NHL coaches out of work
Parting ways with the San Jose Sharks in April after seven seasons, the former Red Wing assistant coach is now coaching Team Canada at the IIHF hockey championships in Prague; Canada plays the Czech Republic on Saturday and if they win they’ll play in the final against the winner of Russia and USA.
Busy now but he stills needs a job for next season.
“There’s a large pool of jobs open for a large pool of really good coaches right now,” McLellan told the Edmonton Sun this week. “So as much as it can be unnerving not having a job, opportunities will exist for some people. I’ve talked to some teams. I’ve only met with one team here.”
Besides McLellan, 47, and Babcock – who could yet stay with the Wings – Peter DeBoer is without an NHL coaching job, so is Randy Carlyle, Kevin Dineen, Kirk Muller, Dan Bylsma, Jacques Martin, Guy Boucher, John Stevens and Brent Sutter.
We may soon find Ken Hitchcock in the available list and were you to jump in the NHL way-back machine you’d find Ron Wilson and Marc Crawford. In the long-shot machine is Claude Noel (who didn’t do so well in Winnipeg and more recently didn’t do so well coaching the Vancouver Giants), John Tortorella and even Mike Keenan.
Todd McLellan headed to Oilers?
McLellan did not say which team he spoke with in person while in Prague but he did add that he’s talked to other teams by phone. Besides Edmonton, and the Sharks, the Buffalo Sabres, Philadelphia Flyers and Toronto Maple Leafs are looking for a head coach.
He’d surely be a candidate on all of those team’s lists, though right now the front-runner to get him is Peter Chiarelli and the Oilers. Some media in Edmonton have chalked it down as a done deal and you’d have to think that McLellan would love to take on a team with so many rising superstars and Connor McDavid on the way.
Not only that, but with Chiarelli now manning the fort, Edmonton is once again solid in the front office and an attractive place to work. So are they the team he’s spoken to in person? And does the following quote mean that he’s found his new home?
“I like to use analogies sometimes,” McLellan said. “For me, this like dating and finding your wife. You know when you’ve found your wife. You don’t need to go on a whole bunch of dates with other people.
“If you’ve found a group which has met your criteria and you like what’s going on there and you know you’re going to be able to work with people, settle in and get to work.”
Yes indeed, get to work. The only question is – where?
