Oilers to take time before making coaching decision
Numerous solid candidates still emerging
Coaches of National Hockey League teams out of the playoffs might want to toss their smartphones in the garbage or maybe book an ocean cruise where nobody can get ahold of them. Peter Horachek, bye-bye. Ted Nolan, see you later. Craig Berube, you’re on hold in the City of Brotherly Love. Same with Todd McLellan in San Jose, a good hockey man who might be somebody Edmonton Oilers general manager Craig MacTavish is looking at as he casts a coaching net that will include his interim head coach, Todd Nelson.
And maybe Claude Julien, which seems awfully rash for one bad season in Boston, and quite possibly Dave Tippett in Arizona, if he isn’t up for a rebuild and wants out, too.
And these are just the guys behind the benches of teams that didn’t make the postseason.
Ken Hitchcock may have to go deep in the playoffs in St. Louis if you want to keep your job. And Bruce Boudreau in Anaheim, even with the second-most points in regular season, can’t afford to lose Round 1 to the Winnipeg Jets.
Mike Johnston in Pittsburgh could be a sacrificial lamb after just one season.
The carnage has started. Everybody expected Horachek to be put out of his misery in Toronto — the Maple Leafs refused to buy what he was selling after he replaced Randy Carlyle.
But Horachek wasn’t the only Maple Leafs staffer cashiered by team president Brendan Shanahan. So was GM Dave Nonis, head of pro scouting and ex-Wayne Gretzky shadow Steve Kasper, and a whack of amateur scouts who’ve been putting together the book on kids for the late June draft in Florida.
MacTavish, who has had three coaches (Ralph Krueger, Dallas Eakins and now Nelson), may want a fourth with a bigger NHL headcoaching resume (I wonder if the owner Daryl Katz might push for that, too), no matter how good a job the laidback, interim guy Nelson did. MacTavish isn’t rushing into anything; he’s told Nelson he’s on hold.
Who knows what coaches pop free?
“I’m not going to get into specifics as to what the next coach will look like,” said MacTavish, applauding the work Nelson did, turning some struggling players (Anton Lander, Nail Yakupov) into major contributors, also having a team close to .500 the last half of the season. He should be on MacTavish’s coaching wish list along with whoever else pops up.
“I have to let the emotion die down from this season, and we’ll have a fixed amount of time going forward to see what that landscape looks like. It’s my experience that you’re better off buying some time before you get to a conclusion,” he said.
Nolan and Buffalo GM Tim Murray weren’t doing much talking as the season wore on. Murray thought his team was better than a 30th-place team, even though that’s where he wanted them to finish if he’s to get Connor McDavid in the draft lottery. At least Nolan, in his second kick at the can as head coach, got a three-year contract last summer, so he has a two-year golden parachute.
Can’t imagine Berube lasting in Philly. He wasn’t GM Ron Hextall’s hire and they’ve had four coaches since 2006 — Hitchcock, John Stevens, Peter Laviolette and Berube.
The Sabres will surely put a full-court press on Mike Babcock as head coach if Babcock doesn’t resign with the Detroit Red Wings. Murray can use the Connor McDavid card if the Sabres win the lottery, plus Terry Pegula has the money to burn as the uber-rich Sabres owner. Murray, who used to work in Ottawa, also has the Senators’ very good farm-team coach, one-time Oilers defenceman Luke Richardson, on speeddial if Pegula doesn’t go for the big splash.
Julien is the wild-card, a coach who took the Bruins to the cup in 2011, but a coach who couldn’t work miracles with a slow, tired-looking, injury-riddled Boston team this season as they shockingly missed the playoffs. Somebody’s going to pay for the Bruins having no playoff dates.
Hitchcock is a smart guy; he knows he has to get the Blues far down the playoff trail after a series of strong regular seasons but early playoff exits because they couldn’t score enough, or they were banged-up or the goaltending wasn’t as good as the other guys’. jmatheson@ edmontonjournal.com Twitter: @ NHLbyMatty