It’s been five years since David Andrews, the former president and CEO of the American Hockey League, was at the center of the transaction that brought professional sports back to Southern Arizona.
Yet today, it’s the semi-retired Andrews who is finding his way to Tucson Arena for Roadrunners hockey games. And it’s Andrews who is conducting business from his view-laden backyard at the foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains. And it’s Andrews who’s reflecting on how he and his wife, Marleen, ended up moving last month to a city they’d never visited until the Roadrunners moved here in 2016.
“Every trip was for hockey purposes,” he said of the semi-regular visits to check in on the Tucson franchise and meet with Roadrunners’ team president Bob Hoffman about league business. “But we took some extra time around a couple of those trips to look at houses and get a feel for the area.”
Andrews, 73, retired as the AHL’s top executive in 2020, but still serves as chairman of the league’s board of governors., He is widely considered among the most impactful individuals in the history of the 85-year-old league circuit. Taking over the AHL’s top post in 1994 after a successful run as a major junior coach and AHL team executive, Andrews oversaw the league’s growth from 18 teams to 27 in 2001; the AHL is now 31 teams strong, with a 32nd on the way next season set for Southern California’s Coachella Valley.
In 2015, Andrews and his AHL counterparts set into motion the series of events that would change Tucson’s future — and his own.
In an effort to better geographically align the NHL’s westernmost clubs with their AHL affiliates, the league moved five of its teams to California. The next year, the NHL’s Arizona Coyotes purchased the Springfield (Massachusetts) Falcons, moved them west to Tucson, and renamed them the Roadrunners.
Remarkably enough, Springfield, Massachusetts, is also where the AHL is headquartered — meaning it’s where Andrews lived most of the year, too.
The move “didn’t make me popular for a few days in Springfield,” he added. “But we pretty quickly were able to manage the transition of the Portland, Maine, franchise into Springfield.”
Thus, the AHL’s Springfield Thunderbirds made their debut in 2016, while the Roadrunners have solidified their presence in the Sonoran Desert region.
Andrews had never visited Tucson prior to the Roadrunners move. Now he talks about his new home town as if they’d been here for years — even though it’s only been a matter of weeks. The Andrewses plan to spend about eight months out of the year in Tucson. The rest of the time will be spent at their summer home in Nova Scotia.
David and Marleen Andrews have already hiked up Mt. Lemmon and throughout Sabino Canyon, and David is already a regular on the pickleball courts at Udall Park.
“I’m counting on Jay,” he said of Roadrunners head coach Jay Varady. “Jay told me a couple of years ago that he thought the best restaurants in the country were in Tucson. So I’m going to catch up with Jay and get his top-10 list and go from there.”
David and Marleen Andrews initially considered a move to Phoenix before picking Tucson.
“That part wasn’t an accident. I wanted to at least be close to hockey,” he said, intimating that living near an AHL team like the Roadrunners helped seal the deal. “I wasn’t sure I could go completely cold turkey away from away from hockey. So this has been terrific.
“We’d looked up and around Scottsdale. We looked in Florida. When we got here it just looked like the right kind of community. We liked the vibe. It’s just a beautiful area with the outdoor activities.”
Andrews admits he hasn’t purchased season tickets just yet, but he and Marleen were inside Tucson Arena on opening night, and expect to be in attendance again when the Roadrunners (3-4-1-0) open a two-game weekend set Friday against the red-hot Ontario Reign (9-0-0-1). Andrews has built a strong relationship with Hoffman, the Roadrunners’ president. The two still work together a bit, too, with Andrews overseeing a board of governors that includes Hoffman.
“In every aspect of our move — all of the things you need to do when you move — he’s been able to help us with and connect us to people,” Andrews said of Hoffman. “Everything from getting a car, to actually getting our home. He was helpful. And some of the (Roadrunners) staff even helped to move our stuff into the house back in June.”
Hoffman said he appreciates having Andrews in town, both personally and professionally.
“He’s just a great human being. They’re a great family,” Hoffman said. “And then you look at the hockey side. He’s forgotten more hockey than really any of us know.
“He’s the fuel of what has made the American Hockey League what it is,” Hoffman added. “The catalyst that put this league on the map.”
