TopShelfSnipes
Registered User
I’d like to point out that this was a roster built for today and winning today- how that is not obvious to everyone on this board is beyond me. So I’d suspect they want a win now type coach, considering their first overall pick looks like a D level beer league guy and their second overall pick looks like he might be, at best a plug along 50 point guy. So look at the list of candidates and tell me who is a win now guy that has not flamed out with other teams— multiple times???
All this nonsense about “play as a team” is comical. You really believe most NHL coaches don’t coach the exact same way using basically the same systems?!?! Come
On- and you don’t even need to listen to me— just watch any new player interview when they are acquired. Every single time they say “ this team basically runs the same style as my other team.”
Coaching in the NHL is way more about personal interactions with players and managing lineups and matching up lines in games. The penalty kill and powerplay are different all together as those are unique by team and personnel but 5 on 5 hockey- no teams are doing much very differently.
The Rangers' roster WAS built for winning today.
Unless Tarasenko is willing to take a team friendly deal, Kane opts to get surgery and sign an incentive laden 1-year deal and promptly goes on IR to come back in March as a third liner, Mikkola hangs around on the cheap because him and Kakko are so happy to be teammates, etc. - this WAS a team built for winning today. Because all of those guys are gone otherwise.
If none of the above come back, you're going to have the same gaping holes in the top 6 at RW and on the 3rd D pair the team had most of the season. While I'm optimistic Kakko can thrive in top line minutes if we get a coach that's finally smart enough to leave him there, in reality he's likely at least 2 years away from putting up top flight production while all of the core will be a year older.
Next year's coach will have to get the most out of young talent, not necessarily "win now." If the kids top out as 55 point middle 6ers, this team is screwed in a couple years and it'll be back to the same old buyouts (gee - we finally get them off the books this offseason!) and salary dump trades to try and free up enough cap to make a run at a big FA because there won't be enough scoring.
And if you're looking for a win now coach, Gallant really wasn't that either. Taking a team to the Stanley Cup Finals in their first season on fluke career years from players who never came close to repeating them under that coach's tutelage (and hot goaltending) is hardly the accompllishment some people are making it out to be. That's an aberration, not a measure of skill. Coaches get lucky all the time. A coach's job isn't just to win but also to get the most out of his players. In that regard Gallant failed spectacularly.