So instead of going after someone of Gallants caliber we stick with proven NHL loser Blashill?
Not exactly a recipe for success, talented line up or not
I appreciate the fact that there are a few considerably good, solid, veteran coaches available and can see where you're coming from, but IMO the timing is wrong
Say Gallant (or whoever) gets hired, Yzerman makes a couple of nice additions in the offseason through trades and free agency, we get someone like Lafreniere or Byfield in the draft who are probably too good to cut, and our existing young players progress a bit.
We win something like 10-20 more games and fall out of the playoff race sometime between American Thanksgiving and the holidays.
We finish something like 22/31 in the league and get a ho-hum prospect after another losing, albeit improved, season.
While all of those things show general forward progress, the result at the end of the season is the same, but all the organisation has done is fast track our competitiveness into the average/ below average range.
I guess I'm assuming worst case scenario for improving the coach. I hope Yzerman and his scouting staff can do what he was able to do with his former guys in Tampa and come up with 2/3 of a 1st line outside of round one of the next couple drafts. But the surer route would be to go a bit more organic with the what we have, suffer at/ near the bottom for another season, get one more high pick, and go from there. Getting guys like Laf/ Byfield, Raty, Wright would set us up for a solid 10-15 years. Obviously nothing is guaranteed, but from my point of view, I'd rather not force the roster into the middling no man's land.
Also I am of the mind that at some point you have to stop the bleeding if we have another season this dismal, so if that is something you're thinking of when suggesting hiring someone else, don't worry - I get that 100%. However, I think replacing Ericsson, Daley, and Green with any sort of competent UFAs/ trade targets/ Seider is already going to help quite a bit in shaping our overall roster and its effectiveness.