Confirmed with Link: Update: 9/15 | Capitals Relieve Todd Reirden of Coaching Duties | Hire Laviolette as new HC

[895]

Edit: I dont need the attitude.

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Lmao ok

 

[IafrateOvie34]

I'm having a difficult time believing Babcock is going to motivate this team and if anything will probably lead to the trade requests of popular players and potential future UFA signings. Lavi, I'm fine with and for sure I'm all in for Gallant. Of those three coaches, I want Gallant because I feel he'll connect with the players and kindle a youthful fire within them. That said, I don't dislike either of the three potential candidates, just looking at their personalities and how they'll do with the current core. I guess we could say Babcock did motivate Wilson's career with "Nobody is worried about Tom Wilson" comment . Lavi did help Giroux and I like that prospect with McMichael potentially playing fulltime in the NHL. Gallant, imho, has the potential to work with vets and youth. Additionally, Gallant hasn't won a cup and is hungry for it.

Go Caps!

 

[txpd]

Here's the truth. We dont know poop about these coaches beyond their on camera behavior and their win loss records and who hired and fired them and when. We have reports and rumors about what they are good or bad at, but I am far from clear as to what we would be getting from any of them. If Gallant hadnt has such quick exits, i would be most interested in him, but he did.

Note that I havent seen mentioned here. Barry Trotz was an assistant coach to Babcock on the 2016 World Cup Team Canada program. It could be that as a result of that the Caps have more insight on Babcock

 

[kicksavedave]

The Capitals had to ask permission to talk to all 3 of those guys including Babcock. Toronto controls Babcock. They have a contract with him. Firing him doesnt means relieving him of duty. Not terminating his contract

Yeah I followed up on the rule and apparently in the NHL, when a team "fires" its coach, they don't actually fire him. They "relieve him of his duties" and send him home to watch on TV, but they keep him officially on the payroll and officially an employee, which is why they control his rights. If they truly fired him, they would still owe his money but not actually control his rights, so they don't do that. They just keep him employed.

It also stems from that one strange year when the NHL had teams pay a draft pick to hire a coach (or GM) who was fired while still under contract. That only lasted for a year so they went back to simply controlling the rights. That year I think Toronto paid a pick to Detroit to hire Babcock and a pick to NJ to hire Lou Lammy.

 

[stickty111]

I know you guys already saw my Babcock post, but here is another argument against him.
Babcock always said start on time, but Leafs seemed to start slow in many games, and apparently this was a problem when Babcock was in Detroit and Anaheim as well.

 

[Empty Goal Net]

I know you guys already saw my Babcock post, but here is another argument against him.
Babcock always said start on time, but Leafs seemed to start slow in many games, and apparently this was a problem when Babcock was in Detroit and Anaheim as well.

No big adjustment then. Sounds like the typical Caps' start will match those of his former teams.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Would the leafs take a 5th round pick for Babcock? Probably?

 

[Langway]

Note that I havent seen mentioned here. Barry Trotz was an assistant coach to Babcock on the 2016 World Cup Team Canada program. It could be that as a result of that the Caps have more insight on Babcock

I'm not sure they'd be able to glean out much from that at this point. Between Patrick, MacLellan and Mahoney they've got the industry contacts to do exhaustive background work on each candidate. They've probably all heard the specifics for their most recent firings from talk in their travels and have plenty of anecdotes from over the years. Some of the Babcock stuff is verified and had been commented upon by Toronto management. But we don't know how they interviewed, whether management or ownership has pre-decided preferences for a particular candidate or whether money won't be the deciding factor. One thing with Gallant is I think he'd be the cheapest of the three and may also command the least term.

It's only been about three weeks since Reirden was fired but given what appears to be a pretty narrowed field I don't know how much longer this should drag on without money being the primary issue. There's no massive rush but they should want a hire in place shortly so they can pivot to other matters, including the ground work of reviewing the current assistants and presumably bringing in at least close to a full staff of their own. It would also help having them in place to review their off-season acquisition strategy for greater cohesiveness. The negotiation process takes time and slow playing it may help but they need to resolve it in the next two weeks IMO. Better not to let it linger and potentially distract from the draft and free agency. Wait too long and depending on what Bowness decides to do in Dallas there could be another destination competing for one of the three.

 

[txpd]

Something else that the Caps may know that we dont is when they are projecting to open camp up. It sounds to me like its getting pushed. If Fauci is right on a fall/winter run of virus, then it may get pushed further and they have access to more of that info than we do. They may not be in any sort of hurry. Or they may have their guy hired but are holding the announcement based on the demands from the league to hold it

 

[Langway]

I don't think the league is holding it back. They haven't held back trades or word that Geoff Ward's interim tag is off. If they've got news I'd wager they're free to announce it. The league probably won't resume in early December as planned but that's little reason to wait. If for no other reason they should want their fresh voice in the ear of the players motivating and establishing relationships throughout the off-season. I don't see the wisdom in not having them clued into their acquisition strategy either. I can't think of any good reason to wait other than maybe avoiding a signing bonus payment or something and I'm not sure if that's even a thing for coaches anyway.

There may be second interviews needed, perhaps including ownership. Then there's the negotiation process, with both reps and former team. Still, this should clearly be their front-burner priority and needs to be resolved in the next two weeks prior to pivoting to the draft/trades/UFA.

 

[Empty Goal Net]

I don't think the league is holding it back. They haven't held back trades or word that Geoff Ward's interim tag is off. If they've got news I'd wager they're free to announce it. The league probably won't resume in early December as planned but that's little reason to wait. If for no other reason they should want their fresh voice in the ear of the players motivating and establishing relationships throughout the off-season. I don't see the wisdom in not having them clued into their acquisition strategy either. I can't think of any good reason to wait other than maybe avoiding a signing bonus payment or something and I'm not sure if that's even a thing for coaches anyway.

There may be second interviews needed, perhaps including ownership. Then there's the negotiation process, with both reps and former team. Still, this should clearly be their front-burner priority and needs to be resolved in the next two weeks prior to pivoting to the draft/trades/UFA.

Draft and FA dates are set so no reason to wait, especially if the league has an embargo on Big News during the finals. Hard to have a coherent team strategy if the HC isn't hired until after the FA flurry subsides.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Welcome, Coach Laviolette!