Arizona Coyotes Part Ways With Dave Tippett

In a shocking move less than 24 hours before the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, the Arizona Coyotes have parted ways with long-time head coach Dave Tippett. The team announced it was a mutual parting, and will start looking for a new coach immediately. The announcement was made by new sole-owner Andrew Barroway:

On behalf of the entire Coyotes organization, I would like to sincerely thank Tip for all of his hard work and the many contributions he made to our organization. Tip is a man of high character and we are very grateful for his leadership during his tenure as our head coach. Ultimately, we have some philosophical differences on how to build our team. Therefore, we mutually agreed that it is in everyone’s best interest to have a coaching change in order to move our franchise forward.

Tippett admits that it was a mutual decision, though the timing couldn’t be worse for the Coyotes. Not only is the draft just hours away, but every other vacancy around the NHL has already been filled. Though it comes much sooner than Patrick Roy’s unceremonious exit from the Colorado Avalanche last offseason, the announcement stings in the same fashion.  

After coaching the Dallas Stars for several years, Tippett was hired by the Coyotes in September of 2009, just a month before the 2009-10 season started. At that point it had been Wayne Gretzky who had stepped down amid financial pressure from two potential buyers of the team. Tippett was hired just a few hours later, and has remained in the position ever since.

This is the third such surprising move from the Coyotes in the past week, as tenured captain Shane Doan was told he would not return and Mike Smith was traded less than two weeks after being called the team’s “rock” by GM John Chayka. Though there are obviously rational reasons for both of those moves with the team heading towards a young core, again the timing seems unfortunate.

As Craig Morgan of AZ Sports put it in a tweet:

“On eve of NHL Draft, Coyotes have no coach, no captain (yet), no president/CEO, no starting G, no No.1 C (still), no prez of hockey ops.”

The Prsident and CEO Morgan refers to was let go when Barroway bought out the minority owners earlier this month, and it is interesting that the announcements on Tippett and Doan have both come from him directly. There had been rumored differences in direction that had led to the buyout in the first place, and clearly Barroway had some strong ideas on the new path of the franchise.

So now, with Ken Hitchcock, Travis Green, Doug Weight, Bruce Cassidy, Bob Boughner and Phil Housley all securely hired away to teams around the league the Coyotes will begin a search from scratch.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images