With Sturm on their eye for next season, does anyone else think that Kings didn't want to put him straight to head coach with no coaching experience from NA? And then, Desjardins was one of the coaches who was ready to accept this kind of situation, while coaches like Vigneault were probably asking multi-year contract.
This is exactly it and they said that almost verbatim re Sturm, as well as for guys like Vigneault who wanted a commitment.
"Sturm played 938 NHL games for six NHL teams, including 17 games for the Kings during the 2010-11 season, and retired as a player after playing the 2012-13 season in his native Germany. Sturm is considered a rising star in the coaching fraternity and is currently coaching Germany’s team in the Deutschland Cup, which means it will be a few days before he arrives in Los Angeles to take up his duties.
Many people believe Sturm, 40, has the qualities to be an NHL head coach but that he needed to reintegrate himself after a six-year absence. This will give him an opportunity to familiarize himself with the league and gives the Kings a chance to assess his readiness to potentially become a head coach in the not-too-distant future."
"Blake previously interviewed Desjardins in the summer of 2017 for an assistant coaching position and came away with a positive overall impression. There are two qualified ex-NHL coaches (Alain Vigneault and Dave Tippett) with deep resumes currently on the sideline but the belief was that neither of them would come in without a long-term commitment, something which the Kings were not prepared to offer anyone at this point."
Kind of brilliant in a roundabout way--remove the players' excuses with Stevens; add in a rah rah emotional guy with no real ties in Willie D: if he does great, great, if he doesn't, whatever; and prep Marco Sturm without immediately throwing him into the fire.
