The knee-jerk reaction to this is skepticism. Pavelski has never held a head coaching position at the professional level – in fact, he’s coaching his son’s 15U team in Wisconsin right now. Taking a chance on somebody who hasn’t been a professional-level head coach when the team is at a crucial point seems like a risky choice that could backfire, and one that will be crucified by local media and the fanbase if it were to blow up in their faces.
On the other hand, why the hell not?
Let’s be honest for a second. There’s no firm makeup that an NHL head coach needs to have in order to win a Stanley Cup. They just need to be the right fit for the team they’re coaching. In the Auston Matthews era, the Leafs have had three vastly different types of head coaches. First it was Mike Babcock, the clear-cut best coach available at the time who won a Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2007-08. Then it was Sheldon Keefe, the hand-picked choice of general manager Kyle Dubas who had a more player-friendly approach. Then it was Craig Berube, another hard-nosed Cup winner with a better reputation from a personality standpoint.
At this point, the Leafs have tried all sorts of different coaches and none of them have worked out. They tried the biggest fish the market had, they tried the players-first internal hire, and they tried a defence and physicality first type. And funny enough, Martin St. Louis, the Montreal Canadiens’ head coach who also didn’t have any professional coaching experience, just took the Habs further in the playoffs than any of the Maple Leafs’ three coaches could in half the amount of time.
That’s not me saying that going with the former player with no experience will work without fail just because it seems to have worked for St. Louis in Montreal. Like I said, it could be a disaster. But what do they have to lose?
As much as it could fail, expecting it to be a disaster from the get go would be a disservice to Pavelski’s strengths. He may not have the experience yet, but he’s only two years removed from being an NHL player, so he’s still privy to the talent around the league and not a dinosaur in terms of how to succeed in the modern NHL. Longtime veteran coach Pete DeBoer, who coached Pavelski with the San Jose Sharks and now runs the New York Islanders’ bench, told Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun that Pavelski routinely displayed the leadership abilities you need to be a coach while he was a player.
“Elite hockey mind with a teacher mentality,” DeBoer said. “He was always working on his own game, but also was first to help others and loved talking systems and strategy. He had a great bench feel as a player on adjustments, line combinations, shift length. There are not many players I could confidently say could do this. But he would be at the top of that list for players I have coached.”
It’s true that the Maple Leafs need to nail this next hire. You can feel the stakes in this decision just by how long the search process has gone on. But at this point, it’s painfully obvious that the Leafs are not just a new coach away from winning a Cup. They’ve had coaches with pedigree and coaches without it, and the furthest they’ve made it is Game 7 of the second round. Like I said at the beginning of the piece, it’s more so about the blend that a coach has with his team and the makeup of it rather than the success on one’s resume when it comes to what makes a coach fit with a team.
Pavelski is worth a shot as Maple Leafs head coach. They’ve gone with the projections more than once, and they don’t have the success to show for it. His understanding of the game and ability to relate to his players would blend nicely with a veteran assistant staff, and the Maple Leafs would be better served thinking outside the box instead of hiring a coach just because they’re a household name and made the Conference Finals a few times.
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