It comes down to the old boys club, surround yourself with people you know and can control or people with limited upside potential that you can keep below you, either way you create a hierarchy of protection
Hiring someone who has the potential to replace you is not the easiest thing to do but it's something a competent person would have the confidence to do to make the team better and provides a succession plan
The whole Larry Robinson fiasco was the first sign of this when he was just getting started, he would have been a tremendous addition but there's a threat there to Therrien - enter JJD who had basically zero coaching experience at the pro level
Lefebvre has some experience but a very low ceiling and was never seen as a potential NHL coach, again keeps the Hab's coach's job safe
Dudley is on semi-retirement, never a threat to replacing MB
Muller has the experience but doesn't speak French, no threat
The rest of his buddies are lucky to have jobs, they protect him and he looks after them with no threat
Ducharme/Bouchard are threats as is Brisebois
I've seen this same set up at dozens of corporations around the globe, it will scare you how many billion dollar businesses have incompetent people at the top looking after each other
The only way to tear it down is cut off the head, they can throw pawns away for years making it look like they're making real changes
My prediction next scapegoat is Timmins (post draft) as he wasn't hired by MB
