It's up on TSN now too:
Panthers in process of hiring Maurice as head coach - TSN.ca
No idea why Florida would fire Brunette, who I thought did a pretty good job. Yes they disappointed somewhat in the playoffs, but you don't fire the coach immediately for that, unless it happens a few years in a row.
I was one of the only people that said after the second round sweep that I could see him not coming back or at least not becoming the permanent head coach.
Actually, I said I thought he was gone if they did not get out of round one, but that if they won a round it might be hard for them to justify firing him. After they got swept in round two I said I could still see him not coming back.
After a couple of his assistants were fired a couple weeks ago, while they didn't say he was or wasn't fired, that seemed to be the writing on the wall for him. It seemed like they would hire somebody experienced (Trotz) and if they couldn't get who they wanted, he would be back. Paul Maurice came out of nowhere though, I didn't hear anything about him before today.
I'm not in the least bit shocked.
Friedman actually said something about some Finnish guy (who has no NHL head coaching experience) and them having interest in him being the next head coach and I thought that was odd since I really didn't think they would move on from Brunette unless it was really someone BIG like Trotz or I guess Maurice would qualify as someone BIG in this case.
Kevin Weekes was saying from the beginning right after Quenneville resigned (like that very same night) that Torts was a real candidate, so I was expecting him to come through the door within a few days, but it never happened and I never heard anything about Torts being linked to there again.
It seems like they want an experienced, big name head coach that's been around a while and Quenneville was that, but Andrew Brunette was not.
So much for Paul Maurice stepping down from Winnipeg because he wanted to take some time off and maybe even retire from coaching and how his presser sounded like a retirement speech. I clearly remember saying after that happened that I could see him back in the NHL as early as next season.