Mud on the wall

It was after the firing of head coach Steve Pleau by the Edmonton Oil Kings that Mario Annicchiarico of the Edmonton Journal chose to throw a bunch of mud against a wall to see what might stick. In a story headlined “Candidates galore available”, Annicchiarico listed no fewer than 14 potential candidates to replace Pleau.
Here they are:
Boris Rybalka, the GM/head coach of the AJHL’s Camrose Kodiaks.
Steve Hamilton, the GM/head coach of the AJHL’s Spruce Grove Saints.
Mark Ferner, the GM/head coach of the BCHL’s Vernon Vipers.
Kevin Constantine, a former Everett Silvertips head coach who was fired a couple of weeks ago by the NHL’s Minnesota Wild as head coach of the AHL’s Houston Aeros.
Rick Carriere, a former Medicine Hat Tigers head coach who is teaching at the Vimy Ridge Hockey Academy in Edmonton these days and working with the Tigers as an executive assistant.
Ken Hitchcock, a veteran NHL head coach who was fired earlier this season by the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Shaun Clouston, the associate coach with the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Terry Virtue, an assistant coach with the Tri-City Americans.
John Becanic, a former Everett Silvertips head coach who spent this season as an assistant with the Seattle Thunderbirds and whose contract won’t be renewed.
Michael Dyck, who was fired a year ago as head coach of the Lethbridge Hurricanes and was an assistant coach with the U of Lethbridge Pronghorns this season.
Derek Laxdal, who is in his fifth season as director of hockey operations and head coach of the ECHL’s Idaho Steelheads.
Kevin McClelland, who won’t be back as head coach of the Central league’s Colorado Eagles. Whoops! He will be introduced Monday as head coach of the Wichita Thunder.
Billy Moores, a former U of Alberta head coach and Oilers assistant coach who now scouts for the NHL team. He also spent one season as the Regina Pats’ GM/head coach.
Rob Daum, a former WHL and U of Alberta head coach who spent this season as head coach of the Springfield Falcons, the Oilers’ AHL affiliate.
Phew! That’s a lot of mud.
In fact, one of the men on this list emailed me, writing: “How do these guys get away with such irresponsible journalism? I guess if you throw enough names in there you might hit on one. There was sure a lot of name dropping there. I love the Ken Hitchcock one . . . sure he would love to get back on the old iron lung.”
Come on. Let’s get serious here.
Somehow, I don’t think Hitchcock is licking his lips at the thought of touring around Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest on a bus after all those years in the NHL. So stroke his name off the list.
Take off Carriere’s name, too. He loves what he’s doing right now and has no desire to jump back into the coaching game.
Billy Moores? One of the nicest men in the game, he absolutely hated the wheeling-and-dealing part of it when he was with the Pats for the 1985-86 season. Take him off the list.
Rybalka, Hamilton and Ferner? Take them off the list because it is doubtful that any WHL team in the market for a head coach will take someone out of the junior A ranks. Why not? If you are at all close to those who work within the WHL, you are aware that the animosity runs deep. There is a reason why the number of junior A coaches who move directly into WHL head-coaching jobs are few and far between. “Those Tier 2 guys are working against the WHL” is how one WHL executive put it after Pleau was fired. There is absolutely no love lost between WHL teams and the staffs of junior A clubs.
But, ahh, let’s cut to the chase . . .
The best candidate on the Journal’s list -- the stickiest piece of mud, if you will -- is Shaun Clouston. His head-coaching career consists basically of part of one season (2002-03) with the Tri-City Americans. The brother of former Kootenay Ice head coach Cory Clouston, now the head coach of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, has been with the Tigers since Aug, 9, 2003 -- he was named associate coach in July 2007 -- and he and his family have carved out a comfortable existence in The Hat.
Whether he aspires to be a head coach, whether he would want to uproot his family, whether he would prefer to be the head coach-in-waiting in Medicine Hat all remain to be seen.
One thing is for sure, though. With the calibre of coaching in the WHL these days, Oil Kings general manager Bob Green won’t be rushing into anything. He knows that he can’t afford to make a mistake.