Does Bryan Trottier deserve another shot at coaching?
With Ron Wilson being tossed aside (and into the coaching recycling bin) by the Sharks, he joins Paul Maurice, Pat Quinn, and others as the top candidates for other jobs. One name that I haven’t really heard is Bryan Trottier.
The man as a player was well respected by both his Islanders and Penguins teammates (Mario even went as far to say that the Penguins wouldn’t have won the Cup if not for Trottier’s leadership, i.e. a vet with championship experience), was an instrumental assistant coach for the 1996 Colorado Avalanche, and knows the game inside and out.
Let’s face it, he got the shaft with the Rangers, and that was a shame. To make a long question short, does Trottier deserve another chance at coaching an NHL team?
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As long as Kennan keeps popping up like Larry Brown, then Trottier should be on the short list of any NHL club looking for a head coach.
He would make a great candidate, with many years of being an assistant coach,but teams would rather have a proven loser behind the bench than take a chance on someone who is relatively inexperienced as a head coach ( the half-season shafting the Rangers gave him and a season in the AHL). Plus, I just can’t seem to get that Roller Hockey International League out of my mind.
You left out Bob Hartley (and Barry Melrose LOL).
I grew up an islander fan and idolized Trottier and Bossy growing up… but considering he really hasn’t been given a second chance makes me believe that there is more to it than meets the eye.
On paper, I’d think he deserves a second shot for sure… though I don’t think San Jose would be a good fit (the Sharks championship window is closing fast and they don’t have the time to take a chance on a unproven coach).
I think the main problem with Trottier as a coach is that POTVIN SUCKS!
Bryan Trottier has stated many times that he doesn’t want to be an NHL head coach, he had problems dealing with the stress of it.
He did get the shaft with the Rangers however. That was team with a payroll higher than the Empire State Building and was just a bunch of prima donnas who felt that they were above the team. Very few coaches could have controlled that team and molded it into a Stanley Cup competing franchise.
As for Trottier, he’s a great man, as you say he’s well respected on and off the ice, but he doesn’t have the type of personality needed to be a consistent head coach in the NHL. Trotts is a very trusting guy, and the league is more cut-throat nowadays, and I can see players like Sean Avery walking all over him. That was the problem he had in NYC, he didn’t have the ‘I need to raise my voice so my message gets across’ mentality that is needed to be successful at the NHL level.
I think Trottier would make a great GM however, he has all the tools to be successful at that job.
As a Ranger fan, I was happy with a Trottier type coming in to coach. Unfortunately, however, that was a tough room to run for the most veteran of coaches. The experiment failed and he got the short end of the stick, for sure.
So, yeah, he deserves another shot but, the Sharks are not the ideal team for him to get back in with. They are a talented, star-laden, underachieving squad. Sound familiar?
The Sharks need a big presence to come in and tell the players what time it is. Trottier, gauging by his personality and previous experience, is not really that guy.
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