I understand the concerns about 'old boys club' but people also have to stand back and take a look at the trend in sports.
Gone are the days of 'players' and 'coaches' being an entirely separate pipeline. More and more ex-players are transitioning into coaching and management, and it's the trend that over time they'll be the majority of candidates. As always, you have to sift through and find the good ones and that's no different than if you were interviewing only 'non-player' candidates.
Edmonton's big problem was not that they took a gamble with an ex-player, but rather that they doubled down despite terrible, league-worst results. And also because they're NG.
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