Future prospects for NHL teams as summer approaches with the draft pick (Part 3)
Craig MacTavish
Craig MacTavish is one of the former players to start a coaching career after their retirement. MacTavish started his coaching career in 2000 and is included in the list of coaches expected to land in one of the five teams that are currently without the services of any coach.
During his time as a player, MacTavish was highly talented and was at his prime with Edmonton Oilers. He won 3 Stanley Cups with Oilers while playing for them from 1986 to 1990.
Some people argued that Oilers was a good team and MacTavish was not an integral part of their success, but these people were proven wrong as he later won another Stanley Cup with New York Rangers in 1994.
He started his coaching career with Oilers in 2000 guiding them to the play-offs in his first season in-charge, but Oilers was knocked out in the first round.
However, Oilers continued bagging brilliant performances until the 2005-2006 season, successfully making their way into the Stanley Cup Finals. Unfortunately, a great win from MacTavish’s resume went missing as Oilers lost the Stanley Cup Finals to Carolina Hurricanes (4-3).
The next season onwards, MacTavish started coming across numerous problems that resulted in Oilers not qualifying for the play-offs. This has been the case for three consecutive seasons from 2006 to 2009 so MacTavish left the job and hasn’t coached any team since then.
Currently, many sources are linking him with a position in New Jersey Devils or Minnesota Wild, both hungry to make it to the play-offs since they barely missed out this season.
Michel Therrien
Therrien is another coach hunting for a job and is being considered as a strong option by Minnesota Wild.
He has been out of the coaching scene for quite some time as he hasn’t coached any team since 2009.
He began his coaching career in 2000 with Montreal Canadiens. He wasn’t able to come up with the expected success level and this resulted in him being fired at the end of his third season with Montreal.
He was jobless for two seasons after which he took charge of Pittsburgh Penguins. The first two seasons were tough for him but he was able to get the team into the Stanley Cup Finals in 2009.
However, the team lost and Therrien lost his job again. There is also a possibility that he might join New Jersey Devils as their coach.
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