Confirmed with Link: Alexandre Burrows joins Laval staff

[Runner77]

Relationships are fine as long as those links don't cloud peoples judgement on performance

Hiring a buddy is easy, firing them is very hard and usually ends up in a much longer stay than their performance or results warrant

Hiring a crony is predictable in this business and is disgestible so long as the crony is competent. The issue with Bergevin is that he surrounded himself with too many incompetents, rewarded them and still has them around as boat anchors.

This has nothing to do with the cronies that Bouchard has chosen for himself. They haven't done anything in their functions as Rocket staff to discredit themselves.

 

[Kriss E]

Just a few....not really an endorsement don’t ya think

I see a lot of people unhappy but no one said it will be a catastrophy.
I don't like the hire either, and gave my reasons, which are totally legit.
But I have no idea if it's gonna be bad, even mentioned he might turn out to be excellent. Time will tell.
After years of these wtf hires I was hoping we had moved on. Still does not mean it cannot work for us, as I said, time will tell.

 

[JianYang]

Hiring a crony is predictable in this business and is disgestible so long as the crony is competent. The issue with Bergevin is that he surrounded himself with too many incompetents, rewarded them and still has them around as boat anchors.

This has nothing to do with the cronies that Bouchard has chosen for himself. They haven't done anything in their functions as Rocket staff to discredit themselves.

Agreed.

Its not that familiarity does not play a factor in alot of hirings throughout the league, it's just if it works out, it's considered a connection, and if it fails, then it's cronyism.

Hopefully, the newer hires will fall into more of the former category.

 

[Le Barron de HF]

Greg Rallo has announced his retirement from professional hockey at the age of 36 and will join the Milwaukee Admirals as an assistant coach.
Rallo played 11 games over two seasons with the Florida Panthers, recording one goal.
He would make his name outside the NHL, making stops with the Idaho Steelheads, Iowa Stars, Albany River Rats, Rockford IceHogs, Manitoba Moose, Texas Stars, San Antonio Rampage and the Iserlohn Roosters.

Add this to the list of guys with no experience joining an AHL staff.

 

[Scintillating10]

Burrows was on 590 the other day. Gave an impression interview. Said he was bought in to help the young players who are struggling. As he went thru a lot to make it to NHL. Said he almost gave up on his NHL dream at start of his 3rd year pro. After 2 years in the ECHL, He was going to give it until Christmas if never advanced he was going to university in January to pursue another career. After good start to season he got called up to Manitoba Moose just before Christmas. Said he was close to giving up. Once he got to AHL, he was not going to give up this close to NHL.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Burrows was on 590 the other day. Gave an impression interview. Said he was bought in to help the young players who are struggling. As he went thru a lot to make it to NHL. Said he almost gave up on his NHL dream at start of his 3rd year pro. After 2 years in the ECHL, He was going to give it until Christmas if never advanced he was going to university in January to pursue another career. After good start to season he got called up to Manitoba Moose just before Christmas. Said he was close to giving up. Once he got to AHL, he was not going to give up this close to NHL.

Burrows will be like the Kirk Muller of Laval. He's not the X'es and O's guy (but still knows enough about the sport to give pointers), but he will be that motivator/communicator.

 

[BLONG7]

Our team in Laval will simply have better guys to coach and teach the kids...Burrows will serve a mentor to some of these kids, to not give up, etc

 

[Laurentide]

If by "best man for the job" we're only talking about qualifications then it's easy to just compare resumes and hire the guy with the most relevant experience. But most jobs, and particularly jobs like professional coaching, is about being able to relate to people and about how well you can work with others in a collaborative endeavor. There are no one-man shows in coaching anymore. The Toe Blake's of the sports world, who's word was law, are long gone. Everything today is about collaboration because the job is too big and too all-consuming for just one guy to do it all. So naturally, this is taken into account during the hiring process and it's also only natural that the guy doing the hiring is going to gravitate toward people with whom he has a prior working relationship.

I'm fine with this, so long as it's based on the work and not merely on the relationship. Hiring a guy with whom you have worked before and enjoyed success with is one thing. Hiring a guy you played with in junior and like to hang out with is another. Nothing about that relationship is related to previous work or the outcomes from that previous work. It's just giving your buddy a job because you like to surround yourself with lackeys who are dependent upon you for their salaries and will tell you whatever you want to hear.

 

[Wats]

Assistant AHL coach. It is a good place to start learning.
Experience isn't everything. Silvain Lefebvre can now walk around telling people he's an experienced professional hockey coach.

Well funny thing is Lefebvre is an example of a retired player learning to coach for first time as an Assistant Coach in AHL...

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

I'll ask for the 3rd time, you need no hockey diploma to coach in the NHL/AHL ?

 

[Laurentide]

I'll ask for the 3rd time, you need no hockey diploma to coach in the NHL/AHL ?

It depends on who you are but generally speaking NHL coaches get their first gig in the show after either apprenticing as NHL assistant coaches or as AHL head coaches. AHL head coaches will sometimes get their first gig right after retiring as a player (usually an NHL player or at least a part-time NHL player) and some will be ECHL, college or junior coaches who succeed at that lower level. Once in a blue moon you'll get a guy like Jean Perron, who coached the University of Moncton to two CIAU championships in the early 80's, got hired as an assistant to Lemaire for one year, then promoted to head coach when Lemaire left. His rise was meteoric and he came through by winning the Cup in his rookie year. But he was out of the NHL and unemployable just four years later.

 

[Scintillating10]

Burrows will be like the Kirk Muller of Laval. He's not the X'es and O's guy (but still knows enough about the sport to give pointers), but he will be that motivator/communicator.

Been a lot of NHL talent lots because of small things. Did everything right except one thing. Either never trained right, partied too much, drank too much, never ate nutrition correctly, etc.. A guy like Burrows who worked hard and overcame all the obstacles can help young players get on right track. He played 6 years in minors, half that low minors, then go on to play 12 years in NHL and close to 1,000 games.

 

[QuebecPride]

Burrows will be like the Kirk Muller of Laval. He's not the X'es and O's guy (but still knows enough about the sport to give pointers), but he will be that motivator/communicator.

On the contrary, he is apparently well versed when it comes to PK/PP tactics. Where he will resemble Muller in my mind is that he'll be the players confident and will be a 2nd ear for them who has played in the NHL and has succeeded there. I'm sure he will be a good motivator and motivator as well, but Bouchard is very good at that as well. He's far from your old school Scream and punish type of head coach à la Tortorella, Therrien or whatnot.