Quote:
Originally Posted by nik-
I mean long term as in this is the guy we're betting on until it doesn't work. A normal coach hire, not an interim one. However long that is depends on what happens on the ice. If Sutter came as a defined interim coach I'd be ok with it. But the permanent head coach should be someone else and there should be a proper search process for it.
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Interim coach is a bad message for this core. Frankly, I think they view a 2 year contract (one of which is a short year) at a salary which makes him expendable as an interim coach.
This was a bad year to be new coach of a team trying institute any kind of overhaul of the style. Their training camp was minimal, rookies were hard put to make the team, so you’d get imported vets ingrained in various other systems, etc. And I think this group is a difficult one. So I feel sorry for Ward in a way.
But for both him and the GM, results matter, and their bottom line is not good.