Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
On the prowl
Panthers front office wants a young coach for the young team
Candidates abound as Panthers hunt for coach.
SUNRISE — The coaching carousel never stops spinning in the NHL, where coaches win the Jack Adams Coach of the Year award or a Stanley Cup one year and get fired the next.
So Dale Tallon, back in charge of everything pertaining to the hockey side of the Florida Panthers, will have a large stable of viable coaching candidates to choose from.
Tallon has already made it clear that he wants a younger coach who can identify with the Panthers’ budding core of 20-something stars, a trait that former interim coach Tom Rowe, at 60, lacked.
“We’re looking for a creative guy, a contemporary guy that is a good communicator, a good teacher … that can handle the younger player today and that can understand that they still have to be coached and mentored and taught and yet still have that passion to win,” Tallon said Monday.
Tallon said he wouldn’t bring back Gerard Gallant, and on Thursday that became impossible anyway, as Gallant was named the first head coach of expansion Las Vegas Golden Knights. Also crossed off is longtime Blues coach Ken Hitchcock, who was hired to coach the Dallas Stars after they fired Lindy Ruff.
Tallon said he wants a coach who preaches a run-and-gun, high-scoring offense with puck-moving defensemen who join the attack.
Tallon said that several candidates are still working on teams in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and expects to have a coach in place before the draft begins on June 23.
That style describes the Nashville Predators where Phil Housley has been an assistant for four years. Housley, 53, a Hall of Fame defenseman who had 338 goals, has a history with Tallon when both were with the the Blackhawks organization. The two also worked together on the staff of Team USA in the 2016 World Cup.
Former NHL defenseman Todd Reirden, 45, is behind the bench as an assistant for the President Trophy-winning Capitals, where he has worked with coach Barry Trotz the past three seasons.
Before that Reirden was an assistant with the Penguins for four seasons where he learned from then coach Dan Bylsma, who’s under fire in Buffalo. Bylsma interviewed for the Panthers vacancy before they hired Gallant.
Reirden has helped guide young talented defensemen such as Kris Letang, Matt Niskanen and John Carlson, while directing the Capitals formidable power play. He considers Bylsma and Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville as mentors.
Reirden played for Quenneville when he was coach of the St. Louis Blues, and it was Tallon who hired Quenneville to coach the Blackhawks where he has won three Cups in eight years.
Reirden has head coaching experience in the AHL, where he coached the Scranton Penguins to two playoff seasons.
The Panthers will interview Jim Montgomery, fresh off leading the University of Denver Pioneers to the Frozen Four NCAA Div. I championship with Panthers prospects center Henrik Borgstrom and goalie Evan Cawley, as well as Hobey Baker winner defenseman Will Butcher.
Montgomery, 47, also won two USHL championships as head coach of the Dubuque Fighting Saints where he coached Flames All-Star left wing Johnny Gaudreau, Sabres forward Zemgus Girgensons, as well as defenseman Nick Luukko, a Flyers prospect and son of Panthers executive chairman Peter Luukko.
While recently fired Kings coach Darryl Sutter seems too old-school for the Panthers, his assistant coach, Davis Payne, 46, could fit the bill.
He served as Sutter’s assistant for the past five seasons, including their Stanley Cup championship in 2013-14. Payne was in charge of the Kings’ power play which has been consistently in the Top 10.
As coach, Payne won an ECHL championship with the Alaska Aces in 2005-06. He was head coach of the Blues for two-plus seasons from 2009-11 before being fired.
Former NHL defenseman John Stevens, 50, was also on Sutter’s staff for both Stanley Cup titles, and was head coach of the Flyers for three-plus seasons from 2006-09 where he took them to the Eastern Conference finals in 2008. Stevens also has long ties to Luukko, who was part of the Flyers organization for 25 years before joining the Panthers in 2015.
Another young hot name being bandied about is Sheldon Keefe, 36, coach of the Toronto Marlies of the AHL, where he is preparing them for the Calder Cup playoffs.
Other potential candidates are former Islanders coach Jack Capuano, 50; Ralph Krueger, 57, who was coach of the Edmonton Oilers for part of the 2012-13 season (19-22-7); Mike Stothers, 55, longtime AHL coach who has been an assistant with the Flyers; and Travis Green, 46, a fouryear coach with the Utica Comets in the AHL.
“Someone who has discipline, to have a standard set and hold people accountable,” Panthers All-Star center Vincent Trocheck said of his coaching preference. “That doesn’t mean coming in and ripping people’s heads off. Everybody needs to be held accountable and that’s not just up to the coach. That’s the leadership on the team as well, so you’re coming in here to play every night.”
“We’re looking for a creative guy, a contemporary guy.” Panthers’ GM Dale Tallon