Jukka Jalonen was reportedly nominated to be Florida’s new head coach, and this would have been the best possible job for the Finnish coach in the NHL, writes Urheilu’s NHL reporter Tommi Seppälä.
14:05•Updated 14:26
The NHL’s coaching carousel has been spinning hard since the beginning of the summer, when no less than twelve clubs were at different stages without a head coach.
Of these, Edmonton and Montreal decided to continue with their previous coaches, by Jay Woodcroft and Martin of St. Louis contracts. With this wound without a pilot, there is no more San Jose.
The coaching circus was closely followed in Finland as well, after all, it is the national team’s golden finger Jukka Jalonen raised in many places as a potential NHL coach.
From the point of view of European coaches, there were too many meritorious NHL pilots. Barry Trotz, Bruce Cassidy, Paul Maurice, Pete DeBoer, John Tortorella and a few others were on the open market at the same time.
With the exception of the aforementioned Trotz, everyone found a new job in recent weeks.
The hottest name on the market, Trotz turned down several washes.
The little circle spins narrative is alive and well even after this summer. For example, Cassidy, who got a shoe from Boston, was hired in Vegas, where DeBoer, who previously got a shoe, jumped to Dallas.
Got fired from Dallas because of his drinking problems Jim Montgomery instead hired in Boston to replace Cassidy.
Hard to criticize salaries
However, it is difficult to criticize these hires, as the aforementioned coaches are all top-class pilots.
Perhaps the most special hire can be considered Winnipeg’s coach selection. previously affected in Dallas Rick Bowness was chosen as the coach of the Jets, although the sympathetic and kind “Bones” is primarily known as an assistant coach, who of course coached Dallas to the Stanley Cup finals in the corona season 2019–20.
Whether Bowness will be able to join a Winnipeg team in disarray is uncertain, to say the least.
The hiring of John Tortorella, known as a hard hitter, in Philadelphia has also been widely criticized. The American pilot is not known as a great understanding of the game, but at the same time, Tortore has exactly what a sluggish Philadelphia needs right now.
I completely understand what the club management is looking for. In the city of brotherly love, the brotherly explanation ends on this date.
New names were also included, although the lack of new names has been blamed on the club managers from Europe.
Detroit hired him to lead the second phase of its rebuilding project Derek Lalondewho was winning two championships in Tampa Bay as an assistant coach.
The puck legend who was building a dynasty in Tampa and has since returned to the car city, as well as the Detroit GM Steve Yzerman knows LaLonde from his Tampa years, which lends credibility to the pick.
During his coaching career, LaLonde has worked a lot specifically with young players, which certainly accelerated his selection as the head coach of the young Red Wings team.
The Islanders hired an assistant coach to replace Trotz by Lane Lambert, who was taking the club to the conference finals in two years. Before the Islanders years, Lambert was winning the Stanley Cup with Trotz in Washington.
Previously, Lambert was developing Nashville’s farm team in Milwaukee Pekka Rinne, Roman Josin, by Ryan Ellis and by Patrick Hörnqvist players like
Recruited by Chicago With Luke Richardson has an AHL background and he was an assistant coach helping Montreal to the finals a year ago.
NHL clubs also hire new names, but these are almost always united by a couple of themes: AHL and/or junior league backgrounds and good relations with NHL clubs. You can have whatever opinion you like about the recruitment process, but this is how work and business life works anyway.
Rarely are big hires made completely outside the box.
At Jalose, thinner screens from club teams
Jalonen was reportedly one of the candidates for Florida’s new head coach, who was eventually hired Patrik Laine first NHL coach Paul Maurice. Jalonen didn’t come to this pattern overnight either, because GM With Bill Zito has strong links to Finland through the well-known agency Acme Sports and as an assistant coach Tuomo Ruutu.
Florida would have been the perfect opportunity for Jalose: captain About Aleksander Barkov from then on, Jalonen would have gotten his hands on a humble and certainly largely pro-Euro player. On top of all that, the World Cup and Olympic gold pilot would have had almost complete peace of mind at Sunrise, because you can count the media representatives at the matches on the fingers of one hand.
However, the door remained closed and that is easy to understand.
Although Jalonen’s fate arouses heated debate in Finland, it is good to look at the situation from different angles. First of all, Jalonen is not the only European who could be hired in the NHL.
Swedish Rikard Grönborg has won three World Championship golds and most recently this spring in Switzerland he took his Zurich team to a tiebreaker in the finals.
The above-mentioned two are united by strong international hockey performances, but the B-level World Championships are not valued in North America in the same way as in Europe. Has never been appreciated.
The competition in the NHL is tougher than anywhere else. In addition, national and club team coaching are certainly strongly thought of as different themes.
For example, Jalonen has coached only three full seasons in the club team in the previous fifteen years – two in Jokers and one in SKA, and the performances were not particularly tough in this regard. Every spring, the journey in the playoffs ended in the second round.
No one questions Jalonen’s coaching skills, but many factors affect the NHL pattern.
It’s about meeting two different worlds. Kaukalo’s size, experience and language skills are all things that weigh in the balance, no matter what one thinks about it in Finland.
In addition, the hockey community in North America is a very conservative and self-respecting community, and Jalonen has not always shown respect for it.
Jalonen is probably right with his view, but is this the right way to try to enter a community that has kept the euro door closed for almost thirty years?
All the same, the door to Europe must be opened by the NHL sooner or later.
In the world’s most competitive ice hockey league, they try to get a competitive advantage by all means, but so far the club managers who are playing it safe – even thinking about their own jobs – haven’t dared to get it from the old continent.
The risk is certainly perceived as great, but the reward could be great as well.