Jumping on the NHL coaching carousel
Jay Woodcroft is likely to take the fall; but is he the coach who should be sent packing?
It’s difficult to quantify how important coaching is in hockey. Look no further than recent Stanley Cup and Jack Adams winners… there aren’t a lot of repeats. I’d argue that NHL coaching – while obviously important – is probably the least important of the major sports.
Fun fact: in the past five years, the top three vote getters for the Jack Adams have been fifteen different coaches; five of them are currently unemployed.
That may be why there’s such constant turnover. Only five teams have had the same coach for five years, and it’s no surprise they’ve all had considerable success (Jon Cooper in Tampa; Mike Sullivan in Pittsburgh; Jared Bednar in Colorado; Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina; and Craig Berube in St. Louis). These coaches have been behind the bench for six of the last eight Stanley Cup champions.
A number of teams have turned to the coaching carousel. Paul Maurice is on his fifth stop; Lindy Ruff his third; John Tortorella his fifth; Peter Laviolette his fifth; Peter DeBoer his fifth; and Todd McLellan his third.
Considering the number of opportunities, it’s surprising how little success these six coaches have had. With 118 seasons between them, only Tortorella (in 2003-04) and Laviolette (2005-06) have actually won the Stanley Cup, and until the Maurice’s Panthers had a surprise run to the Finals last year, none of these coaches had even been in the finals since 2011-12.
Ruff – 22 seasons, one finals appearance (1998-99)
Tortorella – 20 seasons, one finals win (2003-04)
Laviolette – 21 seasons, one finals win (2005-06)
Maurice – 25 seasons, two finals appearances (2001-02, 2022-23)
DeBoer – 15 seasons, one finals appearance (2011-12)
McLellan – 15 seasons, no finals appearances
Of the remaining 21 NHL head coaching positions, 15 coaches have been promoted from within.
///
Outside the surprising repetition of coaches who generally have not won in ages, I think the takeaway is coaching is generally viewed as temporary. The hockey world doesn’t have a clear vision who the best coaches are. Teams tend to veer from a “players coach” to a taskmaster, and back again. Firing a coach in football (or European football) can fundamentally change the direction of your team; firing a coach in hockey can be used for short-term motivation, or to reshuffle the deck chairs on a sinking ship.
While fans will generally have strong opinions on their team’s coaching, it’s not as easy as wins and losses. Does your team play your system well? How do you manage personalities? Are you getting the most out of what you have, and how much do you actually have, anyway?
///
I mention this today because I think the Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft is nearing the end of his tenure. I’m not sure much of this is his fault – in fact, I’d probably lean towards it not being his fault – but it’s the easiest card to play when you’ve dealt yourself a bad hand. Woodcroft will likely be the eventual fall guy for years of bad management, and a fundamental misunderstanding of where the Oilers were. If he’s lucky, maybe he can join the likes of Lindy, John, Peter, Paul, Pete, and Todd, and step on the NHL coaching carousel.
I was thinking about coaching because the Oilers demoted Jack Campbell today. Campbell has been – by any metric – awful. He doesn’t look like an NHL goalie, and his numbers back it up. Oddly enough, he looks like a player who may need some coaching.
But in the coaching carousel world, the Oilers have bucked the trend in one major way. They’ve employed the same goalie coach for nine years. His name is Dustin Schwartz. While head coaching is subjective, goaltender coaching is a little more black and white. There are only two real questions: is your goaltending good, and are the goalies you employ improving?
Ask yourself, Oilers fans – have the Oilers goalies been good in the past year? Have any of them (literally, any of them), improved? Oddly enough, the play of many of them deteriorated (Cam Talbot, Stuart Skinner, Jack Campbell, Mikko Koskinen, etc.) during their Oilers tenure.
Woodcroft may be the eventual fall guy, but he’s not the coach I’d be firing.