Randy Carlyle receives permission to talk to Sharks about coaching vacancy
For those of us who like massive trainwreck disaster shows, then Randy Carlyle receiving permission from Toronto to talk to the Sharks about their vacant head coaching job is maybe the greatest thing ever.
For those who are Sharks fans and want to see their team win hockey games? Goo …
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported Carlyle had indeed received permission to talk to the Sharks. San Jose and Todd McLellan “mutually” agreed to part ways Monday.
As Fear the Fin notes, this would be just flat out horrible:
Under Carlyle, the Leafs literally set records for defensive futility. He routinely coached his defensemen to passively cede the blueline at even-strength, was clueless on how to execute an effective breakout with control of the puck and employed a comical positioning scheme in the defensive zone. For a GM who publicly stated just four days ago that he’s looking to build a puck possession team, Wilson even giving Carlyle an interview for the head coaching job just doesn’t make sense.
But the story also says Wilson interviewed over 20 candidates for the head coaching job in 2008, that eventually landed McLellan – who was an excellent coach during his tenure with the Sharks. So maybe this is smoke and mirrors by Wilson to head people off while he interviews the Sharks’ “real” head coaching candidate.
Could this be Wilson’s version of Dean Lombardi hiring Darryl Sutter in spite of some saying “no, no, don’t do it” and then laughing away a Stanley Cup championship?
There are worse candidates than guys who have won Cups before, but as Fear the Fin points out again, a blueline with Scott Niedermayer and Chris Pronger was Carlyle’s end-all-be-all in Anaheim in 2007. Think of him like Eric Spoelstra with the early ‘Big Three’ in Miami. Put me out there with LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and only an unconscious Dirk Nowitzki could beat us.
You look really good as a coach when you have the right type of personnel. Unless you’re Barry Trotz and can milk 99 points out of a first line that included Martin Erat and Sergei Kostitsyn — another story for another time though.
After he was fired by the Ducks, Anaheim has made the playoffs three straight full seasons under Bruce Boudreau and won two division titles. A lot of the main players are similar to what Carlyle had by the end of his time with the Ducks.
Plus, some players seem to chafe under Carlyle. If you thought Joe Thornton vs. McLellan vs. Wilson was rough, try replacing McLellan with the no-nonsense Carlyle. Oye. We’d go from “Highlander” to the battle for Middle Earth real fast.
Add the fact that his systems aren’t exactly favorable to puck possession and, yeah I’m calling a bluff here. There are lots of qualified candidates for San Jose like say that Dan Bylsma guy. Carlyle will end up somewhere in some capacity. He’s a hockey lifer, and still scouts games for Toronto. he was at Games 1 and 2 of Anaheim’s first round series against Winnipeg. But again, this smells like something to throw people off Wilson’s scent. I wonder what that smells like.
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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper
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