The NHL has gone almost the entire season without seeing a head coach fired, something that hasn’t happened in more than fifty years. Even with that said, it seems unlikely that all 31 head coaches will be back next season, either through expiration of their contract or termination by a frustrated GM.
Barry Trotz, for instance, is on the last year of his current contract and seems tied to the Washington Capitals playoff success this year. Though Washington GM Brian MacLellan was given a contract extension recently, there has been no word on Trotz, who has never advanced past the second round in his 19-year NHL coaching career.
There has been some talk of even the great Joel Quenneville being let go from Chicago, after the disappointing season the Blackhawks have suffered through. Quenneville is one of the greatest of all time, but even he might have to pay the price for underperforming stars and an aging core.
Who do you think is least likely to be brought back by their current team? Which coach won’t be wearing the same colors next season? Make sure to explain your vote in the comment section below.
[Mobile users click here to vote!]
It’s time for AV to be let go. He’s thrown Lundqvist (and to a lesser extent Pavelec and Georgiev) under the bus all year and refuses to take responsibility. His play style is out of date for the direction the rangers are taken and they need a younger coach to connect with the young players.
I could see Quenneville tendering his resignation. His dissatisfaction with some of Bowman’s moves have been well documented. With Bowman’s self-inflicted cap crunch any young players that progress to deserve a big raise will have to be moved, with the half dozen veterans churning up more than half the cap for years to come. With aging vets they have to hope for great health just to be a wild card team moving forward. Knowing he’ll have multiple teams bidding for his services to pay him in the Babcock range, I think says goodbye to the Hawks.
I agree Quenneville resigns long before he is fired. The blame for the Blackhawks demise is totally Bowman’s fault. He inherited most of these great players from Tallon and has done little to build upon it.
Tallon was canned because McDonough wanted his own guy in that spot and that wasn’t Tallon.
Hopefully McDonough now has the guts to pull the trigger on his pet stooge Bowman
Hopefully, Jeff Blashill
Yes. Is he not on this list because it’s a given?
I think It’s Bill Peters. Although I am a Caps fan, the guy is a great coach, but I see him going because of what Dundon did to Ron Francis
I think Francis’ ‘firing’ was unfair, Francis’ inability to find a quality goaltender to push Ward to firm backup notwithstanding. It’s tough to compete with the cap teams on a 60 million player salary budget. The next GM likely hires his own coach to replace Peters.
I agree about Francis’ firing being unfair. I do think its also unfair how much criticism he’s getting for the goaltender situation though. Goaltender is one of the hardest positions to properly develop and take a few seasons before the guy is NHL ready. Outside of John Gibson, Matt Murray, Vasilevsky, and Helleybuck (all of whom have gone through their own struggles at times), finding a young stud goalie through the draft has proven to be hard. Most of the current good goaltenders have been in the league for more than a few years and/or were acquired by trade. Up until this year, Darling showed that he was at least a very good backup and played really well. He might not have had “franchise goaltender” written all over him, but he looked like he could be a really solid starting goaltender. The contract given out seems bad but thats in hindsight. And with Darling set to hit free agency, the Hurricanes had to spend big to keep him.
Great coach? You don’t watch much Canes hockey, do you?
Bill Peters is an easy answer here. Dundon has Pegula written all over him. I expect to see 3 more Canes coaches in the next 5 years.
Lots of us NYR fans paying attention when this poll went up. AV really needs to go. Looks bad for Peters with the changes already startng. Why people would vote for the coaches in places like Vegas, Boston, Tampa, and such is beyond me.
yeo is ok, but if queenville or trotz is available the blues should make a play to replace yeo
I’d like to go off the board and nominate Ken Hitchcock!!