Quote:
Originally Posted by CaramonLS
I'll address the Atlanta ones.
Both Heatley and Kovalchuk had 1.5 seasons full seasons in the NHL before Hartley came along, they were both well established NHLers by that point. Heatley had over 100 points by then and Kovalchuk wasn't far behind. Kovalchuk had his best season in the NHL with Hartley as his coach, that should probably count for something.
Patrik Stefan? Seriously? The guy was out of the NHL before Hartley was fired in Atlanta. I don't even know how you could even consider him a player who Hartley developed or had much of a postive influence on.
Lehtonen? Not too sure how much coaching he is giving the goalie. But ok.
Coburn was probably one of his biggest mistakes as a head coach. He blossemed into a solid player after he left Atlanta. He was a frequent healthy scratch during his final season in Atlanta.
|
Heatley and Kovalchuk were still only 22 and 21 years old respectively, or the same age as Sven now. The coach still has a big role in developing those players at that age, regardless of how much success they may have had already.
Stefan I included as a failure, not every coach is going to have a 100% track record.
I actually just removed Coburn from my list. Coburn only played 29 games under Bob Hartley, not sure you can really count that as a success or a failure.