Ward certainly didn't give a great impression in the Dallas series, but on the upside he did have the team playing with fairly consistent effort and without panic. That's not nothing.
I don't think Ward is terrible. I've been saying for a while now that I would love a more proven coach, but we also need a coach that's interested in being here. The top coaches can pick their spots. So if the option is "Ward or some other new guy", I would rather keep Ward and try supporting him with a strong associate coach, someone good with the x and o stuff.
...I would actually love to see someone give Jukka Jalonen a chance in the NHL. He's the guy who coached Finland to surprise gold medals in 2011 and even more memorably in 2019, plus U20 gold in 2016. He's currently employed by the Finnish national team, but I'm sure he could be negotiated out of that.
Jalonen is an interesting combination of a very forward thinking x and o guy, someone who's not afraid of making bold choices and take critique, and who seems to have a knack for turning mid-level players into extremely effective role-players. Players also always seem to be having fun when playing for him.
Would he be good in the NHL? I don't know. He's definitely not a proven guy, but if you can't get a proven guy, I think setting up Jalonen with Ward as his associate would be a good experiment. Or the other way around possibly. (Ward doesn't seem to me like a guy that would have too much ego to work with a better x and o guy than he is.)
I mean sure it would be a risk, but if you're not going to blow up the team, I feel like it would be a risk worth taking. Jalonen at least has a couple of miracles in his track record, specifically with rosters that were short in high-end talent.
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