Patrick Roy's real level as a head coach?

[Arto Kilponen]

We have seen now a guy coming directly to NHL head coach spot without having absolutely any experience of coaching adults. He went and won the title of a very hard division. Right after that regular season a lot of people expected it to continue in playoffs and indeed, there was a nice set of home wins against Wild in playoffs. But it ended in disaster with a Game 7 first round home loss in overtime. Over the summer he won the Jack Adams Award. Then this guy was basically challenged to show what advanced stats are about - answer could be read from 2014-15 results. Avs were at the very least supposed to challenge for a playoff spot seriously, some people thought even challenging for the division title again. Now, 31 games later, the result is five regulation wins.

So what is the actual level of Patrick Roy the coach - We all know where he is coming from, but what is your opinion, where is he going to? How long will he be a head coach in NHL? Will he be successful and if, what would you consider as success for him as a head coach?

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[AvsRobin]

Lets just say, if his name wasn't Patrick Roy. There would be a lot more shots fired towards him in the GDT's than there are.

But he is learning on the job. I have less problems with his coaching than I have with his other duties.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

This is not a well built team right now. I'd be more worried about Roy in the GM role than the coach. He's shown a willingness to change as a coach.

The Avs track the advance stats, they just aren't built well enough to execute. I'd love to see Roy with some good defensemen because he's gotten the best out of the good ones we have.

 

[AnimalMother73]

I feel like Minnesotta showed the rest of the league how to beat Roy's systems and he hasn't found a way to recover. It is striking that essentially all of the top young forwards on this team have regressed relative to last year and I can't help but shake the thought that it is b/c of this. Also, Roy (and Sakic) the GMs grossly miscalculated on the capability of certain players (Holden, Guennin, Briere) and honestly signed the wrong type of player (Iginla) to replace Staz.

Capable head coaches and managers learn and grow from their mistakes. I'm certainly willing to give him more leash and hope that by next year he has figured out how to adapt his schemes and what type of players are effective in them. If he improves in year three I think there is potential he becomes a top head coach. If not, 2 more seasons and he's probably out.

 

[member 116861]

He is a good head coach that will be here for a while. I'm more concerned about the GMing part of Patrick. I'm not a fan of the scrubs and how much playing time they get. I don't think Patrick has the greatest eye for talent but he is not terrible either.

 

[Nihiliste]

As others have said, Roy the GM is much more worrisome than Roy the coach. However, Sakic/Roy are here to stay long term as part of the management brain trust (for better or worse). I'm not a fan of guys taking a dual coach/GM position, especially long term. Even if the Avs group decides things by committee, both are full time jobs. It obviously won't happen now but at some point Roy should move up to the front office full time and bring in another head coach. The one on the market right now would be a good choice.

 

[Freudian]

He did use the broken man on man coverage for too long but apart from that it's hard to tell how much of the teams struggles is due to coaching. The lack of skill and ability to handle pressure creates problems that shouldn't be there with a better team.

The scary thing is that even with a fully healthy team, we have two or three players that really shouldn't play.

 

[agentblack]

Roy has been good, I do question some of his personnel decisions like Redmond not playing to start the year and Briere scratched for like 5 games or something. Im worried he and his staff are mis-evaluating some players. I mean Picks is playing light years better than Berra its embarrassing.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

This is not a well built team right now. I'd be more worried about Roy in the GM role than the coach. He's shown a willingness to change as a coach.

The Avs track the advance stats, they just aren't built well enough to execute. I'd love to see Roy with some good defensemen because he's gotten the best out of the good ones we have.

Spot on! This is what I think of Roy right now. He seems to do well with the team in general, BUT he hasn't actually fixed our holes in roster.

 

[Avsboy]

It's not a coaching problem. It's a GMing problem. Roy/Sakic have made bad moves that can be characterized in two sets: bad contracts, and bad asset management. Bad contracts have been given to Berra, Holden, Guenin, RoR, Landeskog (he was paid way too early), Cliche, Mcleod... Asset management is in the form of bad trades and bad player evaluation. Most trades made have been poor, and the player evaluation - which could be a coaching problem, but is more a GM problem (because the GM has to evaluate and trade players) - has been pretty abysmal as well. RoR should have been gone by now, certain players should be sent down in spite of their contracts, and other players should be called up.

The main problem right now is a highly overrated Top 6. But even that is an asset management problem. Sakic/Roy should have moved RoR ASAP, and should consider moving other high end players as well. Identify the core and trade the rest to surround that core with other good players. The core: Duchene, Mackinnon, EJ, Barrie, and Varly. That's it.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Can you really say Landeskog's contract is bad contract? Looks like bargain to me.. Same with Varly, Duchene and EJ. They have done pretty good job overall with contracts. I don't think they have made any big mistakes when giving out big contracts.

 

[AvsRobin]

Spot on! This is what I think of Roy right now. He seems to do well with the team in general, BUT he hasn't actually fixed our holes in roster.

It's a lot easier to change overnight as a coach than as a GM though. I wonder which moves he regrets. Does he regret signing Stuart, McLeod and Holden to that term? He certainly must regret the Berra move. We will never know he feels about the Downie and PAP trades. Cause obviously he would never come out and say that he would like to reverse this or that trade.

 

[AvsRobin]

Can you really say Landeskog's contract is bad contract? Looks like bargain to me.. Same with Varly, Duchene and EJ. They have done pretty good job overall with contracts.

Haha, It's one of the best contracts in the league. My partner on our NHL podcast here in Sweden brought it up just the other day when we listed the best contracts in the NHL. 5.57M for that long for one of the better two-way wingers in the game? I think it's a better deal than the other long term contracts. But I like those two (Duchene and Varly)

I know Avsboy don't like Landy, but come on dude...

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

It's a lot easier to change overnight as a coach than as a GM though. I wonder which moves he regrets. Does he regret signing Stuart, McLeod and Holden to that term? He certainly must regret the Berra move. We will never know he feels about the Downie and PAP trades. Cause obviously he would never come out and say that he would like to reverse this or that trade.

I think It was pretty obvious he didn't like Downie or PAP, I doubt he will ever regret those trades. PAP was cap-dump, they just wanted to get rid of him. Downie they traded for veteran leadership and great team player, Talbot. He wants players he can control.

Roy seems to want a lot of experience, but so far It hasn't really paid off. Our team looks less hungry, less professional.. I don't know how that is possible with so much more experience!? Our team looks more lost with all these veterans than last season, when we had younger roster!

 

[AvsRobin]

I think It was pretty obvious he didn't like Downie or PAP, I doubt he will ever regret those trades. PAP was cap-dump, they just wanted to get rid of him. Downie they traded for veteran leadership and great team player, Talbot. He wants players he can control.

Yeah I dont think he regrets those deals either.

 

[Avsboy]

I was just saying Landy was paid too early. He's still finding his offensive game.

And think of what he could bring in a trade. He could singlehandedly fix every hole this team has, and then some. It's something worth considering. Hell I'd consider trading Duchene.

 

[agentblack]

I feel like the Downie trade was about his personality and fit on the team,
and PAP, well im not losing any sleep over that one.

 

[AvsRobin]

I was just saying Landy was paid too early. He's still finding his offensive game.

Too early, yes. He had just over 100 games under his belt. But he proved immediately last season that we got him to a steal long term.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

I was just saying Landy was paid too early. He's still finding his offensive game.

True. He was maybe paid too early, but that's the risk you have to take, If you want bargains. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. That's what Oilers did with Eberle, RNH, Hall etc.. Sometimes it works.

We've been lucky though, i'd say we got bargains for Duchene, EJ, Varly and Landeskog. We get great value for their contracts IMO.

 

[AvsRobin]

I feel like the Downie trade was about his personality and fit on the team,
and PAP, well im not losing any sleep over that one.

I was basically just listing some of the moves he has made and wondered which ones he regrets. Cause his willingness to change as coach can be seen overnight, but as a GM, we can only know based on what he regrets or not, which he obviously wont tell us.

 

[AvsRobin]

True. He was maybe paid too early, but that's the risk you have to take, If you want bargains. Sometimes it works out, sometimes not. That's what Oilers did with Eberle, RNH, Hall etc.. Sometimes it works.

We've been lucky though, i'd say we got bargains for Duchene, EJ, Varly and Landeskog. We get great value for their contracts IMO.

Yeah, if we could, I would throw a Seguin/Landy deal to MacKinnon this summer too. It's more likely to pay off than not.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

I feel like the Downie trade was about his personality and fit on the team,
and PAP, well im not losing any sleep over that one.

PAP has really lost it. He doesn't seem to produce with Montreal either. He really needs to produce a lot to be helpful for his team. He was great for 48 games with us though.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Yeah, if we could, I would throw a Seguin/Landy deal to MacKinnon this summer too. It's more likely to pay off than not.

or should we just wait longer, so we can keep MacKinnon longer than 8 more years? Although 8 years is still most of his prime years.

 

[agentblack]

I would say that it would be nice to have someone who has lots of GM exp. to coach Joe and Patty a bit, like an advisor.

 

[AvsRobin]

or should we just wait longer, so we can keep MacKinnon longer than 8 more years? Although 8 years is still most of his prime years.

I think he wont sign so cheaply after year 3, I think that year is going to be big for him.