[News] Ken Hitchcock Announces Retirement

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Scroopy Noopers

I don’t buy it. What else are they suppose to say?

But this was not just the Flames. I said "by all counts" Boudreau was not at any point in conversation with Calgary about a coaching position. There were reports that the Flames had conversations with other potential candidates, but Boudreau was not one of them.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

I’m sorry but how is Boudreau a great coach?

Made it to conference finals once and that was after beating the Jets and Flames in 2015. Not exactly world beater teams.

Great regular season coach but is about to lose in the first round for the fourth time in six years.

Far from a great playoff coach and isn’t that what matters?

It's pretty hard to fluke into the 3rd best winning percentage all-time by an NHL head coach. For sure the playoff success is lacking but he's still one of the best coaches in the league. Let's not pretend the Wild are actual Stanley Cup contenders on paper but as usual he gets 100 points annually from his teams.

[Fan in Exile]

Paves the way for the return of the prodigal son - Glen Gulutzan. Help make this dream a reality by freeing GG from his contractual obligations to the Flames Tre.

[Stanley]

Aside from his obvious "resume" and an excuse to get rid of GG, what makes people think AV is even a good fit here?

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

It's pretty hard to fluke into the 3rd best winning percentage all-time by an NHL head coach. For sure the playoff success is lacking but he's still one of the best coaches in the league. Let's not pretend the Wild are actual Stanley Cup contenders on paper but as usual he gets 100 points annually from his teams.

And has done it different ways.

His Ducks, Wild, and Capitals team have all played different styles that fit their teams roster but have all been consistently good (Over a full 82 game season his teams have never had under 100 pts - 8 for 8. The Flames have had over 100 points only 4 times in team history.)

Since Boudreau has been an NHL coach these are the coaches that have won a Stanley Cup: Babcock, Bylsma, Quenneville, Sutter, Sullivan, Julien.

Winning the Stanley Cup is hard to do - I'll take the guy who pretty much guarantees you are going to have a shot in the playoffs every year any day of the week. It's not like Boudreau leaves and then some other coach comes in and does better than he did, teams usually regress after he leaves and get instantly better when he's hired.

Honestly if fans want a proven Stanley Cup winning coach for this roster there is really only one choice: Sutter (Bylsma was terrible in Buffalo, and it looks like he held Pittsburgh back at times).

[Scroopy Noopers]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

But this was not just the Flames. I said "by all counts" Boudreau was not at any point in conversation with Calgary about a coaching position. There were reports that the Flames had conversations with other potential candidates, but Boudreau was not one of them.

Yeah thanks I read that the first time. I don’t think Boudreau was interested. And I don’t think the Flames or Boudreau would have commented on it. So who’s comments are you hanging your hat on?

With everything we know about how Treliving conducts business I don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t have spoken with Boudreau.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

And has done it different ways.

His Ducks, Wild, and Capitals team have all played different styles that fit their teams roster but have all been consistently good (Over a full 82 game season his teams have never had under 100 pts - 8 for 8. The Flames have had over 100 points only 4 times in team history.)

Since Boudreau has been an NHL coach these are the coaches that have won a Stanley Cup: Babcock, Bylsma, Quenneville, Sutter, Sullivan, Julien.

Winning the Stanley Cup is hard to do - I'll take the guy who pretty much guarantees you are going to have a shot in the playoffs every year any day of the week. It's not like Boudreau leaves and then some other coach comes in and does better than he did, teams usually regress after he leaves and get instantly better when he's hired.

Honestly if fans want a proven Stanley Cup winning coach for this roster there is really only one choice: Sutter (Bylsma was terrible in Buffalo, and it looks like he held Pittsburgh back at times).

One conference final in 11 years is the best he could do.

I have a hard time giving him the “great coach” tag with that track record.

That’s not to say he couldn’t do it, but until he does, he will always have the lack of playoff success asterisk.

[Roof-Daddy]

lol, the guy (Boudreau) has coached over 800 games at the NHL level and has a .650+ win %

His teams not winning in the playoffs is as much on the players as it is on him. Minnesota wasn't winning in the playoffs before got there, and Washington and Anaheim haven't won much since he's left either.

I'd take Boudreau over any of the crappy NHL coaches we've had since Darryl any day of the week and 15 times on Sunday.

[868904]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

One conference final in 11 years is the best he could do.

I have a hard time giving him the “great coach” tag with that track record.

That’s not to say he couldn’t do it, but until he does, he will always have the lack of playoff success asterisk.

Not taking a shot at you but Boudreau is way more qualified than the current coach of the Flames.

I really don't think Flames fans should be marginalizing any veteran NHL head coach, especially not one with Boudreau's resume.

Names past and present keep getting tossed out and I start comparing their resumes to GG and it's amazing how pretty much every NHL head coach has won some kind of championship at either the junior or professional level with the exception of GG.

For a guy with GG's reputation as a bright coaching prospect, It's amazing how in all his years of coaching, GG has never won anything at the junior or professional level.

[dfsflamesfan]

Originally Posted by Stanley

Aside from his obvious "resume" and an excuse to get rid of GG, what makes people think AV is even a good fit here?

I wrote something in the AV firing thread, but it seems applicable here as well:

Originally Posted by dfsflamesfan

A lot of Rangers fans seemed rather relieved that he got fired. So it got me interested in reading articles on AV and seeing why he was let go even though he had winning records with two different teams and brought them to the playoffs several times and Stanley Cup Finals. Every year I was shocked with how NY would be able to make it to the playoffs with their roster talent (maybe it's me not watching them play/western bias).

Anyways, it appears that he had been let go for teams starting to go into rebuild mode (even when Van didn't want to admit it). Fans started wanting to see their young players starting to play instead of seeing the old players even though it may not translate to more success (see articles about developing players below). Seeing how Tortorella came into Vancouver after AV and also sputtered (36-35-0-11) also shows that AV was working with a weak/not deep team. That Vancouver team has gone on a tailspin since AV left.

A knock on AV's teams was that he was unable to generate secondary scoring. Which also plagues this Flames team. It's interesting to see that they really only had a few high-impact scorers on those teams (Sedins, Kesler, Nash, Richards) and his secondary scorers had to be his primary scorers (Burrows, Samuelsson, Raymond, Zuccarello, Stepan, Brassard, Kreider, Hayes, Miller). I do think that this Flames team has better talent in their secondary scoring than those Vancouver and NYR teams, but there is some bias in that statement.

The defense on both teams (Van/NYR) were quite mediocre with very few high-impact Defenseman. He had Erhoff, Edler, Hamhuis, Bieksa, 35 year old Sami Salo and Ballard in Vancouver and McDonagh, Girardi, Holden, Moore, Marc Staal, Stralman, Skjei, Shattenkirk (46 games), Klein, and 39-year old Dan Boyle in NY. No real game-breaking defenseman besides perhaps Shattenkirk and McDonagh.


http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/...ault-1.1326120


http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/c...276/story.html

Another note from reading other fans is that he rode on hot goaltenders like Lundqvist and Luongo/Schneider. Which is something to consider when looking at a coach. However, is it a coach/team defense that can get the most out of his goalies or do the goalies bail out the coaches? Chicken and egg kind of situation. Maybe a bit of both, as looking at the goaltenders that AV has been able to develop with the teams he was with. Most notably Luongo/Schneider and Lundqvist/Raanta/Talbot. I believe that Smith in net is similar level (maybe a bit less) than Luongo/Schneider and Lundqvist.

Rangers fans seem to dislike the deployment of Buchnevich this season, but he has had a great rookie season with 43points in 74 games. Where Zuccarello has had 53 points in 80GP as NYR's top scorer. A lot of articles of why he was fired in Vancouver was that he couldn't "develop" players. It's understandable that he couldn't develop players like the ones in the quote below. Simply put that they are no good.


http://vancouversun.com/news/communi...ed-to-be-fired


http://www.vancourier.com/rangers-fi...ffs-1.23259551

All in all, I think that AV would be a great coach for this team because he says he tries to maximize the roster talent. It sounds a little different than what Gulutzen is putting forward as he is implementing a system (50/50 hockey) regardless of personnel strengths (Brodie only on the left side, Brouwer being RH shot = must need a RH shot on the PP, etc.). I think AV would do wonders to really maximize this flames rosters talents and being able to push to be in a playoff spot. How he was able to be a playoff coach almost every year with the weak rosters (besides his goalies and few prolific goalscorers) he had is a testament to how he is a great coach in my opinion.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by 868904

Not taking a shot at you but Boudreau is way more qualified than the current coach of the Flames.

I really don't think Flames fans should be marginalizing any veteran NHL head coach, especially not one with Boudreau's resume.

Names past and present keep getting tossed out and I start comparing their resumes to GG and it's amazing how pretty much every NHL head coach has won some kind of championship at either the junior or professional level with the exception of GG.

For a guy with GG's reputation as a bright coaching prospect, It's amazing how in all his years of coaching, GG has never won anything at the junior or professional level.

For the record, I would take BB over GG 100 times out of 100.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

lol, the guy (Boudreau) has coached over 800 games at the NHL level and has a .650+ win %

His teams not winning in the playoffs is as much on the players as it is on him. Minnesota wasn't winning in the playoffs before got there, and Washington and Anaheim haven't won much since he's left either.

I'd take Boudreau over any of the crappy NHL coaches we've had since Darryl any day of the week and 15 times on Sunday.

Don’t believe anyone said Boudreau was a worse option to what the flames have had since Darryl.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by VANFLAMESFAN

One conference final in 11 years is the best he could do.

I have a hard time giving him the “great coach” tag with that track record.

That’s not to say he couldn’t do it, but until he does, he will always have the lack of playoff success asterisk.

I’ll take the 8 100 point season, plus on pace for 100+ points in the lockout shortened year and in the 61 games he coaches his first season.

So 10/10 and the only year he didn’t was when he was fired with a 12-9-1 record after 22 games.

In Joel Quennevilles first 10 years he made it past the 2nd round once, Darryl Sutter twice. Neither won the cup until their 13th season coaching. Also has a better playoff winning percentage than those guys did in their first 10 years.

He has two issues come playoff time - 1-7 record in games 7s. Thats partially due to the fact that his goalies have a .862 save percentage in those 8 games.

Tough to win the round when somehow your goalie lets everything in every game 7 you play.

He’s a great coach no matter how you slice it.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

I’ll take the 8 100 point season, plus on pace for 100+ points in the lockout shortened year and in the 61 games he coaches his first season.

So 10/10 and the only year he didn’t was when he was fired with a 12-9-1 record after 22 games.

In Joel Quennevilles first 10 years he made it past the 2nd round once, Darryl Sutter twice. Neither won the cup until their 13th season coaching. Also has a better playoff winning percentage than those guys did in their first 10 years.

He has two issues come playoff time - 1-7 record in games 7s. Thats partially due to the fact that his goalies have a .862 save percentage in those 8 games.

Tough to win the round when somehow your goalie lets everything in every game 7 you play.

He’s a great coach no matter how you slice it.

Regular season: great head coach.

Playoffs: mediocre to poor head coach. For all those great teams that he coached into 100 plus points, you would think that somewhere down the line, he would have some playoffs success. But he really hasn’t and it’s a stain on his resume. You can point to goaltending or game 7’s or whatever, but if he’s going to get credit for the successes of his teams, he’s gotta take the heat for the failures.


Would take him on the flames right now in a heartbeat over GG, but that’s not saying much.

Just can’t put him in great category until I see some solid playoff success.

Maybe my scale of “great” is too high.

[Owen15]

Weird, I was pretty sure I saw B.B. behind the bench just now coaching in a playoff game. Why the CP dance around him? Why not fuss Babcock, Quenneville or Gallant coming to Calgary. Seems about as reasonable. Are we fussed we didn’t hire him over gluegun?

So in the spirit of OP and in discussion on Hitch, congrats on a great career. I loved the way he conducted himself and he is HHOF imo.

[Mr.Coffee]

3rd all time in wins only behind Bowman and Quennville. 2x Presidents trophies, 8x division titles and a Stanley Cup. Hall of fame coaching career, hell of a coaching career. I loved this quote he gave in the CBC article.

“To each and every player that I coached, I wish I could do it all over again”. -Ken Hitchcock

[mrdonkey]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

3rd all time in wins only behind Bowman and Quennville. 2x Presidents trophies, 8x division titles and a Stanley Cup. Hall of fame coaching career, hell of a coaching career. I loved this quote he gave in the CBC article.

“To each and every player that I coached, I wish I could do it all over again”. -Ken Hitchcock

If you imagine this quote coming from Glen Gulutzan it almost sounds like a threat.

[Badgers Nose]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

But this was not just the Flames. I said "by all counts" Boudreau was not at any point in conversation with Calgary about a coaching position. There were reports that the Flames had conversations with other potential candidates, but Boudreau was not one of them.

Highly unlikely they were considering a multi-million dollar coach like Boudreau (Cherry suggested that Bruce makes more than Babcock), I think you are right about that. That's why AV is highly unlikely to be on any Calgary list.

Someone (Francis?) said GG makes $400k - at least I think I heard that, in reference to GG having one year left and firing him (and paying that year) was not a big deal to ownership in his opinion.

[VladtheImpaler]

So, uh, Hitch retired? Was a great coach once - stayed too long - I think the game passed him by 5 years ago...

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by 868904

For a guy with GG's reputation as a bright coaching prospect...

Was this ever true though? Gulutzan was a flop in Dallas and then an assistant on a fledgling Vancouver team.

I don't remember hearing about him being interviewed or considered for any head coaching jobs after the debacle in Dallas, and these days, it's hard to keep that stuff under wraps.

It seems like Gulutzan became a top coaching "prospect" only the minute after Treliving hired him.