Noldo
Registered User
- May 28, 2007
- 1,668
- 253
Lots of hockey exits outside the North America and it is not entirely unreasonable for coaches with long track record from professional leagues to be primarily interested in roles that are upgrades to their current gig, which would mean assistant or head coach positions in the NHL, maybe on the AHL.Yeah, that would be a good place for a prospective Euro to start. Expecting to get handed a job at the highest level isn't the way to go about it, because it's not going to happen. At some point a Euro will come over here and 'play the game' and then we will see how it works out for them, hopefully well.
It'll be interesting to see who the first Euro to come over and give up the entitlement they have in their homeland to actually put in the work will be. You would think there would be a few, but there aren't, The term we use here is 'fat and happy'.
Now, there are up and coming coaches that may accept lower level North American leagues as reasonable stepping stone in their career, especially as it is quite evident that NHL managements are not willing to take a risk and bring in a coach without any prior experience from the North America. Jussi Ahokas is doing exactly this and I understand that his work with Kitchener Rangers has been praised.