Langway
In den Wolken
- Jul 7, 2006
- 32,432
- 9,150
The real problem--and why this decision likely needs to be made now--is Trotz's contract status. If he had two years remaining it would be one thing but with just another year left it's a question of whether he's done enough to warrant an extension and the big bump in pay or not. If I'm MacLellan I'd have a hard time going to bat for him and the likely $3-4M salary he'll command at least. Maybe they settle for him being a lame duck and giving him one last chance to prove it but the timing here really works against him.
When you have players saying they have a mental funk they can't progress beyond and a coach that hasn't had any real NHL playoff success of note then I'd think a change is coming, particularly if ownership has already denied any chance of moving core players. Ownership IMO is still likely to remain loyal to Ovechkin over anyone else and it makes it way more likely that there will be a coaching change. It's a bad organizational dynamic, even if Ovechkin isn't explicitly the one making the decision. I don't think it will have anything to do with Ovechkin being demoted so much as a simple referendum on Trotz's value going forward vs. a dynamic that's otherwise not very easily solved. It may not be solved regardless but different voices and ideas are probably the more compelling option at this point.
When you have players saying they have a mental funk they can't progress beyond and a coach that hasn't had any real NHL playoff success of note then I'd think a change is coming, particularly if ownership has already denied any chance of moving core players. Ownership IMO is still likely to remain loyal to Ovechkin over anyone else and it makes it way more likely that there will be a coaching change. It's a bad organizational dynamic, even if Ovechkin isn't explicitly the one making the decision. I don't think it will have anything to do with Ovechkin being demoted so much as a simple referendum on Trotz's value going forward vs. a dynamic that's otherwise not very easily solved. It may not be solved regardless but different voices and ideas are probably the more compelling option at this point.