Confirmed with Link: Adam Foote Named Head Coach of the Vancouver Canucks

[Attack Vector]

I would love to see Brad Shaw back, he was amazing for the defence during his short time here and Mitch Love to handle offence.

 

[Nick Lang]

I really need to see the rest of the coaching staff before forming a strong opinion. My initial reaction is to not be thrilled. He has virtually no coaching experience. Has the weakest resume.

I don't mind it. Foote is a great leader and a champ as a player. Really I don't know if experience is the leading factor in NHL coaching jobs. Most of the experienced guys are washed up bums anyway. I see a lot of experienced coaches come out of nowhere.

Whom he hires as assistants is going to be vital. Hopefully he doesn't have a Benning do it yourself attitude. Experience in an assistant is very important in my mind.

Of course there will be critical jackasses with no clue as to what they're complaining about. We as fans really don't know anything about Foote or how he will be as a coach.

Of course there will be critical jackssses

 

[pitseleh]

If the bolded was the case, I don't think they would have offered him a 4 year contract that made him one of the highest paid coaches in the league.

I’m not sure on that - they clearly liked his overall body of work but they may not have agreed with everything he did.

Like I’m pretty sure they didn’t have the same views on Kuzmenko and Hoglander given the contracts each signed. It also felt like they kept Brannstrom around for longer than was reasonable when it was clear the coach wouldn’t play him.

 

[TruGr1t]

I’m not sure on that - they clearly liked his overall body of work but they may not have agreed with everything he did.

Like I’m pretty sure they didn’t have the same views on Kuzmenko and Hoglander given the contracts each signed. It also felt like they kept Brannstrom around for longer than was reasonable when it was clear the coach wouldn’t play him.

I don't agree on that, if anything the contract they offered Tocchet, and the fact they turned around and hired Foote to replace him, seems to indicate they were pretty darn happy with the status quo.

 

[MS]

I’m not sure on that - they clearly liked his overall body of work but they may not have agreed with everything he did.

Like I’m pretty sure they didn’t have the same views on Kuzmenko and Hoglander given the contracts each signed. It also felt like they kept Brannstrom around for longer than was reasonable when it was clear the coach wouldn’t play him.

I don't think any GM and coach are fully lock-step on everything but they pretty clearly loved Tocchet (with good reason) and wanted to keep him.

 

[BoHorvat 53]

I feel like we've become the NHL's version of the Dallas Cowboys, to be quite honest. They at least got a good history to get them through their clown show.

 

[God]

The other thing I wonder is if this is an opening for management to have more say in what would typically be coaching decisions.

You’re seeing that more now in other sports, and I expect it’d be hard to implement with an experienced coach.

I wouldn’t be surprised if management didn’t see eye to eye with Tocchet on his usage of certain players and want more control.

Desharnais was pretty clearly a Tocchet/Foote recommendation, and I suspect we won't see that anymore.

Although now I'm realizing they might re-sign Juulsen and while I like his character, I would... rather not see him play more minutes for us.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

I feel like we've become the NHL's version of the Dallas Cowboys, to be quite honest. They at least got a good history to get them through their clown show.

I wish we could be the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL.

We are pretty much the Cleveland Browns.

 

[bossram]

well what worked in the last 2 years was 1) defensive structure and 2) PK.

choosing foote is basically them electing to keep those 2 things moving forward. Now offense generation is the biggest issue and I wonder if they will get an associate/assistant to address that.

At a high level, being a head coach is about managing personalities vs Xs and Os and if Hughes is on board then that should make managing personalities easier and Foote you can argue he is very competent if not really good when it comes to Xs and Os on the defensive end so that should give us a high floor.

You kinda contradict yourself. Even if Foote is good on the Xs and Os of defense (my argument, given his very limited and poor head coaching track record, is that he will certainly be worse), you said yourself a lot more of the HC job is managing personalities. So Foote will not be micromanaging the defensive systems as much. Yes, Quinn likes him. There are 22 other guys on the roster and getting the most of out of Petey in particular will be key. The only other head coaching experience Foote has is not promising.

They just went ahead and hired the WHL fail-out version of Tocc. Didn't do any due diligence or have any curiosity on anyone else. It's a clear sign of more poor process with this club.

 

[Huggy43]

And here I thought I was a negative person….

 

[BoHorvat 53]

I wish we could be the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL.

We are pretty much the Cleveland Browns.

Cleveland Browns are a whole other low - they willingly traded a godfather package of picks for a player whose history is disgusting, and also was just washed (And has now torn his Achilles twice).

No franchise in any North American sports has fallen to that low

 

[Phrasing]

I would love to see Brad Shaw back, he was amazing for the defence during his short time here and Mitch Love to handle offence.

Doesn’t Mitch Love coach defense in Washington?

There has to be another coach out there that can help unlock offense more. Someone with more experience than Yogi.

 

[MS]

Desharnais was pretty clearly a Tocchet/Foote recommendation, and I suspect we won't see that anymore.

Although now I'm realizing they might re-sign Juulsen and while I like his character, I would... rather not see him play more minutes for us.

I'm certainly hopeful that some of the added depth and guys who stepped up in the 2nd half of the season has now made Juulsen expendable.

 

[bossram]

Since they haven't announced the assistant coaches, hopefully its because they can't until Malhotra and Love's seasons are over.

They're not going to be the assistants.

 

[arttk]

You kinda contradict yourself. Even if Foote is good on the Xs and Os of defense (my argument, given his very limited and poor head coaching track record, is that he will certainly be worse), you said yourself a lot more of the HC job is managing personalities. So Foote will not be micromanaging the defensive systems as much. Yes, Quinn likes him. There are 22 other guys on the roster and getting the most of out of Petey in particular will be key. The only other head coaching experience Foote has is not promising.

They just went ahead and hired the WHL fail-our version of Tocc. Didn't do any due diligence or have any curiosity on anyone else. It's a clear sign of more poor process with this club.

based on the last 2.5 years with us, i think the management team knows how involved he is in creating that defensive structure and we did see our PK get from historic bad to top 5. Yes we can debate how much time he will have to run both those things now that he is head coach but I don't think it is going to be ZERO.

i mean he was here in the last 2.5 years so he already has some kind of relationship with every player we have retained. I think it's a fair assumption they won't hire him if majority of the players hate him.

I thought someone in the radio show mentioned that they interviewed a bunch of coaches last week and as part of the process they asked them what players they would target on top of structure, how they plan to run the team. It's hard to argue that they didn't do any due diligence if their interview process has more detailed questions than the typical interview.

 

[bossram]

Gotta dust off the old sign:

"On the evidence this is a poor decision"

"Give them a chance!"

*turns out poorly*

"Hindsight!"

every time

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

I wish we could be the Dallas Cowboys of the NHL.

We are pretty much the Cleveland Browns.

Sums it up given Sat is a Browns fan.

 

[F A N]

It will be extremely fascinating who his head coaches are. Tocchet got to pick his team but there was always one assistant appointment by management (Yeo and then Svejkovksy). Will Foote get to pick his assistants as well? Dhaliwal is saying that Svejkovsky will be on the staff next season.

Joe Sacco might be a good choice. Coached Foote's last 2 years as a player in the league. Have coached DeBrusk and Myers. Forbort if he comes back.

 

[arttk]

Gotta dust off the old sign:

"On the evidence this is a poor decision"

"Give them a chance!"

*turns out poorly*

"Hindsight!"

except it worked last time when everyone, including me, was skeptical on the Tocchet hire.

 

[Hansen]

except it worked last time when everyone, including me, was skeptical on the Tocchet hire.

We had a glimpse of light there for a second, we are backsliding. Odds are really against Foote for any sort of improvement.

I think the only path out of this mess is if we rob someone blind in a Pettersson deal this summer

 

[pitseleh]

I don't agree on that, if anything the contract they offered Tocchet, and the fact they turned around and hired Foote to replace him, seems to indicate they were pretty darn happy with the status quo.

I don't think any GM and coach are fully lock-step on everything but they pretty clearly loved Tocchet (with good reason) and wanted to keep him.

No disagreement they loved Tocchet and would have preferred to keep him.

But once that ship sailed the focus mentioned by a few folks shifted to someone without NHL experience, consistent with Foote, Malhotra and Love being the finalists.

Maybe they are just that cheap, but I can’t imagine there is a huge gap between the salaries of the guys they were looking at and what would have been needed for say a Woodcroft or a Nelson.

 

[BoHorvat 53]

except it worked last time when everyone, including me, was skeptical on the Tocchet hire.

Was Rick Tocchet really the home run coaching hire some people on here make him out to be? We had 2 full seasons under him, one admittedly was really good, but the other was a straight up disaster. On top of it, some of the most boring hockey I can remember a team (that's supposed to be a playoff team) has played.

 

[arttk]

We had a glimpse of light there for a second, we are backsliding. Odds are really against Foote for any sort of improvement.

I think the only path out of this mess is if we rob someone blind in a Pettersson deal this summer

well what derailed us last season was 1) Miller imploding the team 2) injuries. 3) lack of offense.

I don't think hiring Foote would lead to point 1 or 2. The open question is, can he coach offense and I think that might be a who the hell are we hiring as an assistant issue.

 

[bossram]

based on the last 2.5 years with us, i think the management team knows how involved he is in creating that defensive structure and we did see our PK get from historic bad to top 5. Yes we can debate how much time he will have to run both those things now that he is head coach but I don't think it is going to be ZERO.

i mean he was here in the last 2.5 years so he already has some kind of relationship with every player we have retained. I think it's a fair assumption they won't hire him if majority of the players hate him.

I thought someone in the radio show mentioned that they interviewed a bunch of coaches last week and as part of the process they asked them what players they would target on top of structure, how they plan to run the team. It's hard to argue that they didn't do any due diligence if their interview process has more detailed questions than the typical interview.

Did they really get the best out of non-Hughes guys last season? And management wants "continuity" from a season that was marked by dysfunction in the dressing room? I'm not sure we can label personality management as a positive here.

You're right. We don't know what level his systems involvement were or what they are going to be. But given he has so little head coaching experience (and what he does have ended very poorly), I think it's a safe assumption to say his systems knowledge and execution is worse than Tocc's.

Given how fast they anointed Foote and that many candidates are still coaching through the playoffs (like Manny or Mitch Love), I find it a stretch to think they did any kind of real thorough search.

 

[Jyrki21]

Biggest feather in his cap is that the players love him and he's turned the Canucks defence from one of the worst in the league to one of the best.

I mean, I think some personnel changes might have had a little more to do with that...

Gotta dust off the old sign:

"On the evidence this is a poor decision"

"Give them a chance!"

*turns out poorly*

"Hindsight!"

That's my intellectual property, buddy.