1:45pm: Darren Dreger of TSN reports that Trotz has turned down the job in Winnipeg, deciding instead to not jump back into the coaching ring at all. The veteran coach will instead spend time with his family, meaning the Jets will need to look elsewhere.
8:25am: The coaching carousel is chugging along, with new hires in Dallas, Florida, Philadelphia, and Vegas over the last few days. The name that still hasn’t come off the board, Barry Trotz, appears to be running out of options, though four teams still remain without head coaches. Ken Wiebe of Sportsnet reports that the latest meeting between Trotz and the Winnipeg Jets happened earlier this week and it is now up to the veteran coach on whether to accept the job.
Winner of the 2018 Stanley Cup, Trotz is sometimes even more lauded for his work with the New York Islanders, turning them from one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL to one of the best over the course of a single offseason. Even if that kind of improvement isn’t entirely because of a coaching or system change, there are few who doubt Trotz can have a positive impact no matter what kind of situation he ends up in.
Interestingly enough, Wiebe also notes that the deal Winnipeg is offering includes a succession plan that would have him move to the front office at some point down the line. That kind of management role has been speculated about since Trotz hit the market, fired by the Islanders after his fourth year there.
After all, the two-time Jack Adams winner has now coached more than 1,800 regular season games in a long career, trailing only Scotty Bowman on the all-time list. At some point, a transition out from behind the bench seems inevitable, and what better place than his hometown club.
Still, there are some other attractive openings. The Detroit Red Wings, for instance, have a young impressive group that looks like it will be contending in a few years, and might be ripe for a veteran coach to push them over the edge. Whether Detroit, Boston, or Chicago have a realistic chance (or interest) in Trotz at this point isn’t clear but Winnipeg has made him a top priority from the beginning. Now it’s up to him to decide whether he’s going back home.
Well, seeing he just bought [another] house in the Nashville area about a week ago and that they have [supposedly] offered him a management job and he has always stated that he wants to spend the rest of his life when he retires in the Nashville area I do NOT think he will be taking a management job with the Jets so that rumor probably won’t float.
He was fired by his previous employer, apparently because the team wasn’t successful enough under his leadership. Why would that make him the best available candidate for another coaching position in the same league? It’s easy to understand that successful coaches would be retained but mysterious that failed coaches should be replaced by other failures. Do all businesses operate in this manner?
HE did not fail the Isles.
The Islanders lost John Tavares the year Trotz came and everyone expected them to compete with Buffalo for the first pick. Trotz made them a contender, but its hard to make a turd look good year after year.
Lou was the failure, not Barry
Your rambling, illogical post is explained by the last sentence that says you have zero experience running a business. Based on your theory, “failures” like Barry Trotz, Joel Quenneville, Darryl Sutter, Mike Sullivan, and Mike Babcock should never have been hired by the teams with which they sone the Cup.
Not a hockey fan, are you?
Nashville or Winterpeg? Your choice I know which I would choose
I think he’s going to throw us a curve ball & take a management position.
Dude had two interviews, it’s clear he was open to taking the job.
The Jets cheaped out.
Hmmm….maybe the new majority owner will fire Poile and hire Trotz as the new GM. I’m willing to consider this idea. :)
“It doesn’t mean I’m not going to coach. Just not going to coach right now. I’ve been doing this for 25 straight years and I’ve put a lot of stuff on the back burner and I think it’s time,” Trotz said. “The one thing I do know, and it’s a mistake that everybody makes, is you think you have time and you don’t. And so this is my time when I can get to a lot of things I’ve put on the back burner. I have to take care of those, for peace of mind for everything so I will be 100 percent in if I get back into it and I’ll be a better coach for it.”
Coach the Winnipeg Jets? I dunno, I really need to paint my shed…
Yep. The guy’s coached a lot of hockey, and now he gets to sit on his a$$ for a year and collect a few million for the privilege. How many of us wouldn’t do the same?
And if a year from now he’s hankering to get back into the saddle, well … someone will hire him then for sure.
He is Detroit bound !!! He has been seen in Setroit restaurants last week