KEARNEY, NE. – The Tri-City Storm has announced a four-year contract extension for General Manager Jason Koehler following the organization’s record-breaking 2021-2022 Anderson Cup Championship season. Koehler was hired as the Storm’s Assistant General Manager on August 28th, 2019, and was promoted to his current role of General Manager on November 19th, 2019.
Jason Koehler, of Prospect, Pennsylvania, has managed each of Tri-City’s Regular Season Western Conference Championship rosters over the past two seasons. Prior to joining the Storm before the start of the 2019-2020 season, Koehler was an instrumental part of the building process of three junior hockey expansions teams including one in the USHL as well as rebuilding two dead last place USHL clubs into the most improved teams in the league. He has demonstrated an extremely successful record in finding and managing elite hockey talent. As the General Manager of the Chicago Steel (2006-2008), he managed two future Hobey Baker Award winners on the same roster. He was the first USHL Executive to have two 1st round NHL draft picks in the same NHL Draft (2005). Koehler was the Assistant General Manager during the Youngstown Phantoms’ Tier One USHL record 17-game winning streak, and their Anderson Cup Championship season in 2014-2015. Under his management, teams have had over 400 NCAA DI commitments, and more than 60 NHL Draft picks. He also served as the USHL’s GM Committee Chair from 2017-2019. Koehler’s career began in 1998 as a Coaching Staff Assistant for the Pittsburgh Penguins (NHL). He graduated in less than four years from Robert Morris University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration/Sports Management in 2000.
The Storm has produced a regular season record of 101-46-11-4 since Koehler joined the organization. Tri-City is the only team in the USHL’s Western Conference to reach the one hundred-win plateau during that time span. The Storm is also the only team in the last three years in the Western Conference to record more than two hundred total points in the standings (217). The 2021-2022 Anderson Cup Champion Tri-City Storm team finished the year with the best regular season record in organizational history (47-11-3-1). The ninety-eight points recorded in the standings by this year’s team tied the USHL’s Tier I era (2002-Present) record for most points in a single season. Tri-City’s forty-seven wins set a new team record for most in a single season, and the Storm’s eleven regular losses set a new organizational record for the fewest in a single season.
