Washington Capitals' GM George McPhee not to make coaching decision in haste -NHL Update
Washington fans might have started panicking when they lost Dale Hunter after a short lived postseason with Capitals nearly making a run for the Stanley Cup after downing defending championship, Boston Bruins, in the quarterfinals.
Coming out into the limelight, Washington Capitals’ general manager and president, George McPhee, announced on Thursday, May 17, 2012, that he is in no rush to hire a head coach right away and instead, will take his time on picking the perfect candidate.
“My job now is to find the best human talent I can find to coach this club,” McPhee said. “I’m not in any rush to do that, because I haven’t really been thinking in those terms. I don’t know whether it’ll be by the draft or sometime in August, like New Jersey
did [last summer]. We’re going to take our time and get the right person.”
While most of the time, after a coach retires, rumours begin floating around on potential candidates and what the team will be looking for in their new head coach, but in Washington’s situation, nothing can be said for sure.
McPhee has a number of other issues to take care of including the upcoming Entry Draft along dealing with a number of players who are set to become free agents this July.
Capitals have already lost goalie, Tomas Vokoun, along with Alexander Semin, both of whom have announced not to rejoin Washington for the upcoming regular season.
Mike Green, John Carlson, Jay Beagle and Mathieu Perreault will be joining the free agency list and need to dealt with as soon as possible before the deadline comes around.
“I’m not sure that the coach is less important. But right now the whole focus for us is let’s process what we have to do with the team to make them really good again next year and get ready for the draft,” McPhee added.
It will definitely be interesting to see what George McPhee will be doing over the offseason as Washington Capitals need to drastically improve in all aspects as they nearly failed to make the playoffs and could have faced extreme disappointment yet again.
Tags: