Capitals hire Trotz, promote new GM

[ThomasTomasz]

The Washington Capitals announced Saturday morning that they fired coach Adam Oates and won't renew the contract of vice president and general manager George McPhee.

"George has been a terrific, longtime executive for our franchise, and I'm grateful for his commitment to the Capitals organization for the past 17 years," owner Ted Leonsis said. "Under his leadership the Capitals won seven division titles, twice were the top team in the Eastern Conference, earned a Presidents' Trophy and competed in the playoffs 10 times. He was a highly effective manager who is extremely well regarded within our organization and around the NHL. We have the utmost respect for him and his family and wish them nothing but the very best.

"We are also appreciative of Adam's efforts and thank him for his devotion, work ethic and contributions to the Capitals the past two seasons. He is a smart, tactical coach who improved the performance of several of our players. He is a Hall of Fame player who we believe will be a longtime coach in the NHL. We will help him in whatever way we are able and wish him well.

"This is an important time for our organization, and I feel a change is needed in order to get us back to being a top echelon team that competes for the Stanley Cup."

The Capitals, who went 38-30-14 this season, missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2006-07 season.

Leonsis and Capitals president Dick Patrick will hold a news conference Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. ET.

http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/1...-coach-adam-oates-bring-back-gm-george-mcphee

:freshdance3: Change is much needed for this team, though I was not expecting this to happen at all. It will be interesting to see what direction they go as far as an executive. The coach has to be someone who can relate to Ovechkin, but at this point, they've tried multiple guys and the same result seems to happen. I don't know who that coach would be, to be honest.

 

[Ravin]

McPhee should have been gone users ago. Talk about a GM who got to keep his job for doing nothing at all. Can you really name anything major he did with the franchise in his 17 years? I can't think of one huge deal that he has done to make the team better that the league was like "oh wow, they are the favourites now."

Oates just couldn't handle being in the spotlight. He mouthed off way to much to the media, and with no results, it burned him even harder. With the coaching market the way it is, and the amount of teams needing coaches, not sure who lands where.

Washington just needs to start to rebuild and do something different. They have been the same team for years.

 

[leaffan]

How I pictured Thomas when I read the tweet from the caps PR this morning

 

[leaffan]

Caps make a fairly smart trade since they couldn't get Halak sign. Rape and pillage those poor islanders.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Yeah, no way was he going to re-sign with the Capitals after Oates went and opened his mouth about him not playing against the Blues. I have a feeling that played a role in Oates getting fired, or would have if they had retained McPhee.

Oh, and Jason Botterill for GM, please. I'll take Barry Trotz for manning the bench as well, give me someone who is going to fix the defense. I'll also amnesty Mike Green, as we can't have two guys who can't play defense out there.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Apparently rumors are popping up that Gretzky wants into DC as the president, and bring Doug MacLean with him as a GM.

Both of them have less than stellar personnel records, so color me against the idea for the moment. It's also unlikely because I think it would have been done by now. The Caps also have a president in Dick Patrick, who has been with the team since 1982. Leonsis was essentially an owner in training by Abe Pollin for both the Caps and Wizards, and valued loyalty above most everything else, so I really don't think it's likely.

 

[leaffan]

Apparently rumors are popping up that Gretzky wants into DC as the president, and bring Doug MacLean with him as a GM.

Both of them have less than stellar personnel records, so color me against the idea for the moment. It's also unlikely because I think it would have been done by now. The Caps also have a president in Dick Patrick, who has been with the team since 1982. Leonsis was essentially an owner in training by Abe Pollin for both the Caps and Wizards, and valued loyalty above most everything else, so I really don't think it's likely.

Doug Maclean is a fuckin moron.

Someone like Scott Howson seems like a good fit. He gets a bad rap due to a ton of failures in Columbus but he's a good 75% of the reason that team made the playoffs this year. He's learned from his mistakes imo and recognizes talent fairly well.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Doug Maclean is a fuckin moron.

Someone like Scott Howson seems like a good fit. He gets a bad rap due to a ton of failures in Columbus but he's a good 75% of the reason that team made the playoffs this year. He's learned from his mistakes imo and recognizes talent fairly well.

I wouldn't mind Howson. I've also heard Shero's name come up since he was let go by Pittsburgh, but they were in the same situation as the Caps are under him- lots of good players, but they need to better shape the roster around their star players. Seems that Gretzky was eliminated from contention.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

It sounds as though the Washington Capitals will have their new head coach hired before they bring in a general manager. Multiple reports have former Nashville Predators head coach Barry Trotz closing in on a deal with the Caps to become the club's new head coach. Gary Lawless of the Winnipeg Free Press and ESPN's Pierre LeBrun have similar reports that a deal is near.


It has long believed that Washington and Trotz were a likely match as he got his head coaching start with the organization's AHL team in 1992-93. Trotz spent 15 seasons with the Predators before being let go this offseason.

Reports recently surfaced that Trotz had interviewed with team owner Ted Leonsis and president Dick Patrick on Tuesday.

It is interesting that the Caps will be making this decision before hiring a general manager, but time was precious as Trotz was probably going to be one of the most sought after coaches available on the market this offseason. That makes filling this position more of a priority as a number of qualified GM candidates are available.

His history with the team and his level of experience may be good for the Caps whose last five head coaches were NHL rookie coaches when they started in Washington. That makes the experience Trotz has particularly invaluable to this organization.

Though the Predators have perennially been a low-scoring team under Trotz, he has never had offensive weapons at his disposal like Alex Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom. It should be interesting to see how his system fits Washington, should this deal be finalized as soon as it is being reported it will.

http://www.cbssports.com/nhl/eye-on...-trotz-nearing-deal-to-be-capitals-head-coach

:jack:

I didn't think we were going to land Trotz, but this is huge for the Caps. They had to move quickly before hiring a GM based on Trotz being a hot name, which I understand. It will be interesting to see how he does with more offense at his disposal, but also having the resources of the Caps organization. They are able to spend money and Leonsis wants to win. It will take two off-seasons to get the players in that fit the system Trotz runs, but knowing we have someone behind the bench who knows what he's doing makes it easier to wait.

 

[leaffan]

Pretty dam good hire there.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Pretty dam good hire there.

Also hearing that if this hiring becomes official, which it looks like it will be, Paul Fenton and Ray Shero become the top choices for GM, as both have worked with Trotz in the past. I could think a little better of Shero in this instance, but I hope we could pry Fenton away from Nashville.

 

[dave]

Barry Trotz and that team???
I absolutely agree Trotz is a fine coach, but making him coach of that team?
What the hell?
He's gonna convince Ovechkin, Backstrom and Green that responsible two-way play is the right thing to do?
Unless he has some sort of hypnotic suggestion, that team is going to have to undergo a complete roster change.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Barry Trotz and that team???
I absolutely agree Trotz is a fine coach, but making him coach of that team?
What the hell?
He's gonna convince Ovechkin, Backstrom and Green that responsible two-way play is the right thing to do?
Unless he has some sort of hypnotic suggestion, that team is going to have to undergo a complete roster change.

I'm guessing Green is getting the amnesty tag. If he is getting paid that much and we are ignoring his defense, he better be putting up huge numbers on offense. Problem is, he isn't. So that is one player gone.

I really think the team is going to undergo a complete roster change. It's a team with established players, sure, but the complementary pieces are not there. That's what needs to be built, and you can make this a Trotz team with some offense at the top.

At the very least, is this not better than trotting out any of our past four head coaches, none of whom have had any NHL head coaching experience before? Or trotting out largely the same roster that continues to get worse year in and year out? I would rather take two off-seasons to get this roster right while Backstrom and Ovechkin are still in their prime.

 

[dave]

I'm guessing Green is getting the amnesty tag. If he is getting paid that much and we are ignoring his defense, he better be putting up huge numbers on offense. Problem is, he isn't. So that is one player gone.

I really think the team is going to undergo a complete roster change. It's a team with established players, sure, but the complementary pieces are not there. That's what needs to be built, and you can make this a Trotz team with some offense at the top.

At the very least, is this not better than trotting out any of our past four head coaches, none of whom have had any NHL head coaching experience before? Or trotting out largely the same roster that continues to get worse year in and year out? I would rather take two off-seasons to get this roster right while Backstrom and Ovechkin are still in their prime.

I think Ovechkin is a helluva player and I understand why he's Washington's favourite pro sports athlete, but as long as he's the face of the Capitals, they will always be the bridesmaid. Adam Oates did everything in his power to coach Ovechkin, including a trip to Russia, and Ovechkin still refused to sacrifice. Ovechkin's window is closed and now he has a coach like Trotz?

 

[leaffan]

Also hearing that if this hiring becomes official, which it looks like it will be, Paul Fenton and Ray Shero become the top choices for GM, as both have worked with Trotz in the past. I could think a little better of Shero in this instance, but I hope we could pry Fenton away from Nashville.

From what I read if Trotz is involved Fenton is a no go. Pretty sure I read it in a tweet somewhere.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

I think Ovechkin is a helluva player and I understand why he's Washington's favourite pro sports athlete, but as long as he's the face of the Capitals, they will always be the bridesmaid. Adam Oates did everything in his power to coach Ovechkin, including a trip to Russia, and Ovechkin still refused to sacrifice. Ovechkin's window is closed and now he has a coach like Trotz?

We've tried to get coaches who many consider to be "players coaches" to try and get Ovechkin to play better. Maybe it's time for them to try a different approach? He's 28 years old, the window is hardly closed. If he still doesn't buy into this coach and has the same habits, considering his age now and past history, it wouldn't surprise me if we tried to move him, even though with the cap number is would be extremely difficult.

From what I read if Trotz is involved Fenton is a no go. Pretty sure I read it in a tweet somewhere.

I saw mine in the Washington Post, but chances are you might be correct. Then it looks like Shero is going to be the top guy for the job in that instance.

 

[leaffan]

I think Ovechkin is a helluva player and I understand why he's Washington's favourite pro sports athlete, but as long as he's the face of the Capitals, they will always be the bridesmaid. Adam Oates did everything in his power to coach Ovechkin, including a trip to Russia, and Ovechkin still refused to sacrifice. Ovechkin's window is closed and now he has a coach like Trotz?

The problem here is your thinking Trotz the guy who had to play with a budget team that strengths included a top 3 goalie and a plethora of some of the best defensemen in the NHL. They never had top end talent to really play with.

A quote from trotz regarding this:

I think I’m very adaptable. When we had Paul Kariya for a couple years and we were a little deeper at forward we were a pretty high scoring team. You need balance and if you have dynamic people – I’ve always tried to assess the talent and say ‘Okay, how can we get better as a group and how can we win hockey games?’ I’ve played a number of different systems based on our personnel but I like the personnel to dictate the strength. In Nashville, our strength was in net and defense. So our team would take the personality of the top players and that was most often on the back end.

What I think and what guys like Thomas are going to hope for is the team's style is going to be based around the players style and not some sort of defensive system. Trotz is hopefully going to be really good and will recognize things like having OVI start in the defensive zone 30% of the time in games probably isn't the best of ideas. I always thought coaches need to stop forcing him to become a two way player and let him be the dynamic goal scorer he is. This was the first year in a long time he was starting in the offensive zone more than 40% of the time and look at the amount of goals the guy piled on.

I guess what I'm getting at here is Trotz is more of an adapter then anything which is what the Caps have needed for a while.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

Another thing is that Trotz wasn't going to be out of work. He had suitors, and he is likely to chose the Caps, which means working with Ovechkin and Backstrom. He sees something with the club, and wants to be here. It's also a homecoming for him, it's where he started his scouting career and then coached our AHL affiliate until 1997. He worked with Dick Patrick and some other long-term members of the organization, so its a great fit from that regard.

From what I hear, he is very tough on players, but is also very fair and is very approachable. Striking that balance is something few people can do in any profession, and that will go a long way with this team.

 

[leaffan]

Another thing is that Trotz wasn't going to be out of work. He had suitors, and he is likely to chose the Caps, which means working with Ovechkin and Backstrom. He sees something with the club, and wants to be here. It's also a homecoming for him, it's where he started his scouting career and then coached our AHL affiliate until 1997. He worked with Dick Patrick and some other long-term members of the organization, so its a great fit from that regard.

From what I hear, he is very tough on players, but is also very fair and is very approachable. Striking that balance is something few people can do in any profession, and that will go a long way with this team.

The biggest thing about him is the way he accepts changes and isn't stubborn.

The caps really need to get a GM soon though. I'm just looking over their lineup and its a bit of a mess. The back end needs some work and the mix mash of players up front are odd. Seems like guys were playing all over the place too with different lines constantly.

Whats really scary when I look at it is how similar the caps and the leafs are. Fairly identical outside of the fact (I dunno if this helps) the caps were a bit better defensively lol.

 

[ThomasTomasz]

The biggest thing about him is the way he accepts changes and isn't stubborn.

The caps really need to get a GM soon though. I'm just looking over their lineup and its a bit of a mess. The back end needs some work and the mix mash of players up front are odd. Seems like guys were playing all over the place too with different lines constantly.

Whats really scary when I look at it is how similar the caps and the leafs are. Fairly identical outside of the face (I dunno if this helps) the caps were a bit better defensively lol.

Yes, it's a mess considering how they kept adding pieces at deadlines years past, and then making FA additions like Hamrlik that didn't make sense (at least looking back on it.) They do have the talent evaluators in place still, but after Trotz is hired, they definitely need to move quickly. But as I said, I am willing to wait two off-seasons to really get the roster put together. Amnesty for Green is a start, but even if they don't do that, other guys could be moved. Not much salary is coming off the books- only Penner and Grabovski- so they will have to rely on trades to clear some room.

The Caps still need to improve on defense, and that is where I am hoping Trotz can help the most. We've also not had a true shutdown guy, so that's an immediate need to acquire.