On the Detroit Red Wings …
Helene St. James: Red Wings GM Ken Holland on the teams future: “I’m not into a rebuild. They take 8-10 years and that’s if you want to tank it.”
On the Minnesota Wild …
Jimmy Murphy: Kyle Okposo (pending UFA) is exactly what the Wild could use – someone with speed and explosiveness. Okposo is from the area.
On the Arizona Coyotes …
Chris Archer of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 on the Arizona Coyotes GM search.
“Arizona – possible they name a GM this week. John Chayka, who’s 26 years old, and was hired a couple of years ago as their assistant general manager – he might be the guy. I think whatever the case is, the question to me here is going to be structure. I think Dave Tippett is going to be in some sort of Patrick Roy-like position – senior vice president and coach.
“I think it’s possible Chayka ends up being the GM. I think it’s still possible Les Jackson ends up being the GM. Or, I mean Les Jackson – one of three things is going to happen here. He’s going to stay in Dallas. He’s going to take the GM job. Or he’ll still go to Arizona, but he won’t be the GM. Jackson and Tippett are tight, and I think Tippett would like to have Jackson there.
“So I don’t have clarity on the second position, but I do think that Chayka’s influence is growing. He could end up being the guy.”
On the Ottawa Senators …
Chris Nichols of Today’s Slapshot: Elliotte Friedman on Sportsnet 960 on the Ottawa Senators coaching search.
“Ottawa. I heard they had a list of about 30 guys (of which they’ve considered) to coach. They whittled that down, I hear, (on) job interviews (to) maybe eight, nine coming. Obviously it’s been out there that they interviewed Mike Yeo. They’re going to interview Guy Boucher. They’re going to interview Marc Crawford. But there will be other guys too. Anybody with coaching experience was considered. I would be very surprised if their coach was not a guy who had some previous NHL coaching experience. So go down the list of guys who are available or maybe will be available. If they’ve got NHL coaching experience they were at least on Ottawa’s list. The question is are they going to be getting interviewed by them.”
