Coaching the world juniors

With Patt Quinn being named head coach, I kinda laughed to myself thinking this is a pretty big step back for someone who has been an NHL coach for quite some time. As I don't follow junior hockey all that closely, I wouldnt be able to throw out too many names but I'm sure there are plenty of coaches who are on the upswing of their career and perhaps this job would have suited them a little better.?
But I guess in the end, it's about winning and perhaps the fact that Quinn has no other obligations didn't hurt his chances either.

I think a couple things were in play here. Firstly his success at the under 18 tournement proved he could handle the young'ns and secondly I think the fact that there will be a lot of fresh faces and the team may not be as clearly dominant with a number of last years Junior team likely getting NHL or AHL jobs - I think they wanted someone with a wealth of experience, who can very easily handle the pressure of getting the most out of a team.

P.S I love my run on sentences BTW.

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I think a couple things were in play here. Firstly his success at the under 18 tournement proved he could handle the young'ns and secondly I think the fact that there will be a lot of fresh faces and the team may not be as clearly dominant with a number of last years Junior team likely getting NHL or AHL jobs - I think they wanted someone with a wealth of experience, who can very easily handle the pressure of getting the most out of a team.

P.S I love my run on sentences BTW.

Yeah, I kept thinking that his achievement with last year's U-18's had something to do it, plus he certainly has name recognition, so that doesn't hurt either.

But I do agree with the point that it may seem like a step back from being behind an NHL bench, but hey, a gig is a gig, right?

I think it's a little refreshing to see some different coaches getting jobs instead of the same 5 coach carasel. 5 years ago, milbury would have ended up behind the bench of washington. (well maybe not)

Yeah I have the feeling maybe Hockey Canada will go this route instead... It's hard for a coach who is already coaching a junior team to come in and coach a second team in the middle of the season like that... So maybe now they will look at getting full-time coaches... I kinda like this way...