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.

 

[frisco]

Robinson loved teaching and being one of the boys and He hated throwing the hammer down on his players. Because of that he much preferred being an assistant coach.

I heard that, too. Still I don't think I've ever heard of a head coach being fired but staying on as an assistant in professional sports.

My Best-Carey

 

[Luigi Lemieux]

Eddie Olczyk going straight from the broadcast booth to head coach of the penguins with zero coaching experience.

 

[Terry Yake]

Eddie Olczyk going straight from the broadcast booth to head coach of the penguins with zero coaching experience.

funny enough, its happened in MLB on several occasions that i can think of

 

[Yozhik v tumane]

Robinson loved teaching and being one of the boys and He hated throwing the hammer down on his players. Because of that he much preferred being an assistant coach.

Scott Gomez tells a memorable anecdote about making the Devils during Robinson’s tenure, and immediately complaining about being dealt #23.
From memory:
— Who the hell ever wore #23?
— Well, Bob Gainey for one, pretty good player.
— Yeah but come on, Gainey was all defense, I’m more about offense and skill y’know?
— Oh I see, no problem.

Then Robinson turned to his assistant:
— Is #11 still available in Albany?
— Yeah, it’s available.
— You know what, Gomez says, #23 will do great.

 

[Crosby2010]

I heard that, too. Still I don't think I've ever heard of a head coach being fired but staying on as an assistant in professional sports.

My Best-Carey

It used to be more common for the ex-coach to work as a scout for a while. I know Jacques Demers stayed on as a scout for the Habs after getting turfed. That seemed to happen in the 1990s and prior for some reason. I am guessing maybe because the money wasn't as good as it is today and the team wanted to keep the option open that the ex-coach could still make a living. Although this was always on an interim basis, no coach did this long term that I know about.

 

[carjackmalone]

Has anyone mentioned Lou Lamorello stepping behind the bench with 4 games to go in the season

 

[Crosby2010]

Ted Lindsay coaching the Red Wings in 1980 and only lasting 29 games.

Bernie Geoffrion replacing Scotty Bowman in 1979? Huh? Why? Claude Ruel who had won a Cup coaching the Habs in 1969 comes in for a couple of years. There was a coaching carousel in Montreal in the 1980s.

I might have the winner here. Al MacNeil. Comes in to replace Ruel in 1971, wins the Cup. But he famously benches Henri Richard in the playoffs and that sort of leads to a controversy and Sam Pollock "shuffles the cabinet" as he said and demotes him. MacNeil then coaches the Atlanta Flames a decade later and then two decades after that coaches the Flames for 11 games. I realize the last one was an interim basis and he was working as a scout or something for the Flames but I remember in 2003 when the Flames announced it and I thought "Wait, the Al MacNeil from 1971 who benched Henri?" Oh well, he won a Cup so I guess it worked out briefly.

I got to say, Don Cherry might have been a surprise. Well, maybe not. I mean he was a good coach in the AHL and such, so it probably was only a matter of time. But in 1974 the Bruins had just made the Cup final. I would say that a coaching change at that time might have been more out of the blue than Cherry actually getting a shot. Because that was probably coming anyway.

The Bruins went through ex-players coaching for about 10-12 years. Starting with Gerry Cheevers in 1980 right after he retired. Then Terry O'Reilly about a year and a half after he's retired, then Mike Milbury two years after he is done playing. All with Boston. The funny thing is, all of them had pretty good teams and good playoff success as well. But I would have to think that all three would not have had much of any coaching experiences prior to this.

Wayne Gretzky coaching in 2005 just seemed out of place. Even though he owned the Coyotes and could do it if he pleased. But that just seemed wayward from the get go, and it surprised me.

Lastly, Pat Quinn getting a job for a season with the Oilers in their tank-happy bottom dwelling years in 2010. Maybe not a huge shock, because he did lead Canada to gold at the WJC in 2009 but it just had a feel of "the game has passed him by" before he even got behind the bench again.

 

[Mandar]

Rangers hired Tom Webster in the 80’s, and he lasted like 20 games because I think he had an inner ear issue that made him unable to fly.

 

[The Macho King]

Jon Cooper has to have one of the weirdest paths to the NHL. No pro-hockey or even high level experience or connections, started by coaching high school hockey in his downtime as a Public Defender.

And ends up having a HHoF career. Him being hired for the Tampa job was obvious but just the entire path there is wild.

 

[carjackmalone]

The Nordiques trading Michel Bergeron to the Rangers for 75.000 dollars and then in his second year coaching gets fired with 4 games to go in the season by Trader Phil who steps behind the bench and just drops the ball in the playoffs.

 

[MadLuke]

The Nordiques trading Michel Bergeron to the Rangers for 75.000 dollars

With a first round pick as well I think, which is even wilder.

That move by the Rangers is not a bad pick to win this thread, I doubt anyone predicted it would happen.

 

[CrosbyIsKing87]

Yeah, Olczyk was a head scratcher. No head coaching experience and straight from the color booth to the bench. He wasn't very good. Plus he had the OWNER on the team which made it even more awkward. I can't remember who told this story, maybe Ryan Whitney, but Olczyk was trying to be the heavy and told the team they were going to keep practicing for another hour or something and Mario said, "Eddie..." and just shook his head. Olczyk then said, "Ok, that's it boys." LOL.

Others that come to mind have also ben mentioned already - Trottier in NY, Maguire in Hartford. I would put Keenan being hired any place as weird after leaving the Rangers the way he did.

 

[McGarnagle]

The Bruins went through ex-players coaching for about 10-12 years. Starting with Gerry Cheevers in 1980 right after he retired. Then Terry O'Reilly about a year and a half after he's retired, then Mike Milbury two years after he is done playing. All with Boston. The funny thing is, all of them had pretty good teams and good playoff success as well. But I would have to think that all three would not have had much of any coaching experiences prior to this.

The weirdest of the bunch was Butch Goring. They picked him up off waivers mid-season in 84-85, Cheevers was fired shortly thereafter and Sinden finished the year, then Goring retires and is given the head coaching job for 85-86 right away.

At the same time Mike Milbury retires to be his assistant coach, but halfway through the year Milbury un-retires because they had too many injuries and needed a defenseman, and he keeps playing an additional season after that before jumping back into coaching with the Maine Mariners in 87-88. Then when Goring is fired as coach in 86-87, he subsequently un-retires to play a brief stint for the Nova Scotia Oilers in the AHL.

The news articles I found about Goring's hire all point out that he retired because there is a rule that a head coach cannot be an active player, so it strikes me as Goring and/or Milbury probably would have been player-coaches had the league allowed them to at the time.

 

[The Panther]

How did Brad Park get his short, disastrous period in Detroit? Did he have any experience?

 

[Voight]

Honestly MSL was a bit of a weird hire. He had been coaching his kids AAA team, didn't really have any pro experience. I guess it "made sense" in some weird way because Hughes had been his agent? But he wasn't exactly seen as a coaching candidate or even mentioned in pro coaching circles when the Habs hired him.

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

That guy is the epitome of being in the right place at the right time. If I remember correctly, he was coaching at a random college in the North East (St Lawrence I believe) when he ran into Scotty Bowman, whose daughter was attending the school. Bowman liked him enough that he got him in with the Pens and I guess people thought he was some Bowman protege as a result so he must be good.

 

[Voight]

Has anyone mentioned Lou Lamorello stepping behind the bench with 4 games to go in the season

Firing Julien while the Devils were completing a franchise best regular season was certainly something.

 

[Michael Farkas]

With a first round pick as well I think, which is even wilder.

Caught tampering. This was the pay off to call off the tampering charge with the League...

 

[MadLuke]

Caught tampering. This was the pay off to call off the tampering charge with the League...

Never heard that angle before, at first I thought, a could make sense, Rangers paying a tax on the down low.

HOCKEY; Rangers Allege That Nordiques Tampered With Zubov

Pierre Lacroix, general manager of the Quebec Nordiques, has denied that he tampered with Sergei Zubov of the Rangers by asking Zubov's agent if Zubov would accept a trade to the Nordiques. "I never did anything like that," Lacroix said from Ottawa, where the Nordiques played the Senators last...

web.archive.org

 

[Michael Farkas]

Never heard that angle before, at first I thought, a could make sense, Rangers paying a tax on the down low.

Not sure if it's ever made it into a public publication...or maybe not yet...not sure.

I talked to a former Nordiques scout about this over a couple of pops once upon time...the reason, in part, why this came about was because they had caught Rangers GM Phil Esposito tampering with one of their players..."had him dead to rights"...in exchange for not filing tampering charges, the Rangers sweetened the pot on the aforementioned deal...

 

[Voight]

How did Brad Park get his short, disastrous period in Detroit? Did he have any experience?

Nope, it was right after he was forced to retire due to injury.