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Alain Vigneault

Morning Notes: Flyers, Nutivaara, Duchene

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The Philadelphia Flyers will have an entirely new look behind the bench next season, with head coach Alain Vigneault and assistants Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo. Vigneault explained today to reporters including Sam Carchidi of the Philadelphia Inquirer how the assignments will be divided, indicating that Therrien will handle the powerplay and forwards while Yeo will construct a penalty kill and run the defensemen.

That leaves Ian Laperriere, who was retained from the previous staff, as the “eye-in-the-sky.” Laperriere will no longer coach the Flyers’ penalty killing unit, which has not performed very well under him in the past. The last three seasons the Flyers have ranked 22nd, 29th and 26th in the league a man down, never cracking the 80% mark.

  • Markus Nutivaara is dealing with a torn left oblique, suffered when Nikita Kucherov hit him in the first round. Kucherov received a one-game suspension for hitting Nutivaara from behind into the boards while he was already down, but the defenseman would not return to playoff action. Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch reports that it is normally a four to six week recovery time for this type of injury, which would obviously allow Nutivaara to be ready for training camp later in the summer.
  • Sticking with the Blue Jackets, Matt Duchene was once again asked about his pending free agency today and explained to team reporter Jeff Svoboda that he will explore his options but keep Columbus involved. Duchene experienced more playoff action this season than his entire combined career previously, but it still wasn’t enough to get a real sniff of the Stanley Cup. With 727 regular season games now under his belt, the 28-year old has suited up just 18 times in the playoffs.

Philadelphia Flyers Hire Michel Therrien, Mike Yeo

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The Philadelphia Flyers will have an extremely experienced coaching staff next season. The team announced today that joining new head coach Alain Vigneault behind the bench will be Michel Therrien and Mike Yeo, both former NHL head coaches themselves. Scott Gordon, who was serving as interim coach this season will return to the AHL Lehigh Valley Phantoms as head coach, while Ian Laperriere, Kim Dillagbaugh and Adam Patterson will also remain with the NHL coaching staff. Kris Knoblauch and Rick Wilson will not be returning.

Vigneault had this to say about his new coaching staff:

I am excited to add Michel and Mike on our coaching staff to work alongside Ian Laperriere, Kim Dillabaugh and Adam Patterson. Both men have enjoyed success at all levels throughout their coaching careers, including working together at the NHL level. Each brings a considerable amount of experience and knowledge to our group, which I have no doubt will help lead our team to immediate success.

The head coach is referring to Therrien and Yeo’s time together with the Pittsburgh Penguins organization, when the latter served as an assistant on the former’s bench at both the AHL and NHL levels. That familiarity will hopefully help them as they transition to the Flyers, and lead to a playoff berth as soon as possible. Philadelphia is loaded with young players and prospects, but hasn’t been able to put it all together and contend in recent years.

It is important to note Knoblauch here, as the 40-year old was a highly touted coaching prospect before he joined the Flyers two years ago. He had coached both the Kootenay Ice and Erie Otters to league championships, taking both teams to the Memorial Cup. His overall record as a head coach in the CHL was 298-130-29 and several teams had considered him for their own coaching vacancies in the past.

Philadelphia Flyers Hire Alain Vigneault

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The Philadelphia Flyers have hired Alain Vigneault as their new head coach, signing him to a multi-year contract. Vigneault is currently set to coach Team Canada at the upcoming IIHF World Championship but will be behind the bench for the Flyers in 2019-20. GM Chuck Fletcher released a statement about the hiring:

We are extremely excited to have Alain join this franchise and lead our team behind the bench for many years to come. He brings a tremendous amount of success over an extended period of time that will prove valuable to our team to take the next steps in returning the winning culture to the Philadelphia Flyers organization.

Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic tweets that Vigneault’s deal is worth $25MM over five years, making him one of the more expensive head coaches in the league. That may seem like a big commitment given Vigneault didn’t coach anywhere this season after being fired by the New York Rangers last year, but he does have an extensive resume of success. The 57-year old coach comes to Philadelphia with a career 648-435-35-98 regular season record which puts him 12th all-time in terms of wins. He was awarded the Jack Adams trophy as the league’s top bench boss in 2007, but unfortunately has failed to carry much of that success over to the postseason.

Vigneault actually has a losing record in 139 career playoff games and was defeated both times his team reached the Stanley Cup Final. Still, he should bring some stability to an organization that has used four coaches since the beginning of the 2013-14 season and failed to reach the playoffs in four of the past seven years. Scott Gordon, who took over after the team decided to fire Dave Hakstol earlier this season, ended up with a 25-22-4 record but will not be retained as the team’s head coach.

The Flyers are not in the process of a rebuild despite their solid farm system, and expect to compete for the playoffs again next season. Captain Claude Giroux is now 31 and has just three years remaining on his current contract, while other players like Jakub Voracek and James van Riemsdyk are also closing in on their thirties. With young Carter Hart expected to take over the full-time starting goaltending duties and other young prospects ready to make the jump to the NHL, the time is now for the Flyers to contend. The hiring of Vigneault is just another sign that they’re willing to spend to get there, though only time will tell if he can finally take that next step and lead his team to a championship.

Flyers To Interview Alain Vigneault For Their Head Coaching Position

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One name that hasn’t come up too frequently in the various head coaching searches around the league is veteran bench boss Alain Vigneault.  However, he appears to be on the radar for at least one team as the Flyers have asked for (and been granted) permission from the Rangers to speak to Vigneault, reports Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman (Twitter link).

Philadelphia had to seek permission as Vigneault has one year left on his existing deal with New York and actually will see his pay increase from $4MM to $4.25MM for the 2019-20 season.  The Flyers would likely need to assume at least a significant portion of that if they ultimately pick him to take over from interim head coach Scott Gordon.

The 57-year-old would certainly be a step in the opposite direction compared to their recent hires as their last two full-time head coaches (Dave Hakstol and Craig Berube) were both in that role for the first time.  That wouldn’t be the case for Vigneault who has 1,216 career games behind an NHL bench with the Canadiens, Canucks, and the Rangers with his teams posting a 648-435-133 record in that span.  He’s reached the Stanley Cup Final twice, once with Vancouver in 2010-11 and again with New York in 2013-14.

Vigneault was not behind an NHL bench at all this season after David Quinn took over for him with New York.  However, he will lead Team Canada at the upcoming World Championships so if he’s deemed to be GM Chuck Fletcher’s preference, it wouldn’t be surprising if they tried to get a deal done before his duties with Canada get underway in the not-too-distant future.

Hockey Canada Names World Championship Coaching Staff

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Hockey Canada has named their full coaching staff for the upcoming IIHF World Championship, a group that will be led by Alain Vigneault. The former New York Rangers bench boss will be joined by assistants Dave Hakstol, Lindy Ruff and Kirk Muller.

The entire staff has quite a bit of NHL experience under their belt, and were all employed recently if not this season. The group will be commanding a Canadian team that is expected to have quite a bit of talent, although some big names have already dropped out. Connor McDavid was injured in his last game of the season and won’t be able to attend, and Carey Price has already ruled himself out as well. Price’s teammate Shea Weber also is unlikely to go, instead looking forward to a full offseason of rest and training instead of rehab from injury.

Still, Canada always puts together a solid roster and should serve as a chance for Vigneault and others to show what they can do with a talented group. The former Rangers coach has been connected to various vacancies already, though one of those spots has already been filled with the hiring of Joel Quenneville in Florida.

The tournament runs May 10-26 in Slovakia and Canada’s contingent will be put together by a management group including Buffalo Sabres GM Jason Botterill, and former GMs Ron Francis and Ron Hextall.

Buffalo Sabres Fire Head Coach Phil Housley

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Buffalo Sabres general manager Jason Botterill announced that the Sabres have fired head coach Phil Housley after two years behind the bench. The head coach went 58-84-22 in those two years and struggled to inspire a young team with a tremendous amount of talent.

Housley, who was hired without any coaching experience, often struggled to adjust his system to his team and seemed to be lacking in his post-game messages to the team. The team especially struggled in goals allowed as they were outscored 546-419 this season, allowing an average of 3.33 goals per game, which ranked 30th in the league. It’s a far cry from where the team stood in November this past season when the Sabres had the best record in the NHL and eventually plummeted to sixth overall in the Atlantic Division with a  33-39-10 overall record. Regardless, many people felt that Housley was likely to be given another year, but the team really struggled down the stretch as they lost 16 of 17 games to finish the season before winning their last two games of the season.

While Botterill and the Sabres are expected to make an extensive search for a new head coach, the team also will give serious consideration to their AHL coach, Rochester Americans head coach Chris Taylor. Other names already mentioned in association with the opening are Alain Vigneault and Todd Richards. Once the team hires a new coach, the Sabres will have had six coaches over the past seven years.

With multiple coaches having been fired during the season and the firing of Florida’s Bob Boughner this morning, there are now eight coaching positions open this offseason.

 

Alain Vigneault To Coach Canada At World Championship

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Hockey Canada announced their management team earlier this week for the upcoming World Championship, and now have a coach to lead the players on the ice. Alain Vigneault will be named head coach of the men’s team according to Darren Dreger of TSN, who also notes that the assistants will be named at some point in the future.

Vigneault last coached in the NHL during the 2017-18 season, his fifth year with the New York Rangers. The team missed the playoffs for the first time under his tenure, but were open about moving in a newer, younger direction and hired rookie coach David Quinn straight out of the NCAA ranks as his replacement. His firing didn’t come at the end of his contract though, and the team will still be paying Vigneault $4.1MM next season.

That is of course unless another NHL team wants to hire him and works out a deal to cover some of that salary. That would likely be the goal of the veteran head coach this spring when he gets behind the bench again for a team that could be loaded with Canadian stars. Connor McDavid, Drew Doughty, Claude Giroux, Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Toews, Eric Staal and many others could all be out of the playoffs this year and available for the management group to invite.

Vigneault has a career record of 648-435-35-98 in the NHL, and has gone to the Stanley Cup Finals twice.

Metropolitan Notes: Murray, Couturier, Lundqvist, Merzlikins

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have a lot invested in their goaltender of the present and future in Matt Murray. You would think replacing Marc-Andre Fleury might be a challenging procedure, but Murray’s .923 save percentage in 49 games proved that the youngster was ready for the full-time role, one of the reasons why it wasn’t as hard to let Fleury go. However, last year’s struggles already has several fans worried about Murray’s long-term success.

Murray struggled with both injuries as well as the death of his father during the 2017-18 season in which he still played in 49 games, but didn’t fare as well, posting a .907 save percentage as well as a 2.92 GAA. However, Murray as well as the team’s other backups, Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry, have worked hard with goaltending coach Mike Buckley, who challenged each one of them, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Buckley feels that Murray has put too much pressure on himself to replace Fleury and needs to accept that he’s the “guy” now.

“The next step for him is to take it all in and enjoy it. ‘Hey, I’m the guy now. I can accept that. I don’t have to be Marc-Andre Fleury, but I can be tighter with my teammates and really open up to them.’” Buckley said.

Buckley added that Murray has worked hard on his conditioning and hopefully should be able to avoid injury, although some injuries like concussions are just unavoidable.

“In terms of how he takes care of his body, he’s meticulous,” Buckley said. “The problem is the things that you can’t control. A concussion, for example. Someone coming down and landing on you the wrong way. There’s really very little you can do about that.”

  • Sam Carchidi of philly.com writes that Philadelphia Flyers general manager Ron Hextall says that No. 1 center Sean Couturier will be “absolutely” 100 percent at the start of the season in October and is already ready to resume skating. Couturier, who was expected to miss four weeks on Aug. 22 with a lower-body injury, is coming off a career-best season in which he scored 31 goals and 76 points and was a key part to the Flyers’ late-season success on a line with Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny.
  • Shayna Goldman of The Athletic (subscription required) writes that this will be a challenging season for New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who is coming off two poor seasons and now finds himself in the middle of a rebuilding project. Lundqvist has endured a very physical workload over the course of his career and didn’t get significant rest last season from then-head coach Alain Vigneault. One thing is imperative. The 36-year-old needs rest, which will be a key for new head coach David Quinn. The problem is that the team lacks an adequate backup as the no longer have either Cam Talbot or Antti Raanta serving behind him. The team now has a number of prospects, including Alexandar Georgiev, Dustin Tokarski and Marek Mazanec. However, unless one of them can step up, none seem likely to provide Lundqvist the kind of rest that he needs.
  • With the possibility that the team could lose star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky to another team when he hits free agency next season, the Columbus Blue Jackets are placing more emphasis on the future suddenly, according to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic (subscription required). While the team has their immediate goaltender of the future in their backup Joonas Korpisalo, the team is focusing their long-term hopes on Elvis Merzlikins, their third-round pick in 2014, who has been a dominant prospect for Lugano of the Swiss League. The 24-year-old has been one of the top goaltenders in the league, posting a .924 save percentage last year and is ready to come to North America next season.

Metropolitan Notes: Columbus’ Defense, Maatta, Butcher, Kreider

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With losses of both Jack Johnson and Ian Cole this offseason, the Columbus Blue Jackets will have some changes on their defense. Those changes could alter the entire defense, as head coach John Tortorella said recently in a Q&A with The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline (subscription required). In fact, Tortorella said he will have to consider whether he’s ready to break up his two star defensemen in Seth Jones and Zach Werenski. At the moment, he’s not ready to do so.

“It certainly makes me think about it, and I have thought about it this summer,” Tortorella said. “I’m going to let it play out. Right now I’m going into the season with ‘Z’ and Jonesy together, and we’ll see what comes of that second pair.”

Jones had a breakout season a year ago, while Werenski had an off year, but dealt with a shoulder injury that hampered him all season. However, Tortorella hopes that others will fill in for the team’s offseason losses, including Markus Nutivaara and Ryan Murray.

“I think (Markus) Nutivaara has improved tremendously,” Tortorella said. “I think (Murray) looked different to me in the playoffs. He can’t even grow a beard yet, he’s just got this stuff all over his face, but he looked different to me. He had more of a game face than I’ve seen since I coached him. He was really good in the playoffs. Can he take those minutes? I know he wants to. I know he’s pissed at me that I don’t give him enough time at certain times, but hopefully, he stays healthy and plays with an attitude.”

  • The Pittsburgh Penguins look to be breaking up their top-four as well as the team promised to give top minutes to free-agent signee Jack Johnson, which will force the team to make some changes, according to Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Jason Mackey in a Penguins’ chat. While the team has no intention of breaking up their top defensive pair of Brian Dumoulin and Kris Letang. That means the likely second line will be Johnson and Justin Schultz, which will likely force Olli Maatta out of the top four. Maatta, who tied a career-high in 29 points last season, will likely be moved to the third pairing next to Jamie Oleksiak.
  • The Athletic’s Ryan Clark’s (subscription required) writes a Q&A interview with New Jersey Devils defenseman Will Butcher, the second-year defenseman has said he’s spent his offseason working on his shot. “My huge emphasis this summer has been on my shot from one-timers to just getting it off quicker,” Butcher said. “Just try to shoot the puck more. Look to shoot the puck more than pass.” The 23-year-old posted impressive numbers in his first year in the league, putting up five goals and 39 points last season. An impressive shot could improve his goal numbers in the future.
  •  When New York Rangers winger Chris Kreider returned from a two-month break when he was recovering from a blood clot, the 27-year-old had lost 15 pounds, which actually proved helpful to him, according to The Athletic’s Shayna Goldman (subscription required). In fact, Kreider played some of his best hockey upon his return, which could fit in well around head coach David Quinn’s new system. The scribe writes that Kreider found the perfect balance between his size, speed, strength and skill, which could carry over to this season, especially now that he’s out of Alain Vigneault’s system that focused only on his speed.

Central Notes: Blackhawks, Kovar, Seguin, Eriksson-Ek, Yeo

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Many teams in the Central Division have been quite active this offseason as they attempt to force their way to the top of the standings next season. However, the Chicago Blackhawks who need to move up in the standings more than anyone have been quite quiet so far this offseason.

If fact, the team have made just a handful of small moves, which included signing a 39-year-0ld forward, a backup goaltender and a depth defenseman in Chris Kunitz, Cam Ward and Brandon Manning. However, after a season that saw the Blackhawks drop from perennial playoff powerhouse to a team that lost more games than they won with a 33-39-10 season, these moves aren’t going to propel them back to the top of the Central. Mark Lazerus of the Chicago Sun-Times writes that the team is likely done with the free agent market and if there is any plan to improve the team, it will need to be done through the trade market.

The Athletic’s Scott Powers (subscription required) adds that the team must address its defensive deficiencies and Manning doesn’t add anything to a team that showed its defense has slowed down considerably. While the team has quite a few defensive prospects, none are likely to be ready to help the team next year, suggesting the team must address that deficiency via trade.

Both writers suggest the team must engage the Carolina Hurricanes for defenseman Justin Faulk, who would complement the team’s defense. Now with Dougie Hamilton and Calvin de Haan in place in Carolina, Faulk would seem to be quite expendable.

  • NHL.com’s Chris Kuk reports that the Blackhawks are not in the mix of  teams to land KHL forward Jan Kovar, who has expressed interest to come to the NHL this season. His agent, Allen Walsh tweeted that Kovar is considering various offers and will make a decision Sunday.
  • In a mailbag segment, NHL.com’s Mike Heika writes about what the likely scenario could be if the Dallas Stars are unable to work out an extension with star center Tyler Seguin. He suggests that Seguin, whose six-year, $34.5MM contract expires after next season, very likely will want to look at options, much like Steven Stamkos and John Tavares did. The fact that the Dallas Stars have only reached the playoffs once in the past four years isn’t in the team’s favor when they are trying to convince him to stay. Heika writes that if an extension isn’t reached before the 2018-19 season ends, the team would trade his rights rather than lose him for nothing. However, there is also high hopes that new head coach Jim Montgomery will have a major effect on the team as well as on Seguin.
  • In another mailbag, The Athletic’s Mike Russo (subscription required)writes that the team hasn’t made many moves as they are in a precarious position where they are left with many unmovable contracts to go with a group of young, talented players, who they would like to develop, leaving the team with few trade assets. The injury to defenseman Ryan Suter at the end of last season also has hindered the team’s trading ability as the team does have excess defense they could move, but won’t now that Sutter’s target date for a return is still up in the air. However, Russo writes that team has high expectations for Joel Eriksson Ek, who they want to move into a top-six center position and he could envision a position battle between Eriksson Ek and Mikko Koivu, who coach Bruce Boudreau wouldn’t mind moving to a checking role in the near future.
  • In yet another mailbag, Jeff Gordon of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that with the acquisition of top talents in Ryan O’Reilly, David Perron and Tyler Bozak, that much of the team’s success will now fall on head coach Mike Yeo who could find himself on the hot seat quickly. If the team falters early on, Yeo is likely to be replaced with Gordon suggesting that Dave Tippett or Alain Vigneault would be candidates to replace him midseason.

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