Weirdest or most out of the blue coaching hire

[JackSlater]

can't believe i forgot about the whalers naming pierre mcgquire HC prior to the 93-94 season. zero HC experience at any level and he was completely out of his depth

his own players had zero respect for him and it showed in the standings

I always enjoy the story of Pierre when he was an assistant with Pittsburgh and ripping into the team. Lemieux comes in from an intermission smoke and tells Pierre to f*** off and kicks him out of the dressing room. Don't care if the story is true or not, it's true to me.

Dallas Eakins getting hired was a strange/funny one to me. My understanding is that he was just filling out the ranks and Edmonton was rightly after an experienced coach. Eakins goes in, spouts some new age coaching bullshit, and his career as a terrible NHL head coach is born. Montreal hiring Geoffrion heading into the 1980 season was weird too. Nothing about Geoffrion indicated that he was a good coach or even particularly cut out to be a coach in terms of demeanour. Yet he was hired. Montreal had two Stanley Cup winning coaches in the organization just months prior and had multiple players on the team who would go on to coach Stanley Cup winners.

I was not surprised when he was hired to the NHL based on the groundwork being laid before, but I was very shocked when I first heard that Sheldon Keefe of all people was paid to coach a professional hockey team in the AHL.

 

[The Panther]

What about Sather stepping down for Bryan Watson

See post #4.

Dallas Eakins getting hired was a strange/funny one to me. My understanding is that he was just filling out the ranks and Edmonton was rightly after an experienced coach. Eakins goes in, spouts some new age coaching bullshit, and his career as a terrible NHL head coach is born.

Eakins' short, disastrous period in Edmonton is legendary among Oilers' fans for several things ("swarm defence" among them), but notably for his bizarre quotations to media:
-- "The perfect game is zero hits."
-- "Craig's on it."
-- "Chop water, carry wood."

 

[GMR]

Trottier coaching the Rangers.

Patrick Roy becoming a head coach (goalies becoming head coach in general could fit here).

 

[JianYang]

Whalers hiring Maurice in his mid 20s was pretty unusual.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Melrose hiring by Tampa was bizarre too as was already mentioned by the OP.

I also thought bowness' last few years back as a head coach was an unusual arc.

 

[HisIceness]

Hurricanes re-hiring Maurice in December 2008. It was becoming clear Laviolette was about to be fired but...

1. I figured it wouldn't be until after Christmas that a coaching change would happen.

2. If/when it did, it would have been an assistant or someone different.

I was wrong on both counts.