Claude Julien

[Interior Cascadian]

Assuming he wants to continue coaching, what are everyone’s thoughts on Julien as Seattle’s first head coach? I always thought he was one of the better coaches in the league and wouldn’t mind him being the team’s bench boss.

Click to read more...

 

[Mike Jones]

Good choice but I'd give Gallant the slight edge as he has the track record with a successful expansion team (Who chose players under the same rules Seattle will be choosing by( and all.

 

[Silkytentacles]

No he’s outdated would rather have a new face instead of the same coaches cycling through

 

[PG Canuck]

It would be insane to not hire Gallant, IMO.

 

[justPlay]

Yea, Seattle's getting Gallant.

 

[gstommylee]

Yea, Seattle's getting Gallant.

How do you know Seattle will sign him as HC?

 

[Sabre the Win]

Just because Gallant was able to do big things with Vegas in their debut season doesn't mean he can replicate it. The players on Vegas that year played with a chip on their shoulder for being the other NHL's teams miscasts which greatly helped propel his team, they played for each other.

That doesn't mean the same recipe for success will happen with the Kraken but Gallant has been thru it and it seems he may be the key ingredient to do it again. It would be a shame if the Kraken didn't at least follow up on him over Julien.

 

[Dog]

They should wait till know what type of team they will have also if certain coaches might be available later. Grönborg is probably the best coach outside NHL that might be available.

 

[Riverfront]

ROD BRIND'AMOUR !

 

[Gyfu]

As a habs fan, I'd say Gallant is the man, maybe able to adjust better to different line-ups and more creative imo... Julien did win everywhere... If i get a brand new team to build from the ground i go Gallant... Just my 2cents

 

[Fistfullofbeer]

Just because Gallant was able to do big things with Vegas in their debut season doesn't mean he can replicate it. The players on Vegas that year played with a chip on their shoulder for being the other NHL's teams miscasts which greatly helped propel his team, they played for each other.

That doesn't mean the same recipe for success will happen with the Kraken but Gallant has been thru it and it seems he may be the key ingredient to do it again. It would be a shame if the Kraken didn't at least follow up on him over Julien.

I wouldn't put too much stock into players playing 'with a chip' on their shoulder. I attribute their success to a good coach who plays a system that his players bought into right off the bat. Specially that first season they over-performed significantly given the talent on that team. I also felt that Gallant was really good at making both in-game and game-to-game adjustments. Trust me as someone who follows the Sharks and has watched a lot of Knights games since they joined the league.

In general though, I am more of a thinking that we miss the playoffs the first year or two. Trust in the system and that Francis is building a team for the future and not today. The good news for us is that we are in a weak-ish division (once we revert to the normal divisions). Knights are by far the best team in the division but after that it is rather hard to say how teams will do. Oilers can be good but are too top heavy and lack depth which is an issue in the playoffs. And after that, its pretty open. Flames, Sharks, Kings, Yotes, Ducks are all in different stages of their rebuilds. If there is a division an expansion league can finish in the top-4, it is ours.

 

[SImpelton]

Bruins fan. My experience with Julien is as follows:

If your team is below average he will bring them up to an average level. If you have standout talent on the team he will not use it well. He came to Boston after the offense had fallen apart other than Bergeron and rebuilt it up to a decent level over 3 years, but played a very conservative trap style game that resulted in a lot of low scoring.

He did, however, create the emergence of Tim Thomas and gets some credit for that. He also prevented a very slow, shallow, weak defense other than Chara, from being exposed, by using the forwards to cover part of the defensive assignment. In other words, at least in Boston, he coached well to the strength of a large, physiical, but not particularly athletic team.

the problem is that as the team got faster and more athletic Julien didn't adjust his style of play. Like, at all. Chiarelli would make moves to make the team smaller and quicker and Julien was still giving them assignments as if they were big and bulky like they were 3 years prior. The man does not adjust. He's a very stay-the-course coach and that's not what you need on a new franchise that needs to evolve rapidly.

My bottom line: Julien is a coach you hire to squeak an average team into the playoffs and win the occasional game. He'll get youu some extra playoff revenue if you're a borderline team. For a bottom feeder, he's not useful and for a high skill team he'll hold you back in the name of team D. He's not as bad as he looked in his second stint in Montreal, that team is recovering from a period of utter dysfunction right now, but hes' a coach you bring in for a specific reason and the Kraken may or may not even be in that position.

 

[Fisticuffer]

I think they’ll put a good amount of emphasis on candidates ability to develop youngsters.
Maybe we’ll look outside the box and give Nolan another shot.