Mike Keenan is blacklisted from the NHL?

Jul 30, 2005
17,660
4,588
I mean, what is location, really
He's a coach that wears out his welcome, gets fired.

In a league where GMs are looking for the next Babcock.... Keenan is just too oldschool and his best before date with a team is too short for anyone to hire him.
Oddly enough, Babcock is not too far from Keenan in terms of being disliked. He has that Bowman-esque "my players hate me, but I get results" thing. He (Babcock) had some quote not long ago that 1/3 of his players hate him at any given time, and which third it is rotates.

I think the difference is that Babcock is sort of harsh, but restrained, and always coolly rational. Keenan was just uncontrolled wacko harsh.
 

Sens Rule

Registered User
Sep 22, 2005
21,251
73
Keenan ripped into Gretzky between periods or after the game. Literally tore into him for minutes and minutes. Gretzky just sat there and stared at him like?

Then Keenan gets drunk and goes to his hotel room to try to apologize in the middle of the night.

I think that is the story. It is similiar to that. That was the end of Gretzky even considering resigning in St. Louis.

You have to question someone's mental stability to do that. Gretzky? 15 years into his career? And makimg a show of ripping him im a tirade? How is that going to work for anyone? Besides the fact that Gretzky didn't make mistakes much and is a totally committed veteran player. How is it going to help anyone doing that? Lose the respect of all the other players and Gretzky? Make yourself into a cartoon? Then getting drunk and trying to apoligize like a fool?

I think this might have come from Hull.
 

KarmaPolice

Snack enthusiast
Oct 5, 2007
19,062
10,369
In Limbo
Didn't he coach Team Canada in the 1987 Canada Cup? How the heck did that happen? Shouldn't have been Sather or something?
 

Reinhart

Registered User
Jun 13, 2011
1,620
464
Not sure if mentioned already, but "Iron" Mike Keenan was "Pillowy Soft" Mike Keenan in Calgary. As has been mentioned already, there were no systems. PP wasn't even practiced much (if at all, actually).

A few years after he got canned in Calgary, Keenan finally did a radio interview. In that interview, he stated something like:

"You can no longer be that hard on players in today's NHL. They have multi-million dollar contracts. It is easier to replace the coach than it is to replace the player."

Explains a whole lot, but for anyone hoping to get an "Iron" Mike Keenan, he simply no longer exists.

Also of note, a lot of fans in Calgary joked about Keenan just being "Semi-retired" on the job. Watched lots of practices from the stands (apparently - I was not there). Just little things like that. Warrener in his first day as a radio personality commented on the Phaneuf situation, and how he and Regehr wanted to teach Phaneuf the finer points on the defensive part of being a defencemen. Phaneuf didn't feel like it. Keenan just didn't want to get involved at all. Dion had his big contract, so I guess from his standpoint, nothing he could do about it.

There are a lot of people who think Phaneuf picked up a lot of bad habits since Keenan arrived, and continued to regress under him.

Obviously the league doesn't look at Keenan any longer as a viable option. There isn't much else he can do at this point after his success in the KHL. If he still isn't getting a shot at coaching gigs, I would consider his chances at roughly zero. I think the only way he makes it back into the NHL is as an assistant coach at this point, and makes an impression that way.
 

EXTRAS

Registered User
Jul 31, 2012
8,867
5,295
It isn't a group thing. Some guys are just not liked, or their style isnt considered effective anymore. That happened.

Blacklisting defo isnt the write way to describe this.
 

Nerowoy nora tolad

Registered User
May 9, 2018
1,403
652
Gladstone, Australia
Would you be suprised if the game changed a bit and some teams adjusted and gained a big advantage on other teams, and this was really really obvious to everyone, but guys like Babcock and the other top 10 coaches in the league completely refused to adopt and destroyed their teams by hanging on to what worked in "2015"? You know, I am almost sure this is what will happen too lol for these guys seem unable to adjust.
Eerily prescient
 
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Nerowoy nora tolad

Registered User
May 9, 2018
1,403
652
Gladstone, Australia
Keenan ripped into Gretzky between periods or after the game. Literally tore into him for minutes and minutes. Gretzky just sat there and stared at him like?

Then Keenan gets drunk and goes to his hotel room to try to apologize in the middle of the night.

I think that is the story. It is similiar to that. That was the end of Gretzky even considering resigning in St. Louis.

You have to question someone's mental stability to do that. Gretzky? 15 years into his career? And makimg a show of ripping him im a tirade? How is that going to work for anyone? Besides the fact that Gretzky didn't make mistakes much and is a totally committed veteran player. How is it going to help anyone doing that? Lose the respect of all the other players and Gretzky? Make yourself into a cartoon? Then getting drunk and trying to apoligize like a fool?

I think this might have come from Hull.
just Gretzky sitting there looking at him like "Which one of us do you think has the leverage here Mike?"
 

JianYang

Registered User
Sep 29, 2017
17,753
16,119
Not sure if mentioned already, but "Iron" Mike Keenan was "Pillowy Soft" Mike Keenan in Calgary. As has been mentioned already, there were no systems. PP wasn't even practiced much (if at all, actually).

A few years after he got canned in Calgary, Keenan finally did a radio interview. In that interview, he stated something like:

"You can no longer be that hard on players in today's NHL. They have multi-million dollar contracts. It is easier to replace the coach than it is to replace the player."

Explains a whole lot, but for anyone hoping to get an "Iron" Mike Keenan, he simply no longer exists.

Also of note, a lot of fans in Calgary joked about Keenan just being "Semi-retired" on the job. Watched lots of practices from the stands (apparently - I was not there). Just little things like that. Warrener in his first day as a radio personality commented on the Phaneuf situation, and how he and Regehr wanted to teach Phaneuf the finer points on the defensive part of being a defencemen. Phaneuf didn't feel like it. Keenan just didn't want to get involved at all. Dion had his big contract, so I guess from his standpoint, nothing he could do about it.

There are a lot of people who think Phaneuf picked up a lot of bad habits since Keenan arrived, and continued to regress under him.

Obviously the league doesn't look at Keenan any longer as a viable option. There isn't much else he can do at this point after his success in the KHL. If he still isn't getting a shot at coaching gigs, I would consider his chances at roughly zero. I think the only way he makes it back into the NHL is as an assistant coach at this point, and makes an impression that way.

Keenan was famous for not practicing powerplays throughout his nhl career, not just in Calgary.
 

majormajor

Registered User
Jun 23, 2018
24,196
28,666
I think the days of Keenan and partly Tortorella are slowly becoming a thing of the past.

Don't just lump Tortorella and Keenan in with each other without some kind of analysis. They're really not much like each other as far as I can tell. For one, players seem to love Torts and hate Keenan.
 
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EXTRAS

Registered User
Jul 31, 2012
8,867
5,295
Nobody's interested in him because he's a bad coach. Period

He had some success with stacked teams but more often than not he was overly harsh to his players and drove many of them off of teams or out of the league.
He had a winning record with 6 of the 8 nhl teams he coached, including a Stanley Cup.

In his first year coaching in khl he won the Gagarin cup (first NA coach to ever win it, and first coach to ever win a gag and Stan cup), as well as coach of the year.

Dude turns 71 this year so he probably is done or close to done coaching anywhere.

But yeah, he didn't usually last too long anywhere he went, which is probably due to his yelly attitude.
 

WATTAGE4451

Registered User
Jan 4, 2018
1,875
1,405
As a coach Keenan has won:

OHL Championship
AHL Championship
Canadian university Championship
Stanley Cup
KHL championship

I guess people are right.. he is a terrible coach. He's only won pretty much every major title you can win.

He is a pain to work with, but he gets results. He would be a great coach for the Leafs and he is exactly what they need.
His record was great 1984 through the 1993-1994 season
From 1994-1995 season til 2004, he just has a ton of sub .500 teams. He finally decent years with a final stint in calgary, but the secp d half of his nhl coaching career does mot reflect the first half at all.

The declining results along with all the drama just doesnt make him worth it.
 

pbgoalie

Registered User
Aug 8, 2010
5,989
3,573
Maybe if he promises to be different and coach an up to date style for three weeks
Bob Murray will hire him
 

pbgoalie

Registered User
Aug 8, 2010
5,989
3,573
Keenan ripped into Gretzky between periods or after the game. Literally tore into him for minutes and minutes. Gretzky just sat there and stared at him like?

Then Keenan gets drunk and goes to his hotel room to try to apologize in the middle of the night.

I think that is the story. It is similiar to that. That was the end of Gretzky even considering resigning in St. Louis.

You have to question someone's mental stability to do that. Gretzky? 15 years into his career? And makimg a show of ripping him im a tirade? How is that going to work for anyone? Besides the fact that Gretzky didn't make mistakes much and is a totally committed veteran player. How is it going to help anyone doing that? Lose the respect of all the other players and Gretzky? Make yourself into a cartoon? Then getting drunk and trying to apoligize like a fool?

I think this might have come from Hull.
Didn’t Ftorek have issues with Gretzky in LA??

maybe old memory haze though?
 

FerrisRox

"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
Sep 17, 2003
20,266
12,895
Toronto, Ontario
I know he's coaching right now in Russia but isn't he basically blacklisted from the NHL? There is never any mention that an NHL team is interested in having him coach again. Essentially he's been run out of the league. Does anyone else find that a little strange?

Considering he has coached eight different NHL clubs, he has received a ton of opportunities. I don't get how you arrived at the conclusion he was black listed.
 
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FerrisRox

"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
Sep 17, 2003
20,266
12,895
Toronto, Ontario
He said that Mike Keenan had no system in place. there was no structure or tactic or style. It was just "go crazy". No joke. I will try to find that video later.

That's an idiotic comment from Linden.

All you have to do is watch a team play and you can see what system they are playing. I'd be amazed if Linden really made that claim because it's ridiculously stupid.
 

FerrisRox

"Wanna go, Prettyboy?"
Sep 17, 2003
20,266
12,895
Toronto, Ontario
As a coach Keenan has won:

OHL Championship
AHL Championship
Canadian university Championship
Stanley Cup
KHL championship

I guess people are right.. he is a terrible coach. He's only won pretty much every major title you can win.

He is a pain to work with, but he gets results. He would be a great coach for the Leafs and he is exactly what they need.

He won a Canada Cup too.
 

Freudian

Clearly deranged
Jul 3, 2003
50,414
17,182
I don't think he's blacklisted. He's just not good enough of a coach to get a head coach job in the NHL and you don't really want someone with his personality as an assistant coach.
 

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