MERSCH LEAVES AMERKS IN A BETTER PLACE
Team captain since 2021 retires after 11 pro seasons
Oct 2, 2024
By Andrew Mossbrooks | @Mossbrooks48
Michael Mersch has left a lasting impact on the Rochester Americans.
Over four years, the Park Ridge, Illinois native posted 156 points (66+90) through 220 games, but his legacy with Rochester isn’t cemented through stats. It wasn’t about numbers. It was about leadership and the characteristics that made Mersch a great person, not just a player.
Mersch retired as an Amerk, the team he’s skated for since 2021. But the captain nearly called it quits before even donning the red, white, and blue.
“I was pretty, pretty close to retiring during the pandemic,” said Mersch. “I was right on the cusp. I didn’t sign on with the team until the day of their first game. I missed the opener because I was packing my car and had to make the drive to Rochester.”
“It wasn’t really much of a decision,” chuckled Mersch. “It was my only option.”
A then-28-year-old Mersch had finished the prior season prematurely due to COVID. It was his second season in Texas and the final year of his contract. Mersch was looking for a suitor, but didn’t find one until Seth Appert, the Amerks head coach at the time, picked up the phone.
“I was super excited. It felt like I was getting a new chance on life. Coming to Rochester was kind of like clearing the slate for me.”
When Mersch agreed to be an Amerk, five years had passed since his 17-game stretch in the NHL with Los Angeles. The 2011 Kings fourth-round pick was no longer a teenage hockey hopeful and understood a career metamorphosis was coming.
“When you turn pro and then play for a few years, you think everything is so guaranteed and you expect more and want more, but you just never know. That time in my life leading up to coming to Rochester offered me the opportunity to reflect a little more. Coming here was a transitional period in my career where you go from being a prospect so focused on trying to reach the NHL, to playing that leadership and veteran role. Going through that, where you realize the NHL might not be an option anymore and you are transitioning into this veteran role can be challenging, but it just felt like it all blended so well with the Amerks. I felt like I took a lot of pride in it and bought into what I needed to do to keep playing.”
In his first full season with Rochester, Mersch posted career-highs in goals (26) and points (54). He accepted what his role became and flourished like never before.
“I always enjoyed the process of working on things and being open-minded and willing to try new things. I think it helped me relax a little instead of being so focused on getting to the NHL.”
While Mersch no longer focused on the NHL for himself, he continued to watch it be a goal for teammates to reach. Understanding the pressure and expectations for players like Jack Quinn, Isak Rosen, JJ Peterka, and Jiri Kulich, the captain set the tone for an infectious culture that saw players aspiring for their goals without being weighed down by them. The goals for each player varied, but the message to the team as a whole was simple: have fun.
“That’s the way hockey should be,” said Mersch.
“The way we approached it, the way the teams were, and the culture; we always found a way to make the game enjoyable for ourselves. I loved it in Rochester and the four years there were incredible. These were some of the most fun years I had in hockey.”
And so, for the next four seasons, the fun continued.
Under Mersch’s leadership, Rochester made the playoffs in three straight seasons. They won a playoff series for the first time in nearly two decades. They made it to the conference finals for the first time in 20 years, and at their highest point, the Amerks were six wins shy of bringing a Calder Cup back to the Flower City.
Mersch had previously climbed to reach the summit of the AHL with Manchester, winning a championship in 2015 as a rookie. While the ultimate goal didn’t get realized in these latter years in Rochester, there is no denying the Amerks are in the midst of one of their most successful runs in the 21st century and Mersch has steered the ship that put them on this voyage. The future remains bright in Rochester, only now, Mersch will be a spectator to the work that has been done.
“Coming to Rochester gave me closure. You want to play for as long as you can if it makes sense. I feel like I’m leaving at a time where I was able to help the organization and put the Amerks in a better space than I found them. I’d like to think I helped do that.”
On Wednesday, Mersch will celebrate his 32nd birthday. On a usual year, October 2 would put him with teammates for training camp as they prepare for the grind that is the AHL’s 72-game season. This time around, the second-generation pro will blow out the candles with his true home team, celebrated by his wife, Jenna, and their two sons, Mike and Mason.
Michael Mersch’s professional playing career has come to a close, but the game he played is inseparable from who he is.