Quote:
Originally Posted by bax
Personally, I think hiring a rookie head coach for a roster with this many established vets is a big enough risk in itself.
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Yeah, I think people are a little bit obsessed with Love's AHL regular season record.
Love has 5 years of head coaching experience, 2 in a pro league, zero championships.
Huska has 11 seasons of head coaching experience, 4 in a pro league, 1 championship, and then 5 seasons of NHL coaching experience.
Why are players supposed to show up for Love, a guy with no NHL coaching experience who is barely older than some of the vets, any more than they would for Huska, a guy they know and respect?
The reality of the AHL Coach of the Year award is that Jon Cooper is the only coach in the last 20 years of it who has gone on to have success at the NHL level. And Cooper didn't just win the award, he actually had championships under his belt. He started coaching high school hockey and won a championship right off the bat, then won two NAHL championships, then a USHL championship, then an AHL championship, and was named coach of the year in every league he coached. THEN he got his shot at the NHL, and it still took him 10 years to win a Stanley Cup.
AHL Coach of the Year? Cool, great, but Love's teams haven't accomplished anything that matters, so while he's a fresh, exciting pick, people have absolutely jumped the shark on how great of a pick he would've been. He's not Jon Cooper. People need to come down off the ledge.