ECH has an excellent analysis of the top coaching options for the Kraken. It’s absolutely worth listening to the full 2 hours if you have the time and want to understand who is out there and some of their strengths and weaknesses.
I’m including a list below for folks that don’t have the time to listen to the whole thing and whether RJ and Dylan were open to each person or opposed to them. Timestamps are in the video description itself.
Video link – [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz89Tg7biZo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz89Tg7biZo) . You can also find the audio-only version on Apple Podcasts, Google Music, etc.
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|Name|Current Position|Dylan & RJ Vote|
|:-|:-|:-|
|Dan Bylsma|AHL Coachella HC|✅|
|Jay Leach|Kraken AC|❌|
|Tod McLellan|Former Kings HC|❌|
|Joe Sacco|Bruins AC|✅|
|Jon Cooper|Lightning HC|✅|
|Jim Montgomery|Bruins HC|✅|
|Mike Sullivan|Penguins HC|✅|
|Rod Brind’Amour|Hurricanes HC|✅|
|Jay Woodcroft|Former Oilers HC|❌|
|Sheldon Keefe|Former Leafs HC|❌|
|Gerard Gallant|Former Rangers HC|✅|
|Craig Berube|Former Blues HC|❌|
|Dean Evason|Former Wild HC|✅|
|David Carle|NCAA Denver HC|✅|
|Ryan Warsofsky|Sharks AC|✅|
|Jeff Halpern|Lightning AC|❌|
|Todd Nelson|AHL Hershey HC|❌|
|Karl Taylor|AHL Milwaukee HC|✅|
​
by SiccSemperTyrannis
1 Comment
Here’s my personal ranking having listened to the entire episode plus my own existing knowledge
1) Cooper, Montgomery, Sullivan, Brind’Amour – if any of them are available the Kraken should be interested but they likely won’t be.
2) Dean Evason – not someone I considered initially but ECH really changed my mind. The Wild have remained competitive under him despite some awful roster management luggage (Weber + Parise buyout dead cap) and a dearth of high-pick prospects. Kaprizov, Boldy, Eriksson Ek, and Faber have all developed under his teaching.
3) Joe Sacco – What Boston has done in the past few years has drastically exceeded expectations. They nearly won their division and did beat the Leafs in the first round with Morgan Geekie getting time on the first line alongside David Pasternak. My concerns would be that their incredible goaltending could make any coaching staff look good and Boston hasn’t exactly been overflowing with prospects the last few years.
4) Dan Bylsma – As a certified Penguins Hater^(TM) I do have pre-existing bias against Bylsma, especially after he flamed out in Buffalo. By all accounts he’s done a great job developing our prospects with the Firebirds. My concern here would be that he hasn’t actually had too many Kraken prospects play for him the last 2 years simply because relatively few have been in the AHL full-time. If it were 1 or 2 years from now that’d be a different story as a bunch of our prospects are going to replace the current AHL veteran-heavy roster starting next season. I’d be worried he’s a much better AHL coach than he makes an NHL coach.