How is this team going to afford Julien? While paying Cameron not to coach no less?
I would love Julien to step in next year but I don't see how it's a realistic possibility.
That's up to Melnyk, the coach's salary doesn't count towards the cap so they can pay him whatever he will accept & I would think he wants to be paid well although maybe he takes a hometown discount.
I'm sure they will keep Cameron around as an assistant coach.
That's a real possibility, at least we would be getting something from him rather than paying him to sit at home. The Bingo job should be available as well if he wants to go coach down there.
If Melnyk really wants playoff revenue, he is going to have to come to the realization that he is going to need to spend a little bit more.
If Julien becomes available and the Sens don't even try to hire him because Melnyk doesn't want to pay 3 coaches, then i will be extremely disappointed.
Also a real possibility but you never know. DC & Smith go to Bingo, Julien comes to Ottawa & LR becomes an assistant with Julien.
I think he has a heaps better track record than any other option on the market right now (should he become available).
I also think he's a LOT more like Maclean than a lot of people on HFSens are willing to admit to themselves. I also say this as a guy who thought that Maclean was at his core a good coach, I'm not dismissing Julien with that comment. A lot of comments about Julien right now are very similar to how this board sounded a year and a half ago.
I'm not at all saying Julien is a bad coach. I want to stress this point - he's at the top of my coaching wish list. I just don't think he's that much better than some of the top-tier assistants out there... the only difference is he seized his opportunity when it was given to him, and some other guys haven't had that chance yet.
I also don't think there's any one coach out there who instantly "fixes" this team. I think Cameron is awful (like, duh), and I think there are probably at least 4 or 5 guys out there who can easily guide this team to a guaranteed yearly playoff spot. Julien could, plus a handful of other guys too. But I also don't think there's a Babcock or a Scotty Bowman waiting for us, either. Julien is not that guy. I'm just trying to maybe suggest that we keep expectations in check.
I think so too that Julien is more like PM. Julien is known to be a defence first coach which I could see would piss off a lot of people on here & probably a number of players on this team but considering their record they NEED a defensive coach in a bad way. He could also bench Ryan & Hoffman numerous times until they start to play the way he wants which again would piss off a lot of people on here. But having said that, I also think that Ottawa needs an experienced head coach to get them to another level.
Great coaches usually have great players & specifically great goaltending to carry a team, I'm not sure that Anderson can carry this team deep in the playoffs. But I'm starting to think that maybe Hammond can if he gets on a good run, I'm much more comfortable with Hammond in net than Anderson for some reason. The two biggest needs for this team are first, a good defensive system coach & second, is good stable consistent goaltending & that should carry them into the playoffs.
