Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
Unfortunately for teams like the Flames and Oilers if you look at the past few decades the playoffs on a consistent basis feature teams coached by "prestige" coaches. What did it take to turn around the young guns drought? A prestige coach in Darryl Sutter. When the Canucks had their run who was coaching? Prestige coach. Go ahead and list perennial playoff teams that didn't feature a better than average head coach. It is what it is as if you don't have a team loaded with elite talent you better make sure you have an elite head coach or you get the Flames, Jets, Avalanche, Panthers, etc.
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Difficult to assess as coaches get prestige from the team success, similar to the argument for goalies getting prestige due to player success. Dan Blysma is one coach that stands out in my mind as somebody with tremendous NHL success, but makes many questionable decisions and is far from am elite coach in my books. Claude Julien could also be in that boat.