Also...coaches have different skills anyway. Nolan may be the perfect guy for developing an attitude and culture and all those unprovable things that don't show up in stat sheets....
But everyone close your eyes and think down the line when this team is finally great. Is ted nolan behind the bench then? Because I don't believe he is.
So he is no better than rolston on the winning part? Right now? Bonus.
We honestly don't know this because he's never had a "great" team. He's always been given crappy teams, and there's no denying that.
Who knows what happens with Nolan in the short term. He may only last 2 seasons out of 3 (but I doubt that). But he also may turn this thing around enough to get an extension for maybe 2-3 more seasons. Either way, I do believe that if he's able to bring that culture of hard work and playing hard to this team, you never know how far that can take you. I'm not saying he's great for a team that's ready to compete, all I'm saying is I, along with everyone else, don't know how he is with those teams..b/c he's Never had one of those.
I do believe that what is very key to if he stays long term or not is going to be the assistants he surrounds himself with. If he's able to get some good assistants in there, and they are all able to collectively share a vision and implement it for this team, I think that helps him. He needs people to help him create a system, not just "hard work". Hard work is Great, but there needs to be strategic involvement for teams.
I remember a post on this forum where people mentioned before that Nolan's assistants were the primary people in doing game planning (during his time here in Buffalo). They were the ones that looked at match ups night in and night out...so hopefully that happens again here.
There's no denying it for now though, this IS the guy you want for a young rebuilding team. If he can remain patient for a season or 2, I think he'll start to see the light for how high the ceiling is for this team. There's some things he can't control, like if we get a potential superstar or 2 in the 2015 draft which to be honest, is so crucial to what we're "planning" on for this team. If we get Mcdavid and/or Eichel, I think that just helps the talent level of this team so tremendously.
We've already added reinhart up front, and Risto Zads Myers Pysyk McCabe etc are all going to be very good on the back end. But if we can just get him more talent up there, preferably superstar talent (McDavid), that helps in keeping him around quite a bit.
I've repeatedly heard on interviews players loving to play for him. So hopefully that continues and our stud rookies that are coming into the NHL get off to a great start under him. I think Nolan will really like coaching guys like Ristolainen and Zadorov, 2 young blue chip prospects who can really make an impact on this team.
