked out on the team in protest. Gruden was re-installed behind the bench after less than a week of unemployment. The Firebirds hosted the Sarnia Sting on a Friday night and, after screaming out to a 4-0 first-period lead, the players hung on for a 4-3 win to hand Gruden the victory they so clearly wanted to deliver.

After the contest, Gruden — who had just been given his big head coaching break that year and won his OHL debut to start that season — met with a couple reporters in bowels of the Dort Federal Event Center. When asked how it felt to get that first win after the unimaginable craziness of the preceding days, Gruden didn’t miss his pitch.

“So I’m back to 1-0 again?” he said with a grin.

Nilsen eventually fired him for good in February 2016, and since that bizarre start Gruden has enjoyed plenty of success and much more stability. He celebrated an OHL title shortly after departing Flint and spent half a decade beside a couple of the best coaches in the world as an NHL assistant. Today, he’s the first-year head coach of a Toronto Marlies team trying to nail down an AHL playoff spot. Naturally, he’s had to learn and adapt over time, but at his core, he remains a coach players are still plenty happy to go to bat for. “Our relationship grew a lot throughout the year,” says Marlies captain Logan Shaw, “and I have nothing but good things to say about him.”

Shaw was speaking after a late-morning practice at Toronto’s Coca-Cola Coliseum during one of the final Fridays of the regular season. Minutes later, Gruden — in the same Marlies cap and track suit he wore on the ice, with Nike slides replacing his skates — stood outside the team dressing room and discussed the switch from serving as an assistant with a New York Islanders squad that made the NHL’s final four in consecutive years and a Boston Bruins team that recorded a record 135 points last season to being the guy running the show for the Marlies.

“When you’re an assistant in the National Hockey League, you’re clear-cut on what your responsibilities are,” he says. “The head coach gives you a job description and that’s what you do. You stay in your lane, you do your job.”

That, of course, is a different mandate than the one he had for two years as head coach of the OHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, and certainly differs from what he’s doing as the top man for an AHL club. At the highest level of the minors, Gruden notes, players are at very different arcs in their careers. Many are young guys with big NHL dreams; some are hanging in, trying to get even a cup of coffee in the show; and still others are veterans just looking to live the pro hockey life as long as possible. Wrapped up with his duty to provide wins for the Marlies, Gruden believes his responsibility is to connect with everyone on the team regardless of their big-picture goals at the rink.

“It’s your job to put everyone in that environment where they all can succeed, they all can show what they have and they all can grow,” he says.

According to Shaw, Gruden achieves that largely by giving players set structure, along with a good amount of space. “He’s the kind of coach who holds everyone accountable,” says the veteran forward, who got ringing endorsements of Gruden from Boston’s Brad Marchand and New York’s Noah Dobson when he reached out after the coach was hired. “But he lets you play your game, he wants you to play your game, he wants you to play with the puck.”

Of course, Gruden also understands — even if you’re going to give players a wide berth — guardrails must be implemented. That’s something the 53-year-old learned not only from coaching, but from raising three children. “I do give rope, but then you have to know when to tighten it up,” he says.

When someone crosses a line with Gruden, there’s no mistaking it. “When he gets mad, you know he’s mad,” Shaw says.

Those moments are the exception to the rule, though. Gruden — who actually coached against his son in the AHL this year — is just not the type to stretch his suit gesturing angrily at referees, and that’s certainly by design. “If I’m acting out of control, I’m guessing our team is going to play out of control,” he says. “It’s not a good way to go about it.”

Maintaining a level head certainly served him well all those years ago in Flint. Going back even further, though, Gruden — who saw 92 games as an NHL defenceman and a whole lot more in the minors during a 10-year career — had no notion during his playing days he’d eventually be one of the guys making line changes and drawing up plays.

“Absolutely not,” he says. “But once my career was done and it was time to do what I needed to do to support a family, everything drew me back to the ice rink.”

The transition started with being an assistant on his son’s youth teams in Michigan. That grew to coaching a high-school squad, opening up a training facility and eventually becoming an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team Development Program. In 2015, Flint came calling and even though he could never have imagined how things would play out (for context, Nilsen was suspended for five years for his outlandish actions), Gruden’s measured response in trying circumstances wound up telling the hockey world something about his character.

“Every situation is different. You might not like it, but you have to handle it with class and do it right,” he says. “Sometimes it’s not how you [enter] a door, it’s how you go out. Being a good person and understanding that is important. That’s what I did. I still learned a lot from it. Without that opportunity in Flint, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I still see some of the guys [from that Firebirds team] and what they did was impressive, and I greatly appreciated that.”

What Gruden and the Bulldogs achieved just two years later was remarkable, too. In his second OHL stop, Gruden guided the Dogs to a league championship in Year 2 behind the bench.

“Adaptability is so important,” says Gruden, when asked what he learned from winning a major junior title. “You always have a blueprint of what you think should work, but I think it’s being able to handle the adversity.”

That Bulldogs squad was and is owned by Michael Andlauer. The fact Andlauer now also owns the Ottawa Senators has prompted some to underline the connection between a coach who’s built quite a resume at a variety of levels and a team that will be looking for a new full-time bench boss shortly. Gruden — who worked beside two Jack Adams winners in Barry Trotz in New York and Jim Montgomery in Boston — naturally aspires to ply his craft at the highest level, but is not spending his days planning his next move.

“I’m all about, at the end of the day, just doing my job to the best of my ability,” he says. “It’s like a player; if you go out, you do your job, you know you’ll get another contract. I just want to continue being a better version of myself because there are always things to learn. If that time ever comes, of course that’s something I’d like to do. But I’m not in any hurry for that to happen. I’m just here trying to help the Marlies get in the playoffs and then win from there.”

Always moving forward, but never looking past the next victory.

Amid Senators speculation, Gruden focused on Marlies' next game

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