Rick Tocchet is NOT the first head coach of the Seattle Kraken; is David Quinn still a candidate?
Anthony Scultore
|
The Seattle Kraken are holding a press conference at 1 PM ET, believed to be the announcement of the team’s first head coach. Almost everyone, and I mean everyone had Rick Tocchet penciled in as the inaugural bench boss but a report from Elliotte Friedman this morning says it’s not him.
Three interviews later, Rick Tocchet is not the Kraken coach
The 57 year-old former NHL power forward took the reins as head coach of the Coyotes back in the 2017-2018 season and did an admirable job. He is widely considered an up and coming coach who knows how to relate to his players. He’s the perfect bench boss to lead a new franchise, and after three interviews it seemed like it was a done deal.
“Rick Tocchet had a third conversation scheduled with the Kraken to become their first head coach,” Elliotte Friedman said on Saturday Headlines. “It sounds like the Kraken brought a couple of individuals into the city this week for in-person interviews. Tocchet was one and thanks to the super-secretive Ron Francis it’s tough to pin down the other one. We believe David Quinn had a couple of interviews but I don’t think it’s him.”
So what went wrong? Was there an impasse on the contract? Did another candidate sweep Ron Francis off his feet? Right now there isn’t any reporting on the matter, but there will be an opportunity to get answers later today.
Who will be the first Kraken Coach?
There likely were many candidates that interviewed with Ron Francis. Tony Granato, Joe Sacco, and Kevin Dineen are all now being mentioned as the first head coach of the Kraken. David Quinn who was recently fired the Rangers may still be in it.
Larry Brooks of the NY Post reported that Seattle had indeed hired Tocchet with Quinn having been seriously considered.
We were told toward the end of the week that Seattle general manager Ron Francis had decided to hire Rick Tocchet as coach, after going far down the line with David Quinn, but there is nothing official at the moment.
NY Post
What if both he and Friedman were off? I believed that Tocchet was the next coach too, and gave kudos to Quinn for getting so far along in the process. And since we now know it isn’t Tocchet, wouldn’t it be something to see Quinn in Seattle?
We will find out soon enough.