How to solve a problem like the NHL's coaching carousel?

Gerard Gallant's firing by the Rangers means that all three Jack Adams Award finalists from last year, including Andrew Brunette and Darryl Sutter are all jobless. However, hiring trends across the league mean all three men could be back on an NHL bench come the start of next season.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Gerard Gallant no longer the head coach of the Rangers. Man, I have to say--

- It's your time.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: --I got to say, man, that-- look, if there's one sentence that keeps coming up, he is not a tactician. Gerard Gallant is not a tactician. And that could not have been any more apparent than what happened in that series. And he might still get a job later this off season anyway because that's just how the carousel is. Nothing against Gerard Gallant, seems like a nice guy. But he is now firmly-- if it wasn't already, whatever goodwill was there, he is now on the retread cycle, fa sho.

- Yeah.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: I think, like, Shayna Goldman wrote a good piece today at "The Athletic."

JULIAN MCKENZIE: She did.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: And, like, I wrote, like, a similar piece in 2021 when the haps-- I'm sorry, when the Canucks hired Bruce Boudreau. It's like, once again, the lack of imagination in the Angels coaching cycle is coming up again, where there's 40 guys for 32 jobs. Like, I don't know, I would want to see a more, sort of, inspired coaching search, a larger net, like, maybe the radical option. Like, go hire Angela James. Go give her $10 million and go get her out there. Like, you know--

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: Mm-hmm

ARUN SRINIVASAN: She's not shook by anyone.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: $10 million.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: You know?

- Avry, who's that person that you've been mentioning a couple of times, like, someone who's, like, outside of the NHL? I forgot what their name was.

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: I mentioned Ricard Grunberg, who's coached right out in Finland. And Ricard Grunberg has had a lot of success in European hockey. It's funny how every other sport, you always hear about-- we always hear about rumblings of radical hire in football, basketball, baseball. But hockey, we never actually hear about a franchise actually making a radical hire. You don't even hear about-- you don't even hear about a unique name, he interviewed for head coaching job in the NHL. It doesn't even happen.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Well, the idea of a radical hire in the NHL now is hiring a player who has no coaching experience. That's the radical hire. And, I mean, like, like in Calgary, for example, like, I don't think everyone's inclining for it, but there's a reason why Jerome Iginla has been inserted into these discussions. Because it's like, oh, well, the Canadians hired Martin St. Louis. Why can't the Flames do it? But, like, that's probably not gonna happen.

It's a very-- people need to-- here's my thinking on it, right? I think for first-time people, especially in this situation if you're, like, a Montreal. Where you're not expected to win and you could just get somebody who could just kind of ease them up and kind of bring something new, that is, like, a really good time to bring in someone like a Martin St. Louis or someone completely radical.

I have my questions if you are a Rangers team or a Flames-like team, where you're so close, you just need someone who's going to be able to get you through the top. If you're not going to hire internally and get someone who's at least familiar with that core and can offer those fresh perspectives, I am very curious about who you hire. I would love to see Angela James in the League, by the way. I would love that. that'd be cool.

- Yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: But I wonder which team would be best.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Yeah. I wonder, I think there's one other element too. And I think you guys touched on it. It's, like, maybe, like, a journalist, or media, whatever you want to call it is like, we may need to do a better job of, sort of, like, telling stories of, like, who the assistants are. But I think if you cover, like, the NBA quite-- like, follow the NBA quite closely, you know some of who the lead assistants are. In the NFL, undoubtedly you know ever team's offensive defensive coordinator, if you follow the Leagues even remotely.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Absolutely.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Right? So I think there's, like, a baseline level of familiarity, when, like, at least in-- look, the NFL has several problems in their coach problem. We know that.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Absolutely.

ARUN SRINIVASAN: But at least there's, like, a baseline level of, like, familiarity with the names of, like, coordinators there. You know, there's tons of NBA lead assistants who are, like, names or, like, top-level college coaches. And they're just, like, isn't. Like, even in, like, the hockey world, like, you know, I feel, like, even at the same time, like, I wrote this piece about the lack of imagination.

And yet, like, you have to think, like, oh, wait a second, this person's here. Oh, you know, as Avry alluded to, like, there's coaches in the IIHF. Like, where do we look for these other examples? So I think there is some sort of aspect to us immediate-- it's incumbent upon us to sort of find these stories and sort of elevate them. Cause otherwise, we're gonna be sort of stuck in the cycle.

And I think, again, you nailed it too, like, the idea of, like, the angel being radical would be, yeah, like a former player that hasn't coached before. But there's so many former NHL guys who are, like, lead assistants now, that even, like, Manny Malhotra would be considered, like, a radical choice, even though he's the Leafs lead assistant and played, what, 18 years in the League or something like. Like, you know what I mean?

So I think there is something to be said for, like, you know, popularizing League assistants on teams, like, making them the larger part of, sort of, the discourse. Or else we're gonna be stuck in this. I don't know. Like, if you guys have any other solutions, I'm not sure. But at least, like, sort of, as a cross comparison, that's what I can think of.