Thrashers’ search: Pondering Chicago assistant (and Hartley)
Rick Dudley has an important decision to make: Who will coach his team? (Hyosub Shin/AJC)
Given the sports landscape, I don’t expect the masses to obsess over Rick Dudley’s head coaching search the way most did Mark Richt’s search for a defensive coordinator. (Could Kirby Smart fix goals-against?). But this will be arguably the biggest decision Dudley makes. So for what it’s worth, here are five names to consider:
John Torchetti is a popular assistant coach with Chicago.
♦ John Torchetti: Some around hockey already consider him the favorite. He’s an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks, where Dudley worked before coming to Atlanta last year. Torchetti also worked with Dudley at two other NHL stops, Tampa Bay and Florida. His strength is as a teacher and working with young players. He has never been a full-fledged NHL head coach but did have two interim stints with Florida and Los Angeles.
♦ Craig MacTavish: He had a pretty solid first five seasons as Edmonton coach (three playoff berths, one Stanley Cup finals appearance) before the Oilers slid in his last three years, leading to his firing last year. Edmonton’s biggest problem for a while was economics (an inability to keep good players), and then miscalculated on several players. But MacTavish was respected and his teams always played hard. Known for being
Craig MacTavish coached Edmonton to the Stanley Cup finals in 2005-06.
glib, MacTavish said the following when hired as a commentator by the Canadian sports channel, TSN: “I’m happy to finally be among the experts where the issues are many and solutions obvious. I appreciate TSN providing a safe haven for unemployed coaches, as we rehabilitate ourselves towards future employability.”
♦ Bob Hartley: A longshot? Yes. But don’t laugh. Hartley, who has been out of coaching since being fired by the Thrashers, would love to get back behind a bench. He still maintains a home in Atlanta. He is the only coach to get this team to the playoffs. He could provide the structure the team needs. He loved coaching here and he never has publicly spoken ill about the organization, ownership or Don Waddell. When I phoned Hartley, he said only that he would like to get back into coaching but declined further comment.
♦ Ken Hitchcock: Yes, it has been a decade since his
John Stevens made the playoffs two of his first three seasons in Philadelphia.
meteoric success in Dallas (Stanley Cup, two finals appearances, five postseasons in seven years). He had a decent run in Philadelphia (three playoffs in four years, including a run to the conference finals). He made the playoffs only once in four seasons in Columbus but it could be argued he didn’t have a great roster, either. Here’s the thing: Hitchcock is one of the smartest hockey coaches ever, and he excels at preaching defense and getting teams to fight for loose pucks. He’s worth considering.
♦ John Stevens: My pal Craig Custance of the Sporting News is pushing Stevens, who spent three-plus seasons as Flyers coach before being fired 25 games into this season. He made the playoffs two of his first three seasons, losing both years to Pittsburgh (conference finals and first round). Downside: He has a reputation of being player-friendly, and the question is whether the Thrashers want somebody tougher after John Anderson.
So there are five names. Anybody else you would like to see the Thrashers go after. And please don’t say Scotty Bowman. Or Toe Blake. (Old time hockey!)
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Previous post: Thrashers make changes, but did they go far enough?
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75 comments Add your comment
ksiujgth
April 17th, 2010
12:40 pm
the team prez does nothing, so let dwad coach. that should make the cheapskate owners happy.
LAC
April 17th, 2010
4:52 pm
Not sold on Ted Nolan, too many questions. Stevens, seems a unfit, as in not a fit for Atlanta, Not an unfit coach. Hitch… Pass. Whoever comes in must be strict on the players, have structure
and make them PLAY DEFENSE, you win from the goal out, somthing waddell has NEVER understood.
Defense wins championships, in ALL sports and Atlanta has NEVER shown any decent defense since coming into the league, I think all would agree on that. So the mindset has to change to defense FIRST. I could care less if we WIN 2-1, 3-1, 3-2, 4-2, JUST WIN. With us being in the top 8 in the NHL in Goal Scoring this past season, just think if we could PLAY defense and cut down about 50 goals… We would be playing today !
Whoever IS the next coach needs be defense minded and lower the GA and SA next season…
If there is another losing NON playoff year next year, much like the Flames, the Thrashers will burn out in Atlanta once and for all, so the asg better be serious about WINNING and NO more lame EXCUSES !
Brendan
April 17th, 2010
8:43 pm
I don’t get a vote, obviously. But my choice would be Craig Ramsay.
HillMan
April 18th, 2010
1:07 am
Thinking out of the box, how about the guy who coached the ladies to olympic goal and has worked with college kids for the past few years and won an olympic gold medal in 1980. Do you believe in Miracles? We need one here – my vote coach Mark Johnson.
By the way, DW was a teammate of his before he was cut from the final 1980 roster.
Búsqueda thrashers ': ponderando asistente de Chicago (y Hartley)
April 18th, 2010
1:16 am
[...] Rick Dudley tiene una importante decisión que tomar: ¿Quién será el técnico de su equipo? (Hyosub Shin / AJC) Dado el panorama deportivo, no creo que a las masas a obsesionarse con Dudley entrenador en jefe de búsqueda Rick hizo de la manera más Richt de búsqueda de marca de un coordinador defensivo. (Podría Kirby inteligente fijar metas-en contra?). Pero esto será sin duda la decisión más grande Dudley hace. Así, por lo que vale, aquí hay cinco nombres a tener en cuenta: John Torchetti es un entrenador asistente popular entre Chicago. ? John Torchetti: Algunos alrededor de hockey ya lo consideran el favorito. Es un asistente con los Blackhawks de Chicago, donde trabajó Dudley antes de venir a Atlanta el año pasado. Torchetti también trabajó con Dudley por otras dos paradas de la NHL, Tampa Bay y la Florida. Su fuerza es como un maestro y el trabajo con jugadores jóvenes. Él nunca ha sido un entrenador en jefe de la NHL-hecho y derecho, pero tuvo dos periodos intermedios con la Florida y Los Ángeles. ? Craig MacTavish: Tenía una muy sólida primeras cinco temporadas como entrenador en Edmonton … URL del artículo original http://blogs.ajc.com/jeff-schultz-blog/2010/04/15/thrashers-search-pondering-chicago-assistant-and-h... [...]
Sean Borner
April 18th, 2010
1:20 am
266-323 first go around then…… 2064-1642 (3 losing seasons out of 20 and 5 pennant with WS Title)
Give Hartley a shot and maybe he can mimic Bobby Cox. I bet he won’t even beat up his wife while doing it!
Acer
April 18th, 2010
7:42 am
Atlanta is in the process of developing a nice nucleus of young players. Certain suggestions thrown around here are just mind-boggling:
- Do you understand why the Islanders fired Ted Nolan? He didn’t play the young guns. Pass
- Hitchcock’s treatment of Filatov this season shows you how much he appreciates young players. Pass!
- Hartley was rumored to coach Omsk in the KHL. The player successfully avoided the HartleySystemOfSuck by threating to revolt against the hiring. I hope that he’ll never coach again. HUGE Pass!
- How many good young players have emerged from the MacTavish coached Edmonton Oilers? Not too many by my count. Pass!
Keenan. Pass!
- I doubt that Therrien is the answer. Pass!
- The young players in St.Louis mostly underachieve this season under Murray’s regime. He’s a good “firefighter” coach who can fuel a team for 6-15 months, before he runs of out answers. Pass!
- Savard is an interesting name. I’m just a little cautious because he was fired only 8 or 9 games into last season. Pass!
I’d like to know why Craig Ramsay makes a good head coach! Torchetti and Bougher sound very intriguing. My guess is that Bougher will not wind up in Atlanta. I don’t think that Dudley will hire a guy who never had a coaching related job in the NHL.
Thrashfan
April 18th, 2010
11:52 pm
Acer I think the DeBoer hiring has erased some of that stigma of no NHL experience but that’s why I called Boughner a wildcard. Not that being with the Panthers helps the DeBoer hiring look good. Let’s face it though unless Chicago gets knocked out too early it will be Torch. Boughner will wind up an NHL head coach one day though if not in our town.
Good call on all the retreads who treated young guys like garbage. Nolan will play Boulton over Kane. Nielsen & Okposo (even Comeau) are breaking out now that Teddy is gone. Hitch will bench someone like Filatov here. The last thing I want to watch is Hartley-Coburn II and Bob stunting another top 10 pick.
Acer
April 19th, 2010
4:30 am
DeBoer and also Gordon (NYI went with him) were rumored to be candidates for vacant Thrashers HC job in 2008.
Brent Sutter is another coach, in younger history, who went straight from Juniors to the NHL. IMO; he never really had the chance to work that much with younger players in NJ or in Calgary like he did in Red Deer. Perhaps, he’s on Dudley’s list despite having a job.
Sutter and DeBoer have more Junior experience and they also coached some bad teams, which gives them a little edge in my book. Boughner always had the advance of coaching mostly good players & teams. I bet that NHL GM’s will hesitate to hire him without knowing how he handles adversity. That’s especially the case for teams like Thrashers, Jackets or Lightning. Teams which experience adversity [read: a bad season.] this year.
Thrashfan
April 19th, 2010
11:43 am
Boughner took over a team right after that hazing incident that had that goon who’s in Tampa Bay now and was hovering around .500 after all that. They only had 1 good player get drafted that year to the NHL and the year before they had 1 or 2 late rounders who were both busts, so it’s not like he was coaching “mostly good players”. They didn’t start having all the top draft picks until he became coach and he was developing those picks. His first year they won less than 20 games. Next year they made the playoffs even though his captain and NHL draftee died (irregular heartbeat or something like that) and the next year after that they won it all. This year they finished top of the conference again. I think he’s handled adversity very well.
Jim n Buckhead
April 20th, 2010
9:07 am
We lost the Flames and now about to blow our last shot with NHL..someone needs to figure out how to get a corch who can coach and then get him some players…..build a winner and they will come….if not then hello Winnipeg….
Dave
April 20th, 2010
11:37 am
I’m going to be upset if they hire a coach with no past NHL head coaching experience. This has been Fraser and Anderson’s first gigs, and it doesn’t work too well. If this job is someone’s first, I’m going to take that squirrel on Dudley’s head and throw it at someone.
Hire McTavish, Hitchcock, Stevens, or Hartley.
Old Time Hockey
April 20th, 2010
1:19 pm
How about Don Cherry!! He’s one heck of a dresser!!!
Thrashfan
April 20th, 2010
9:23 pm
Scotty Bowman or Toe Blake could not have coached the 1999 Thrashers to success. They were an expansion team. So to say we need this or that because of what Fraser accomplished with an expansion team doesn’t fly. Hitchcock, Hartley and McTavish can’t work with youth. We’ve got youth. Stevens might be something. Enough with the retreads though.
Don Waddell
April 22nd, 2010
8:27 am
Reggie Dunlop ~ Player Coach
Pinball34
April 23rd, 2010
4:30 am
Hey Devils: KOVY=CANCER…. LMFAO
Enjoy the summer..
Just Curious
April 23rd, 2010
12:13 pm
Hey Schultz…Remember how you beat Waddell (and indirectly Dudley) over the head for trading an unsignable Kovalchuk to Jersey? Remember how you said “Lou doesn’t make many mistakes”?
Isn’t it time you own up and admit he got KILLED in this trade and Duds picked his pockets clean?!? We got their #1 Rookie, their #1 Prospect, a mostly solid D-man and a 1st Rounder for a guy who just said he loved playing for Jersey…”It was a great experience”…Emphasis on the PAST tense!
You were DEAD WRONG about this one — The BIGGEST trade in Thrashers franchise history!! The only way it would’ve paid off for Lou is by winning the Cup…Not gonna happen. The Kovy Factor throws cold water on a hot team and they can’t even get past the Dysfunctional Flyers…..Not even CLOSE.
Let’s hear it Schultz: We made out like BANDITS by dumping Kovy on Lou!!!! C’mon, I know you can say it because your know it’s TRUE!
ltrebemt
April 23rd, 2010
1:56 pm
hey guys, this isn’t some big joke. if we don’t get a coach with fire and discipline we are down the tubes for sure. no great ideas, just somebody that likes kids and knows when to spank. i really like what we have now. no kidding. a few small additions and subtractions and we have a team that can compete every night. i personally love hockey in our town and don’t ever want to loose it.
Flagstaff
April 26th, 2010
9:30 am
B. Thenet: I have heard a rumor that one of the reasons besides the playoff run that Chelios was brought here was so that the team would offer him a position as an assistant coach. This is unconfirmed, but a reliable source says that this is a possibility (that is, if he’s ready to stop playing).
GaVaHokie
April 28th, 2010
10:33 am
Another option in the “following Dudley everywhere” category is Don Lever, now coaching the Wolves.
Possible scenario… Don Lever as head coach… Chris Chelios as Wolves coach (grooming)
Lee
April 30th, 2010
2:59 pm
I wish someone rich like Arthur Blank would buy the Thrashers..
AceDawg
May 4th, 2010
10:31 am
Hiring Hartley back? Wow. That’s about as good an idea as bringing back the old Jason masks for goalies.
mike lavelle
May 5th, 2010
9:33 am
Don Lever would be a great fit,Lever has paid his dues and a great record in the AHL speaks for itself. Players come out to play for him everynight and has a great communative relationship with them-Lever deserves a look! p.s. Lever is currently coaching the Thrashers AHL team-Chicago Wolves,they are currently leading the Texas Stars 2-1 in the 2nd round.
Dave
May 9th, 2010
8:49 pm
My choices, in order
Stevens
Hitchcock
Hartley
MacTavish
Therien
DO NOT HIRE Torchetti. Might be a good coach. But everything that’s being said of him was being said of Anderson, and we all know how that worked. DO NOT hire a first time NHL coach. PLEASE.
foo
May 12th, 2010
4:34 pm
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