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Originally Posted by FAN
I will make the opposite argument. DeBoer arguably got the most out of his players (I won't necessarily say results). For sure, considering that he coached his team to the OHL championships and then to the Memorial Cup finals, I am not sure if he has necessarily been a disappointment "wherever he's coached." And that Cup final run with the Devils was certainly unexpected. Realistically, I think the expectations were or at least should have been pretty low in his NHL stops. Most of the teams he had simply weren't good teams.
And who has he failed to develop? Adam Larsson (I was never a fan) perhaps? That young Florida team you spoke of? The best young players consisted of Weiss, Booth, Bouwmeester, Frolik Horton, and Ballard. Do you want Olesz included? None of those guys are better after having left Florida and I think it is for good reason. That was not the core of a championship team. In Florida, Frolik and Kulikov had good rookie years. Booth and Weiss had their career years under DeBoer. In New Jersey, Henrique had a good rookie year. Sure they haven't gotten any better after their first year under DeBoer, but one can argue that that is a product of those players reaching their limits.
I see a coach who seems to have done a good job of playing his top veterans while integrating young players into the lineup. I see a coach who hasn't been afraid to use young rookies, whether they are forwards or defensemen. Merrill, Gelinas, Severson, and Larsson received top 4 playing time and PP time even as rookies. Henrique, Josefson, and Tedenby received plenty of opportunities.
I think that DeBoer is a good transition coach for the Sharks. Veterans seem to like him and he has no problems playing young guys. This is not a bad hire. Is he a great hire? I don't know. DeBoer doesn't seem like a guy who can consistently get results from a bad team. He hasn't really coached teams with good NHL rosters either. He's not exactly great at developing young kids but he doesn't refuse to play them either. Again, I don't think this is a bad hire.
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To your first point, the OHL is not the NHL and it takes a very different type of coach to succeed in the pro leagues as Brent Sutter found out.
I will grant you that he used young players, but only certain ones that played a locked-down type of game with very little creativity. It's just my observations speaking here, but his teams play an incredibly boring and predictable style of hockey, which leads to him being frequently out-coached. He also doesn't seem to have any joy for the game.
One only has to look at Jagr's attitude before and after the trade deadline last year. Jagr looked bored and indifferent in New Jersey, putting up just enough points to be respectable, but he wasn't very engaged in the game plan of DeBoer. Cut to Florida under Gallant, who is also a defense-first coach, but doesn't suck the joy out of the game like DeBoer does. Jagr thrived, with young line mates that he was helping to reach another level as he coached their creativity.
And lastly, the Devils in that cup run year were the last gasp of an era that had some very good players. Just to list a few in that season: Kovalchuk-83 points, Elias-78 points, Parise-69 points, Henrique-51 points (about where he's been ever since), Clarkson-46 points, Sykora-44 points. The defense was a little suspect in terms of talent with guys like Salvador, Zidlicky, Fayne, Greene, and one Adam Larsson, but the team defense system was DeBoer's only addition to making that team good. Brodeur was 4 years younger and had one last good year along with Hedberg backing him up. That team was much better than you're giving them credit for.
