Late Memorial Day afternoon, the Washington Capitals announced that they had hired Barry Trotz as their new head coach. They also promoted Brian MacLellan to be their General Manager.
Trotz was the winner of our first coaches poll and he came in second to the possibility of Dan Bylsma in our next.
The Hurricanes continue their search and according to a recent article by Chip Alexander in the News and Observer, Ron Francis had interviewed three candidates and still had three more to go.
On Friday, he said the "process" of finding a new (coach) continues, adding three interviews had been conducted and another three would soon be held.
What is the delay? We could assume that the possible pending interviewees are still in the playoffs. One of the top rumored possibilities is Ulf Samuelsson, who is assistant coach for the New York Rangers.
Other possibilities are John Stevens or Davis Payne, who are both assistants for the Los Angeles Kings.
Samuelsson has never been a head coach in the NHL, but Payne coached the St. Louis Blues for part of three seasons and earned a 67-55-15 record, (.544) before being replaced by Ken Hitchcock.
Stevens was a long time member of the Flyers organization before being named their head coach. He earned a 122-111-34 record, (.522) before being replaced and moving on to the Kings.
Obviously, we have to assume that Kevin Dineen is still in the mix and high on Carolina's list.
The Canucks and Panthers continue their search for a coach as well, although now that Vancouver officially has a general manager, their search will probably pick up.
Apparently, Francis is quizzing candidates about how they would set the lines. Another quote from Chip's article follows:
Francis said it was important the new coach "get everyone in the right spots" in terms of putting the forward lines together.
"Ideally it would be good to find the right three and then keep the line together for a long time," he said. "Sometimes that’s not the way it works out, and it may be keeping two together and adding a third based on injuries or matchups. But you need that continuity on the ice."
Most fans will not argue with this philosophy.
Finally, the Canes got a couple of mentions in this week's "30 Thoughts", by Elliotte Friedman.
He more or less confirms that Samuelsson is in the mix in number 23.
23. Other openings? For Florida, I'm hearing people with lengthy resumes -- Marc Crawford, Tom Renney, maybe Ron Wilson. The question is if the Panthers widen the search if they run out of what they consider to be experienced options. For the Carolina Hurricanes, a wait to at least talk to Ulf Samuelsson. I'm not saying he gets it, but he's in the picture.
Cam Ward is mentioned in number 27.
27. Here's another one. Going through Cam Ward's history, he had a 1.99 goals-against average for the AHL Lowell Lock Monsters in 2004-05. That was a split club as Carolina shared the roster with Calgary. The Flames goalie coach back then was David Marcoux. I'm probably overthinking this, but you're always told to look for the connections.