Head Coaching Candidates

[Ezekial]

Darryl Sutter, because I like his face.

Don't mind his face, but listening to him talk all the time might push me to end my life.


Just to clarify, I think he's funny and all that jazz... but the act of trying to listen to him is tough.

 

[JustJokinenAround]

Honestly, someone who won’t bury young talent and just let them play and I’ll worry about hiring a real coach when they’re ready to compete.

 

[TheMule93]

I want someone who can develop our young forward corps. Adam oates, AV, etc

Mantha and AA can be so much better under proper guidance

 

[rhef3]

I say keefe, young coach 37 could be a steal and will work hard knowing it is his first year in the pro's, if he fails it just ensures another good tank year.

2 year deal for a rookie to coach our rookie team.

 

[Go Wings]

If Todd Mclellan is fired from Edmonton I wouldn't be surprised if Holland brought him back to be the head coach. I don't think it is a good move as I would prefer they go with someone new who hasn't been an NHL coach before. But that move would be typical Holland.

 

[Obe2kenobe]

I would love to see current Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson get a shot with the wings. I think he'd be perfect fit. As the team gets younger who would be better at guiding them than a guy that has been doing it for as long as he has.
He's won 2 national championships in the 90's with Lake Superior State. Ran the USA development team, coached in the OHL, asst. in the NHL, asst in the Olympics, turned Notre Dame into a successful program, 12 trips to the tournament and 4 frozen fours.
Going for another national championship Saturday against Minnesota Duluth. Pretty impressive resume.
He knows how to develop winners. He's coached quite a few players that went on to successful NHL careers.
He would be my first pick, to replace Blashill

 

[SantosHalper]

Or Wings should hire Oleg Znarok

 

[Oddbob]

Why do so many want Todd Nelson? He is in the current Wing System, just like Blashill before him, and that isn't going great thus far. We need to go outside the organization to bring in a fresh voice in my opinion. Alas, it is sounding very well like another year of Blashill, who honestly seems like the kind of coach you hire as an interim, when you fire your head coach at the 60 game mark and well out of the playoffs, and you just need anyone to finish out the season.

 

[Oddbob]

I'm a huge fan of AV to teach the offensive game to our young players

Rangers aren't exactly lighting it up and they honestly have/had a number of very decent offensive forwards.

 

[kliq]

Why do so many want Todd Nelson? He is in the current Wing System, just like Blashill before him, and that isn't going great thus far. We need to go outside the organization to bring in a fresh voice in my opinion. Alas, it is sounding very well like another year of Blashill, who honestly seems like the kind of coach you hire as an interim, when you fire your head coach at the 60 game mark and well out of the playoffs, and you just need anyone to finish out the season.

I'm not saying I want Nelson, but you can't NOT hire Nelson just because Blashill didnt work out. One has nothing to do with the other. You hire the best candidate, if thats Nelson, hire Nelson. If its not, then you don't.

 

[lhsgolf19]

 

[Claypool]

Can't even imagine the outrage if Holland hired a coach like Vigneault and he gets them back into the wild card spot.

 

[Winger98]

Can't even imagine the outrage if Holland hired a coach like Vigneault and he gets them back into the wild card spot.

damned if you do, damned if you don't. A better/different coach might push us lower in the lottery, but he might also be better at developing the kids we have. If we get a worse pick because Larkin, Mantha, AA, etc. develop into better players...well, kind of bittersweet I guess.

 

[The Flying Octopus]

Blashill hasn’t been fired yet. Rangers fired AV tonight. Blashill is here to stay. Mark my words.

 

[FMichael]

Blashill hasn’t been fired yet. Rangers fired AV tonight. Blashill is here to stay. Mark my words.

Yup...Can't imagine Kenny getting rid of Blashill anytime soon.

 

[Ezekial]

I don't get the surprise, the team plays hard every night. KH is loyal. If KH was back Blash was back. It was known.

 

[Redder Winger]

Fire this chump.
This team should be getting better and playing its young guys. It's not an either/or proposition.
With Blashill its a neither and nor deal.

 

[Kingpin794]

Sheldon Keefe please.

 

[lilidk]

 

[TheRatPoisoner]

Should probably be all over this while he's still available.

Failing managing to land AV, I'm fine with giving Blashill one more year to finish out his contract to see what he can do. But if guys like Mantha, AA, and little Bert fail to take a step forward next season, or Larkin regresses, then he's gotta go.

On the positive side with Blashill, despite pretty much everyone regressing under him since taking over, he's done a pretty good job in terms of Larkin's development. D-boss is way more patient with the puck now, doesn't take a pile of low percentage shots anymore, doesn't skate circles around the o-zone like a chicken with his head cut off as he did in his first year -- think Blash deserves credit for that.

 

[SirKillalot]

Keep Blashill. He's won at every other level, he can win at this. Also can develop players.

Alternatives are Vigneault (offensive minded), Tippett (defensive minded), MacLean and McLellan. The two last ones being former assistants with the team.

 

[Run the Jewels]

The only thing that would excite me about the leadership of this team would be having Todd Nelson as coach. The best coach would have been Gallant but of course Holland was asleep at the wheel and hates to actually do any work at this point so he just stuck with Blashill.

Nelson is good working with younger players. The leadership of the team is at least making noise about playing younger players, so if that's truly the case you will probably want to hire a coach who has some track record of developing young guys. Nelson was very popular in Edmonton and they haven't exactly set the world on fire under McClellan so you can't hold that against him. Would the Oilers be any worse under Nelson? I have no idea but it's not a high bar to clear by any stretch.

I don't want a retread but this is Ken Holland we're taking about so we'll likely get a retread. Most likely outcome is the Hawks let Quenneville go and Holland signs him to an awful contract. That's just how Ken Holland operates.

 

[Run the Jewels]

Should probably be all over this while he's still available.

Failing managing to land AV, I'm fine with giving Blashill one more year to finish out his contract to see what he can do. But if guys like Mantha, AA, and little Bert fail to take a step forward next season, or Larkin regresses, then he's gotta go.

On the positive side with Blashill, despite pretty much everyone regressing under him since taking over, he's done a pretty good job in terms of Larkin's development. D-boss is way more patient with the puck now, doesn't take a pile of low percentage shots anymore, doesn't skate circles around the o-zone like a chicken with his head cut off as he did in his first year -- think Blash deserves credit for that.

When only one guy shows actual development it's pretty much a given that it is the player, not the coach. Looks at how many guys have either regressed or never developed under Blashill and that will tell you everything you need to know.

Larkin is the exception, not the rule.

 

[Run the Jewels]

If Holland is gone, Blash. If Holland stays Quenn or Trotz. To those complaining about Blash, remember this team was within a few points of the playoffs most of the season, making them mediocre to bad but not horrible. If you think coaching is a problem then you're saying Holland built a wild card team. If you believe the team is performing at or around expectations, then this isn't a coaching problem, its a team building problem.

I'm fine with Blashill running this franchise into the ground. We need elite talent and maybe we'll actually get it by routinely drafting in the top 10. However you need to keep in mind we lucked into the playoffs his first year. If Boston won their final game of the season in his first year Blashill would be 0-fer with regard to playoff appearances. This is a streak that will likely continue for another 5 years.

So I'm fine with Blashill cratering the franchise, I simply don't want to pretend he's close to turning things around. This team won a bunch of games when they should have been tanking late in the season. We had the worst ROW in the league for most of the season.

Blashill has shown absolutely nothing. Not in the standings and certainty not in player development. The only thing he's good for is missing the playoffs.

 

[Run the Jewels]

I never heard this story before. Was there a specific incident?

Tippett is Mike Babcock without the winning. I'm more of a Babs fan than most, his early teams in Detroit were lots of fun. So perhaps a better comparison is Ken Hitchcock. They both take all the fun out of hockey. This team is trash, only reason to watch is to see the young guys develop. With that being the case Tippett would be awful. The stadium would look a lot like the Coyotes arena as far as attendance is concerned.