Apr. 11—ROCHESTER — Shjon Podein played in 826 games across 11 seasons in the NHL.
He won a Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche in 2001, when he was teammates with some of the sport's all-time greats, including Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg and Patrick Roy.
But when Podein looks back on the entirety of his playing career — from the time he started playing in the Rochester Youth Hockey Association, through high school hockey at John Marshall, followed by Division I college hockey at Minnesota Duluth, then more than a decade in the NHL — two players jump to the front of his mind.
"I was kind of known for my work ethic, mainly because of a strong lack of talent," Podein said with a laugh, "but I can think of two people who worked harder than me — or, worked at the same level. One is Rod Brind'Amour, who's now the head coach of the Carolina Hurricanes, and the other is Patrick Ferschweiler. Seeing the amount of effort he put into his game ... he's one of the very, very few who I'll say worked at that same level."
Podein recalls first meeting Ferschweiler at a sleepover at a friend's house when Podein was 10 and Ferschweiler was 8. The friendship formed that day carried on through the one season they played together at John Marshall (1985-86, Podein's senior season) and has grown stronger to this day.
"Oh my goodness, I couldn't even tell you," Podein said. "The bond between us Rochester boys who grew up together, our biggest hope was to one day play for the John Marshall Rockets varsity team. That was our goal, all we wanted to do, when we were young."
So it was with great pride that Podein learned the news about his friend and former teammate on Tuesday: Ferschweiler, the floppy-haired diligent worker whom Podein had mentored at some summer camps at Graham Arena in the early 1980s, was named the best coach in Division I college hockey. Ferschweiler is the winner of the 2025 Spencer Penrose Award, given annually to the top coach in the sport.
Now minus the floppy hair, Ferschweiler has the same intensity, the same work ethic and the same success. In his fourth season as the men's hockey head coach at his alma mater, Western Michigan University, he has the Broncos in the Frozen Four for the first time in program history. They'll play Boston University or Penn State for a national championship Saturday in St. Louis (6:30 p.m., ESPN2) after beating NCHC rival Denver 3-2 in double-overtime Thursday night in a national semifinal.
"I still joke; I remember when he got the job at Western," Podein said. "I got mad at him because I said 'Patrick, you'll have that team in the top 10 (in the national rankings) by Christmastime, and he did it by Thanksgiving.
"To me it was just a no-brainer that he'd get the best out of them."
The Hockey Gods will bring things full-circle in two years, when Podein's son Junior heads to Kalamazoo, Mich., where he'll play for the Broncos and Ferschweiler, who could have more than one Penrose Award in his trophy case by then.
"This is a really big deal for Patrick to accomplish something like this at what you'd call a smaller school," Podein said of Ferschweiler winning the Penrose. "It's remarkable, it really is. I hope people understand the job he's done there."
The Post Bulletin spoke with five of Ferschweiler's John Marshall teammates from the late 1980s — Podein, Doug Zmolek, Mike Aikens, Eric Means and Chris Ratzloff — to find out who he was as a high school player and team leader, and what has made him so successful as a coach.
Here's their analysis of their friend and high school teammate:
In the fall of 1988, Ferschweiler enrolled at Minnesota Duluth and ...
