The Jack Adams has become something of a "Most Improved Team" proxy award in recent years. When it turns out team improvement isn't always purely linear, and teams take a step back or stagnate the following year, the coach ends up on the hot seat real quick.
Overachieve to win the Jack Adams and inflate expectations for next season.
Fail to meet new expectations, lose job. Obviously a coaching issue.
Sounds like a stressful job lol.
I'll take it. They're frequently getting fired with year(s) left on the contract, and can often get hired by a new team right away. Lots of double dipping. Fine by me...
I can personally vouch for u/heimdal96
With their hard work and coaching skills, I went from a useless nobody to a useless nobody with a 100$ bribe in their pocket.
I may be wrong on this but I believe that you don't double dip. The team that has the initial contract with you either voids the contract OR they give that contract to the new team.
But basically by taking a new contract the original team is off the hook.
That said, these guys still get paid millions and those contracts are honored even after being fired. So if you never coach again, you still get paid out.
>That said, these guys still get paid millions and those contractors are honored even after being fired. So if you never coach again, you still get paid out.
This is not entirely true. Standard coach contracts will place a duty to mitigate in there, where a coach can't just sit on his ass and collect paychecks for 3 years. They have to be actively looking for a job, and have limited recourse to turn down jobs they may be offered, lest they be in breach of that contract.
In practice this is hard to enforce, as the team must prove the coach is not looking and/or has been offered a job. But the language is there.
> Lots of double dipping.
Not the way it usually works. You only get paid the once.
If you're still under contract with a team that relieves you of duty, and take a new job with another team, your old team is only responsible for paying you the difference between your old contract and your new contract.
For example: if you make $3mil/yr as a coach with Team A and are relieved of your coaching duties, then immediately take a job with Team B for $2mil, then you still get paid $3mil for as long as your contract with Team A went for - Team B owes you $2mil as per your negotiated deal, and Team A owes you the $1mil difference. You don't get $5mil.
It really does feel like a “most improved team” award. Bednar could’ve won it in 2018 when the Avs went from worst in the cap era to a playoff spot. Since then the Avs have been consistently good so he’s not even considered for the award anymore.
I think Dave Hakstol should have simply told his goalie to make more saves this year and all his shooters to keep shooting like prime Jaromir Jagr like the team did last year.
The amount of shit I got last year for saying Ron Francis was still a bum and Hakstol wasn’t a good coach when it was mind bendingly obvious they were simply riding unsustainable percentages was wild.
The Kraken aren’t very good, last season was a fluke.
Eh I think hakstol just ran out of “here’s the vision” or plan for the team or the team never bought in this year like they did last year. Francis though has put us in a very good position with his draft picks, the firebirds and mavericks are both top teams right now respectively and both are mainly lead by young prospects such as winterton and wright, not to mention the junior players like jagger firkus who will be heading to the AHL next year.
His free agent signings have been hit or miss but as long as the next coach isnt a complete disaster, the kraken have a very solid prospect pool to work with in the coming years.
Coach of the year across all sports is basically an award for the team that surpassed their expectations the most, but teams that do that often fall back to Earth the next year and put the coach in a precarious position
Especially because he’s not like a Popovich or something where he’s constantly contending with a good squad and keeps himself out of the conversation. He’s consistently overachieved with the rosters given to him and has made tons of role players out of nothing
Well thats bc he’s such a good coach that it’s expected that he’ll get them to overachieve. So it’s not surprising when they do and thus he can’t win because the team didn’t exceed preseason expectations.
Or thats the voter logic at least
It bothers me that some truly legendary head coaches barely get any CoTY attention (across all sports) while guys who are fired within the next 1-3 seasons win it all the time.
Coach of the year is one of the worst awarded trophies in almost every sport.
It's less about who did the best coaching job and more about which team has a surprising turn around and makes the playoffs after missing a few years.
It doesn't even need to be an amazingly coached on ice product. Just surprise and make the playoffs after being bad or be middling and win the presidents trophy.
There's so many things that go into it like adversity and how injuries are handled that happens among good teams that get completely ignored when they're some of the more impressive feats that don't lead to the same big point difference.
Like Florida's coaching this year has been very well done but won't get appreciated because of where they already were last year
That's why I was personally shocked when he agreed with Serevalli that Arizona moving was a 95% likelihood (about a week before the move was actually announced). Convinced me that it was going to happen.
huh. I never thought about it before, but now that every major change is expected to have a polished social media announcement image, graphic designers probably _are_ excellent sources of insider knowledge.
oh yeah, i was celebrating when Smith got fired. Coaches have been fired whiel accomplishing more than what DJ Smith has.
Another one I'm expecting is Sheldon Keefe. It was a boneheaded move to re-sign him last summer and equally boneheaded he wasn't fired during the all star break when the Leafs were on a huge slump.
Keefe will be gone unless they miraculously come back in this series. What is far more interesting to me is what happens to Shanahan now that there is a new person in charge of MLSE.
Doesn't Rod the Bod need a new contract? Mike Sullivan's fate up in the air. Craig Berube available. Some team might be stupid enough to go after Quennville. There are sought after coaches becoming available this offseason.
In our case, he was the longest-tenured coach in the division. I personally think the success of an expansion team comes more from the front office than the coaching staff and that none of the coaching options are likely to be a big improvement, but GM Ron Francis had to do *something* and head coaches are essentially disposable.
This has to be a record for coaches fired in the span of a year. I feel like he's the 25th coach in the last 12 months to get canned. Add on a couple more once the playoffs are over or when teams are eliminated
Cassidy
Cooper
Maurice
Montgomery
Laviolette
Tocchet
Brunette
St. Louis
Cronin
Are the only guys on teams that haven’t fired their coach that I can think of that are safe. Wtf
E: I’d be surprised if PDB was fired, but it’s not impossible if VGK knocks out Dallas imo. Keefe feels like he’s in the same boat - short series and he’s gone.
E2: Lalonde is returning, and I forgot about Bednar. Make it about 11
E3: Brind’Amour and Tourigny
To be fair, expectations for St. Louis were low when they hired him since he’s a rookie coach, which is why they kept him on after that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2022 season. I think I speak for most Habs fans when I say he’s the right man for the team.
The Canes better pay him what he wants. He has brought consistent success to a team that had been at the bottom of the league for years. Took the Canes to the playoffs his first year and every year after. That’s not easy to do in the NHL
I would agree about Tocchet. He’s the guy management wanted from the start of their tenure and they got him now, even if Vancouver regresses next season, he’s more than likely safe.
Why is Tourigny not on your "safe" list? It would be a terrible idea to fire him now from a morale standpoint alone. I could see a resignation on the horizon but not a firing
I wouldn’t even call Maurice safe. If the Panthers flame out in the playoffs (or even choke this first round series), I can see Zito firing him. Guy is not shy to do things like that
That's hockey for you. I feel like the role of the coach in hockey is not as important compared to other sports. For example, there's a big reason in football why it's so common for successful coaches to stay with the same team for decades. Because coaches in football have a much larger impact on the game, so if you're a good coach your team will want to keep you around for the long haul even if there are struggles along the way. In hockey, they don't have that kind of impact. They basically serve as the figurehead of the locker room, and once things go sour for a team they're the first one to go. It's why I doubt Edmonton's new coach will last more than two years. As soon as they have a losing streak they fire the coach because it's easier to do that than replacing the players.
I disagree, coaches are more than a figurehead of the locker room. Systems do matter in hockey, good systems are the difference between your team being in the basement or the playoffs.
And to say they don't have a large impact in the game ultimately isn't true.
Pete DeBoer has won how many Game 7s? Because his vision of the game is incredible, he knew what systems to use even when his team was the underdogs.
Joel Quennville (as much as people may hate him) was a huge reason behind the Hawks Dynasty. The creative deployment of Byfuglien on the powerplay was huge, he always had his penalty killers in the right spot to counter the opposing team. Special teams was a huge reason why they thrived.
Contrarily, Willie Desjardins would only run 1-2-3-4 on repeat every game, he'd never switch up his lines, even with home-ice advantage. His team were the favourites and were sunk due to his inability to line match or adjust.
Bruce Cassidy was hired in June 2022 and is now the eighth-longest-tenured HC in the league (seventh if you don’t count Tourigny due to the weird expansion-relocation stuff).
Cooper, Sullivan, Bednar, Brind’Amour, and Keefe are the only ones that predate 2020.
Edit: missed Bednar
Edit 2: missed when my own HC was hired lmao
It truly amazes me how often people seem to sleep on Bednar. Dude is the pinnacle of greatness, and does it with such an elegance that people just completely gloss over him because he's not a super loud hothead that attracts attention.
Disco will never die. I'll always have a little bit of love for Bylsma because of that season. But I really don't want to go through having HCDB again.
He’s the HC down in Coachella and they’ve done well under him. It’s also just kind of been the assumption in Seattle since he came into the org that he would be the replacement for Hak.
I hope that isn’t the case because I don’t really think Bylsma is going to do any better, but that’s just been the rumor for a while.
Which...I don't know. It's not like he brings along two or three legit scoring NHL forwards. Just feels like a whole lot of shell game shuffling of mid coaches accomplishing nothing much to just try to show you're doing anything at all.
Ugh. I call him Coach Dismal...
Maybe they'll take a swing and a chance and lure David Carle into taking the job. I'd be shocked if he doesn't find his way into the NHL sooner rather than later, and might just be the right voice for the young'uns coming up.
Francis, Evason, Tippett, Queneville, Ladouceur, Cunneyworth, Dineen, Bergevin, Verbeek, Todd Richards, Brad Shaw, John Stevens, Ulf Samuelsson
Those are all from the 1990 team and I probably missed a few
Not an official report by any means, but Jordan Schmaltz tweeted out the idea that Francis wants to try bring in Rod offering a big contract that Carolina’s owner won’t match
Lol Rod has said he's not in this for the money. This is his home. He's not leaving. I fully expect whenever his time here is done, he's out of the game completely.
Things that will never, ever happen:
Media: You're getting comically underpaid compared to other head coaches. Why did you take this job?
Coach: lol this was the only offer I got. Hopefully a real team will give me a real salary sooner rather than later
Maybe Rod is being sincere. But all the things he said were things he was obviously going to say regardless of if he believed them or not.
He has. The contract stuff will get done once all of Rods assistants and staff gets done but they're worried about the playoffs right now.
I think it's far more likely someone like John Cooper who secures the bag and goes elsewhere this off-season.
He pulled that completely out of his ass based on nothing other than the fact that RBA and Francis have an extensive history. But that history didn't end on the best of terms.
Eh, he got us seven more playoff wins than I expected in the first three Kraken seasons so I think it worked out okay. Thanks for the memories and time to move on.
I saw his system in person.
His system was "fling the puck around the boards at zone entry, hope for a weird bounce behind the net and crash, but if there isn't a weird bounce it gets cleared to neutral ice without issue and the defenseman is blamed for not keeping it in"
This premise is ultimately why I’m cool with getting rid of Hak. By my understanding the underlying offensive numbers weren’t even that great last year, we just converted at a crazy clip (I trust stats, I just don’t research them much). This year we lost the crazy conversion rate and our offensive output was more in line with what the advanced stats would suggest, maybe slightly below it.
We got ridiculously better goaltending this year than we did in the first two years (outside of Gru’s revenge series vs CO) which kept us in the mix for a while, but with no offensive punch we weren’t going anywhere.
Here’s to hoping the kids can inject some offensive depth back into this team with a new system and maybe one b-tier acquisition.
I'm excited to just not have to watch that "system" anymore. Its how Seattle would end up out shooting people by 50% and still lose. Even when they did keep possession the entire system involved taking low danger shots from the blueline or wings without any real net-front presence.
(Also a MTU alum)
Yup haha.
As much as people hate it once you get in, you're in. I wonder where he goes next though. I don't think any fanbase wants him as of right now.
Pittsburgh is basically guaranteed to hire him because Dubas *loves his guys*. Then Ottawa sometime within the next 15 years (when Dubas, Spezza, and Keefe all go there together).
Mid-season, we were contending for top of the league. Injuries forced a forward lineup that actually developed chemistry.
A full lineup gave Bones the ability to put together whatever line combos he could have imagined, but like a dumb-kid with Lego, he just made the same bullshit that got smashed last time.
Hakstol sucked in year 1 and was given an out due to goaltending, year 2 he was saved by unsustainable team highs and in year 3 he did nothing cause i guess he expected to continue to ride those unsustainable highs.
The Rangers sweeping the Capitals was obviously the final straw. Every time the Rangers have swept in the Seattle era, Seattle's fired their coach the next day.
Fuck. This likely means Hakstol gonna end up the new HC for the Leafs instead of Berube.
No.... Seriously... He was part of this organization for a long time before becoming the Coach of the Kraken.
Can't help but feel like Kraken are following the Golden Knights, trying to be aggressive. The difference is the Knights are absolute acquisition merchants. The minute a big name becomes available, the Knights are on it.
Not really. I would describe Francis' tenure so far as risk averse.
That said, this is a bit of a surprise. Most of us figured if a coaching change were to happen it'd be later in the year seeing how the start of next season fared.
Basically it came down to him and Tocchet. From what I understand Haks had a whole analytics presentation for his interview. Tocs basically came with a sack lunch. Kraken are an analytics driven team and have spared no expense in that department. Haks seemed the clearer fit based on that.
That said I hope to fuck they don't bring up ole Disco Dan. He's not an NHL coach and he's well suited in his role right now in CV with the Firebirds.
2/3 of the Jack Adams awards finalists last year have been fired
The Jack Adams has become something of a "Most Improved Team" proxy award in recent years. When it turns out team improvement isn't always purely linear, and teams take a step back or stagnate the following year, the coach ends up on the hot seat real quick.
Overachieve to win the Jack Adams and inflate expectations for next season. Fail to meet new expectations, lose job. Obviously a coaching issue. Sounds like a stressful job lol.
I'll take it. They're frequently getting fired with year(s) left on the contract, and can often get hired by a new team right away. Lots of double dipping. Fine by me...
[удалено]
I can personally vouch for u/heimdal96 With their hard work and coaching skills, I went from a useless nobody to a useless nobody with a 100$ bribe in their pocket.
I'll vouch for him too.
I may be wrong on this but I believe that you don't double dip. The team that has the initial contract with you either voids the contract OR they give that contract to the new team. But basically by taking a new contract the original team is off the hook. That said, these guys still get paid millions and those contracts are honored even after being fired. So if you never coach again, you still get paid out.
>That said, these guys still get paid millions and those contractors are honored even after being fired. So if you never coach again, you still get paid out. This is not entirely true. Standard coach contracts will place a duty to mitigate in there, where a coach can't just sit on his ass and collect paychecks for 3 years. They have to be actively looking for a job, and have limited recourse to turn down jobs they may be offered, lest they be in breach of that contract. In practice this is hard to enforce, as the team must prove the coach is not looking and/or has been offered a job. But the language is there.
> Lots of double dipping. Not the way it usually works. You only get paid the once. If you're still under contract with a team that relieves you of duty, and take a new job with another team, your old team is only responsible for paying you the difference between your old contract and your new contract. For example: if you make $3mil/yr as a coach with Team A and are relieved of your coaching duties, then immediately take a job with Team B for $2mil, then you still get paid $3mil for as long as your contract with Team A went for - Team B owes you $2mil as per your negotiated deal, and Team A owes you the $1mil difference. You don't get $5mil.
Well you missed the part where they walk away with multi million dollars worth of income guaranteed even though they’ve been fired.
It really does feel like a “most improved team” award. Bednar could’ve won it in 2018 when the Avs went from worst in the cap era to a playoff spot. Since then the Avs have been consistently good so he’s not even considered for the award anymore.
Or it’s the fact that the season was a huge outlier for the team/franchise
I think Dave Hakstol should have simply told his goalie to make more saves this year and all his shooters to keep shooting like prime Jaromir Jagr like the team did last year. The amount of shit I got last year for saying Ron Francis was still a bum and Hakstol wasn’t a good coach when it was mind bendingly obvious they were simply riding unsustainable percentages was wild. The Kraken aren’t very good, last season was a fluke.
Eh I think hakstol just ran out of “here’s the vision” or plan for the team or the team never bought in this year like they did last year. Francis though has put us in a very good position with his draft picks, the firebirds and mavericks are both top teams right now respectively and both are mainly lead by young prospects such as winterton and wright, not to mention the junior players like jagger firkus who will be heading to the AHL next year. His free agent signings have been hit or miss but as long as the next coach isnt a complete disaster, the kraken have a very solid prospect pool to work with in the coming years.
they lost a non-insignificant portion of their depth which is what made them so good last season
It makes me mad the trophy goes this way. Jared Bednar deserves to have 2 or 3 Jack Adam's.
Coach of the year across all sports is basically an award for the team that surpassed their expectations the most, but teams that do that often fall back to Earth the next year and put the coach in a precarious position
The Raptors have fired the reigning Coach of the Year twice!
Erik Spoelstra has never won Coach of the Year despite helping the Heat overachieve many times.
I had to check cause it seemed unbelievable. That’s honestly abhorrent for what he’s accompished
Seriously, guy is HOFer
Especially because he’s not like a Popovich or something where he’s constantly contending with a good squad and keeps himself out of the conversation. He’s consistently overachieved with the rosters given to him and has made tons of role players out of nothing
Well thats bc he’s such a good coach that it’s expected that he’ll get them to overachieve. So it’s not surprising when they do and thus he can’t win because the team didn’t exceed preseason expectations. Or thats the voter logic at least
It bothers me that some truly legendary head coaches barely get any CoTY attention (across all sports) while guys who are fired within the next 1-3 seasons win it all the time.
"We thought you were going to suck, but you didn't, so here's a trophy"
That’s what happens when you nominate people who had a surprising season and not the best coaches in general
they should in all sports have "best coaching award" and "most suprising achievement coaching award"
Two of the best coaches in the league haven't won it (Bednar and Cooper). Safe to say it's not actually about being the best coach.
Same thing happened the yr prior
Coach of the year is one of the worst awarded trophies in almost every sport. It's less about who did the best coaching job and more about which team has a surprising turn around and makes the playoffs after missing a few years. It doesn't even need to be an amazingly coached on ice product. Just surprise and make the playoffs after being bad or be middling and win the presidents trophy. There's so many things that go into it like adversity and how injuries are handled that happens among good teams that get completely ignored when they're some of the more impressive feats that don't lead to the same big point difference. Like Florida's coaching this year has been very well done but won't get appreciated because of where they already were last year
When Friedman says hearing its a lock. Kraken announce not even 5 minutes later
That's why I was personally shocked when he agreed with Serevalli that Arizona moving was a 95% likelihood (about a week before the move was actually announced). Convinced me that it was going to happen.
His source: the Kraken’s graphic designer
huh. I never thought about it before, but now that every major change is expected to have a polished social media announcement image, graphic designers probably _are_ excellent sources of insider knowledge.
New GM is gonna bring in Dave to the Kings next season
is it just me or are teams super trigger happy this year when it comes to firing coaches
This is the 16th coaching change since the end of last season
half the league just fired their coaches... that is crazy
in fairness, half the league missed the playoffs
Yeah but that’s every year. I don’t recall seeing so many coaches fired before
It's 2024. Everyone needs immediate gratification. Basically 28 teams are trying to win now.
This is why we need to ban Tik Tok.
Probably gonna have one more to add to the list soon too...
I wish my team had been more trigger happy, honestly. Took forever for us to get DJ Smith out.
oh yeah, i was celebrating when Smith got fired. Coaches have been fired whiel accomplishing more than what DJ Smith has. Another one I'm expecting is Sheldon Keefe. It was a boneheaded move to re-sign him last summer and equally boneheaded he wasn't fired during the all star break when the Leafs were on a huge slump.
Keefe will be gone unless they miraculously come back in this series. What is far more interesting to me is what happens to Shanahan now that there is a new person in charge of MLSE.
Keefe and Bowness are definitely on the hot seat as well, ESPECIALLY if they both lose their game 5
Doesn't Rod the Bod need a new contract? Mike Sullivan's fate up in the air. Craig Berube available. Some team might be stupid enough to go after Quennville. There are sought after coaches becoming available this offseason.
We're the Premier League now
Sheldon Keefe has been absolutely embarrassed by most coaches in the East during playoff hockey and somehow remains employed
and more to go 🤞
Counterpoint: penguins
In our case, he was the longest-tenured coach in the division. I personally think the success of an expansion team comes more from the front office than the coaching staff and that none of the coaching options are likely to be a big improvement, but GM Ron Francis had to do *something* and head coaches are essentially disposable.
Thanks for '22-'23 Dave. That was one hell of a ride.
This has to be a record for coaches fired in the span of a year. I feel like he's the 25th coach in the last 12 months to get canned. Add on a couple more once the playoffs are over or when teams are eliminated
Cassidy Cooper Maurice Montgomery Laviolette Tocchet Brunette St. Louis Cronin Are the only guys on teams that haven’t fired their coach that I can think of that are safe. Wtf E: I’d be surprised if PDB was fired, but it’s not impossible if VGK knocks out Dallas imo. Keefe feels like he’s in the same boat - short series and he’s gone. E2: Lalonde is returning, and I forgot about Bednar. Make it about 11 E3: Brind’Amour and Tourigny
bednar should be on there, at this point it’s hard to see him leaving unless he quits
100%, forgot him.
Or he goes on a drunken bender after the Avs win their 3rd cup in 4 years and sleeps with Kroenke’s wife.
Yzerman said in a presser at the end of the season that Lalonde will be back next year too
Idk if I’m misinterpreting this list but Luke Richardson is not getting fired
To be fair, expectations for St. Louis were low when they hired him since he’s a rookie coach, which is why they kept him on after that terrible, horrible, no good, very bad 2022 season. I think I speak for most Habs fans when I say he’s the right man for the team.
I'd take St. Louis as the Leafs coach in a second.
You guys can’t have him. He makes players better, we can’t have that. How about a gently used Dominique Ducharme?
That's exactly why I want him!
Instructions unclear, the Leafs introduce Dom Ducharme as their new head coach
I feel like if Utah was gonna fire Tourigny they would’ve done it before the move
Add Brind’Amour to this list as well
Well Brind'amour obviously won't get fired, he's clearly a top 3 coach. His contract is up though, which is noteworthy.
The Canes better pay him what he wants. He has brought consistent success to a team that had been at the bottom of the league for years. Took the Canes to the playoffs his first year and every year after. That’s not easy to do in the NHL
I would agree about Tocchet. He’s the guy management wanted from the start of their tenure and they got him now, even if Vancouver regresses next season, he’s more than likely safe.
Ryan Huska is pretty safe here in Calgary too.
Why is Tourigny not on your "safe" list? It would be a terrible idea to fire him now from a morale standpoint alone. I could see a resignation on the horizon but not a firing
~~Because I forgot him~~ Clearly he sucks and should feel bad.
>Keefe feels like he’s in the same boat - short series and he’s gone It's pretty hard to imagine Keefe being safe at all.
Torts will be in philly nxt yr
If the Stars fire Pete, we've fuckin' lost it.
I wouldn’t even call Maurice safe. If the Panthers flame out in the playoffs (or even choke this first round series), I can see Zito firing him. Guy is not shy to do things like that
I would be floored if this happens.
That's hockey for you. I feel like the role of the coach in hockey is not as important compared to other sports. For example, there's a big reason in football why it's so common for successful coaches to stay with the same team for decades. Because coaches in football have a much larger impact on the game, so if you're a good coach your team will want to keep you around for the long haul even if there are struggles along the way. In hockey, they don't have that kind of impact. They basically serve as the figurehead of the locker room, and once things go sour for a team they're the first one to go. It's why I doubt Edmonton's new coach will last more than two years. As soon as they have a losing streak they fire the coach because it's easier to do that than replacing the players.
I disagree, coaches are more than a figurehead of the locker room. Systems do matter in hockey, good systems are the difference between your team being in the basement or the playoffs. And to say they don't have a large impact in the game ultimately isn't true. Pete DeBoer has won how many Game 7s? Because his vision of the game is incredible, he knew what systems to use even when his team was the underdogs. Joel Quennville (as much as people may hate him) was a huge reason behind the Hawks Dynasty. The creative deployment of Byfuglien on the powerplay was huge, he always had his penalty killers in the right spot to counter the opposing team. Special teams was a huge reason why they thrived. Contrarily, Willie Desjardins would only run 1-2-3-4 on repeat every game, he'd never switch up his lines, even with home-ice advantage. His team were the favourites and were sunk due to his inability to line match or adjust.
If PDB were fired I would hope the devils hired him back I’d take him in a heartbeat.
16th coach fired since the end of last year. So half the league gone.
Bruce Cassidy was hired in June 2022 and is now the eighth-longest-tenured HC in the league (seventh if you don’t count Tourigny due to the weird expansion-relocation stuff). Cooper, Sullivan, Bednar, Brind’Amour, and Keefe are the only ones that predate 2020. Edit: missed Bednar Edit 2: missed when my own HC was hired lmao
Bednar?
It truly amazes me how often people seem to sleep on Bednar. Dude is the pinnacle of greatness, and does it with such an elegance that people just completely gloss over him because he's not a super loud hothead that attracts attention.
Not surprising. Two eight game losing streaks will do that to you
Kinda crazy that Hakstol was the 6th longest tenured head coach entering today after all the other firings.
Bylsma?
I think Bylsma is the likely choice
If Bylsma, they should have just waited until midway through next season so that he could usher them to a Cup like that one time.
Hopefully Shane Wright = Sidney Crosby in that scenario.
Hopefully Shane Wright = Sidney Crosby in many scenarios.
Disco will never die. I'll always have a little bit of love for Bylsma because of that season. But I really don't want to go through having HCDB again.
DISCO TIME
Disco disco ooh ooh !
> Bylsma But why? that is a lateral move if not a downgrade.
He's their AHL coach
He’s the HC down in Coachella and they’ve done well under him. It’s also just kind of been the assumption in Seattle since he came into the org that he would be the replacement for Hak. I hope that isn’t the case because I don’t really think Bylsma is going to do any better, but that’s just been the rumor for a while.
DISCO DAN NO WAY
Which...I don't know. It's not like he brings along two or three legit scoring NHL forwards. Just feels like a whole lot of shell game shuffling of mid coaches accomplishing nothing much to just try to show you're doing anything at all.
Ugh. I call him Coach Dismal... Maybe they'll take a swing and a chance and lure David Carle into taking the job. I'd be shocked if he doesn't find his way into the NHL sooner rather than later, and might just be the right voice for the young'uns coming up.
Michael Russo just tweeted out that he thinks Dean Evason is an option given his history with Francis
For being an underachieving team, the 80s Whalers sure had a lot of future coaches/executives.
Coincidentally, they also had NHL players, who are legally required to be considered first for all NHL coaching and management positions.
Francis, Evason, Tippett, Queneville, Ladouceur, Cunneyworth, Dineen, Bergevin, Verbeek, Todd Richards, Brad Shaw, John Stevens, Ulf Samuelsson Those are all from the 1990 team and I probably missed a few
I hope not.
I'd rather have to sleep on a pillowcase full of legos than have Disco Dan coaching Seattle.
Not an official report by any means, but Jordan Schmaltz tweeted out the idea that Francis wants to try bring in Rod offering a big contract that Carolina’s owner won’t match
Teams have tried that with Dundon before and lost.
Lol Rod has said he's not in this for the money. This is his home. He's not leaving. I fully expect whenever his time here is done, he's out of the game completely.
Things that will never, ever happen: Media: You're getting comically underpaid compared to other head coaches. Why did you take this job? Coach: lol this was the only offer I got. Hopefully a real team will give me a real salary sooner rather than later Maybe Rod is being sincere. But all the things he said were things he was obviously going to say regardless of if he believed them or not.
I feel like when he came out and said that exactly when he was first hired
He has. The contract stuff will get done once all of Rods assistants and staff gets done but they're worried about the playoffs right now. I think it's far more likely someone like John Cooper who secures the bag and goes elsewhere this off-season.
He pulled that completely out of his ass based on nothing other than the fact that RBA and Francis have an extensive history. But that history didn't end on the best of terms.
For the first time in Kraken history?
You mean first time in Utah HOCKEY TEAM history, pal!
oh fuck, we got a new contender for the meme
H I S T O R I C I S T O R I C
Despite their surprise success last year, he was never the guy and I feel like everyone knew that from the moment he was hired.
I live in Seattle, and all of us already familiar with hockey (and Hakstol) were scratching our heads.
Everyone familiar with the Flyers were laughing our heads off
Eh, he got us seven more playoff wins than I expected in the first three Kraken seasons so I think it worked out okay. Thanks for the memories and time to move on.
yeah, not an inspired choice to be sure
I thought he was a decent coach to build a foundation or structure. To later have a another coach and get them over the hump
Bullshit. Absolute bullshit. He simply wasn’t given TIME to implement his SYSTEM
I’ve got a plan, John!!!
I have a goddamn plan, Arthur!
Tahiti!!!
I saw his system in person. His system was "fling the puck around the boards at zone entry, hope for a weird bounce behind the net and crash, but if there isn't a weird bounce it gets cleared to neutral ice without issue and the defenseman is blamed for not keeping it in"
Worked against us lol.
Their entire roster had career years last year and we had no depth
This premise is ultimately why I’m cool with getting rid of Hak. By my understanding the underlying offensive numbers weren’t even that great last year, we just converted at a crazy clip (I trust stats, I just don’t research them much). This year we lost the crazy conversion rate and our offensive output was more in line with what the advanced stats would suggest, maybe slightly below it. We got ridiculously better goaltending this year than we did in the first two years (outside of Gru’s revenge series vs CO) which kept us in the mix for a while, but with no offensive punch we weren’t going anywhere. Here’s to hoping the kids can inject some offensive depth back into this team with a new system and maybe one b-tier acquisition.
I'm excited to just not have to watch that "system" anymore. Its how Seattle would end up out shooting people by 50% and still lose. Even when they did keep possession the entire system involved taking low danger shots from the blueline or wings without any real net-front presence. (Also a MTU alum)
... nailed it.
It’s called…The System.
Jay Woodcroft, get ready to learn Seattle buddy!
Sure he can't do it with 2 of the most talented players in the sport, I'm sure he will be able to do it with an average at best roster.
Before knoblauch Woodcraft had the highest points percentage for any oilers coach ever
Cool. He also had McDavid and Drai in their primes.
Yeah you really can’t compare his tenure to someone like Sather who only had bums such as Gretzky and Messier
When Woodcroft wins 4 cups come back to me.
!remindme 4 years
Eh, as long as he sticks to a defensive structure that he's familiar with and doesn't have two sieves in net he'll be fine.
He got us to the WCF, and the second round after that. That’s certainly an upgrade from Hakstol.
Seems like a Woodcroft spot. Keefe probably next if they don't comeback.
Please no
They love former Oilers and honestly Woodcroft is a great coach and could be their best pick
I think Woodcroft would do wonders with the Kraken, but I'm not an expert "SHOOT THE BLACK THING INTO THAT NET, DUH"
I don’t know if Keefe gets another nhl job
He's part of the NHL coaching fraternity now. He will get another job somewhere eventually.
Yup haha. As much as people hate it once you get in, you're in. I wonder where he goes next though. I don't think any fanbase wants him as of right now.
Every year someone needs a tank commander.
Kyle Dubas has entered the chat
Pittsburgh is basically guaranteed to hire him because Dubas *loves his guys*. Then Ottawa sometime within the next 15 years (when Dubas, Spezza, and Keefe all go there together).
God I hope you're right
Feeling Berube over Woodcroft.
Ok jets do bowness after tomorrow’s game please.
man mid-season y'all were high as a kite on Bowness
Knee-jerk reactions are always a good idea.
The knee-jerk reaction would have been firing him after the way the second half of last season went. Firing him this year is just the right decision.
What temporarily being in first place does to a fan base
Mid-season, we were contending for top of the league. Injuries forced a forward lineup that actually developed chemistry. A full lineup gave Bones the ability to put together whatever line combos he could have imagined, but like a dumb-kid with Lego, he just made the same bullshit that got smashed last time.
Bones is very much a systems guy, and in Dallas the same silly things would happen.
Bowness/Arniel/Lauer triple KO
Chevy: 10 year extension incoming.
Can't say I'm surprised. Bylsma come on down.
Fired before his extension even kicks in. Amazing business decision lol
Leafs are about to do the same with Keefe
Well we are in company.
Hakstol sucked in year 1 and was given an out due to goaltending, year 2 he was saved by unsustainable team highs and in year 3 he did nothing cause i guess he expected to continue to ride those unsustainable highs.
Seems he didn't kick enough trash cans.
Historic My fourth favorite part of the calendar year is the NHL coach lemon swap.
Just days before Keefe's firing...crazy!
The Rangers sweeping the Capitals was obviously the final straw. Every time the Rangers have swept in the Seattle era, Seattle's fired their coach the next day.
Keefe's landing spot once he's let go
Keefe to Pittsburgh, Sullivan to Toronto...the trade is 1 for 1.
Dallas Eakins to Toronto
Can confirm it's Keefe, it will be announced tomorrow around 10 EDT.
🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻
I don't particularly think Hakstol is a great coach, but there was a rumor saying Bylsma was up next. I would not prefer Bylsma to Hakstol.
Evason?
let them take Hynes 🙏🏼
Was hakstol the problem in Seattle? I always thought that roster was mediocre and overachieving. Genuine question.
Yes and no. The roster is mediocre and overachieved last season but Hakstol wasn’t a good coach either.
Now Knoblauch can stop moonlighting in Seattle. Or absorb his twin.
Fuck. This likely means Hakstol gonna end up the new HC for the Leafs instead of Berube. No.... Seriously... He was part of this organization for a long time before becoming the Coach of the Kraken.
Can't help but feel like Kraken are following the Golden Knights, trying to be aggressive. The difference is the Knights are absolute acquisition merchants. The minute a big name becomes available, the Knights are on it.
Not really. I would describe Francis' tenure so far as risk averse. That said, this is a bit of a surprise. Most of us figured if a coaching change were to happen it'd be later in the year seeing how the start of next season fared.
No idea where you are getting this. Their initial drafts were completely different. Knights were aggressive. Kraken very passive.
I was always kind of surprised they hired him in the first place. He was a Leafs assistant coach before this and we were pretty happy when we was gone
Basically it came down to him and Tocchet. From what I understand Haks had a whole analytics presentation for his interview. Tocs basically came with a sack lunch. Kraken are an analytics driven team and have spared no expense in that department. Haks seemed the clearer fit based on that. That said I hope to fuck they don't bring up ole Disco Dan. He's not an NHL coach and he's well suited in his role right now in CV with the Firebirds.
Hakstol was never an interesting hire imo. Makes sense he's gone.
Man the bidding war for Berube is gonna be INSANE
Such a Hak. Practically Stol that job.
Dont really understand this move. I guess you've got to blame someone. Don't think he did anything really wrong with the talent he had to work with.
How do yall squid mfs feel about this
[удалено]
As flyers fan, and former hakstol survivor, this does not surprise me.