Giants need to start thinking ahead
Hiring Molleken as head coach fine but he needs a good assistant to be groomed as the next boss Steve Ewen
Lorne Molleken will be unveiled as the Vancouver Giants’ newest head coach Tuesday. Their next hire could be just as important.
Molleken, 59, who has 603 regular season wins as a WHL coach and was last at the helm of the Saskatoon Blades, has already begun meeting with Giants players. He’s started discussing possible assistant coaches with general manager Scott Bonner and other members of the Vancouver brain trust, and a hire in that regard is expected in the coming days.
We’ve banged this drum repeatedly, but chemistry among the Giants staff hasn’t been the same since Craig Bonner gave up his dual role as assistant coach and assistant general manager to take on the GM’s gig with the Kamloops Blazers in April, 2008.
They tried various lieutenants for head man Don Hay. It wasn’t the sole reason that Vancouver went from winning the Memorial Cup national title in the spring of 2007 to finishing last in the country in 2012-13, but it played into their lack of cohesion. It also played into their problems assessing, recruiting and developing talent.
And, maybe more to the point, when it became readily apparent that they needed some of sort of staff change after the 2013-14 season, and the Blazers took a great deal of the sting out of a decision by asking to hire Hay, Vancouver didn’t have a replacement they felt comfortable at the ready.
By contrast, the Kelowna Rockets are always grooming somebody, like how they had Dan Lambert primed to step up from an assistant spot to take over from AHL-bound Ryan Huska for last season. It feels like Rockets super boss Bruce Hamilton knows who the guy who replaces the guy who replaces Lambert will be.
When it came time to find a successor for Hay last season, the Giants flirted with various candidates before landing Troy Ward. Hay was there for 10 years; Ward lasted 25 games. The Giants talked to Molleken about being his replacement, but opted instead for Claude Noel.
After some success when Noel first arrived, the Giants faltered again. They weren’t just losing, but they were bland, getting shut out 14 times by campaign’s end and missing the playoffs once more.
Who’s going to be Molleken’s assistant? Matt Erhart, 36, will certainly get consideration after working both under Hay and last year’s tandem, but the fact that the Giants didn’t give him a run as head man when things went south with Ward suggests that he’s far from automatic to get the gig again.
As for Molleken, he was part of a three-man shortlist for the main job this time, along with former Kootenay Ice coach Ryan McGill and Dallas Eakins, the ex-Edmonton Oilers boss.
This Giants roster has a questionable psyche after all that’s happened the past year, and the club’s fan base is getting frustrated as the dwindling attendance shows. The team needs a strong start to the campaign for both of those groups. Molleken would appear to be the best bet to bring that.
Eakins, who is said to love living in Vancouver and is family friends with Canucks president Trevor Linden, would have taken some time getting used to the league, the Giants didn’t have that to spare, especially with a six-game bus trip to Saskatchewan and Manitoba in early October. He was recently named coach of the Anaheim Ducks’ new AHL affiliate in San Diego as well.
McGill, too, is chasing after pro jobs and, as the story goes, wasn’t willing to decide on anything with the Giants until exhausting those options. They don’t have that time after last season.
The main knock on Molleken is that he hasn’t had playoff success. Hay is also in that regular season 600-win club in the WHL. He is 10369 in the playoffs all-time. Molleken? He’s 57-62.
It’s an issue. That said, just getting to the playoffs for the Giants right now should be the main goal. They can worry about doing more once they get there again.