Craig Berube Remains a Target for Teams With Vacant Coaching Openings
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet joined Scott Laughlin and Gord Stellick on Sirius XM NHL Network Radio. When asked about Craig Berube and where he could land as a head coach, Friedman stated that if teams wanted him, it would be done already.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
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Scott Laughlin: “Yeah, and look, all the while, Friedge, we wonder about certain names that are out there. And you mentioned a couple there. And, you know, I heard last week and I think it was on as you turn that Friedge the evil telecom. Somebody had reported that Daniel Alfredsson had told the Senators he’s not ready to be even considered to be a head coaching candidate at this point. He just feels like he needs a little bit more experience behind the bench if, in fact he, he wants to take on something like that down the road.
I’ve always thought hey, look, Craig Berube makes a lot of sense for the Ottawa Senators and we know that Dave Poulin has always been a huge fan of Craig and we’ve loved having him join us on Tuesday mornings, but we’re not holding oour breath for next season. That’s for sure—any Intel as to where Ottawa is leaning right now in terms of finding a new head coach?”
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Elliotte Friedman: “I think he’s on the process. I believe they are interviewing people. But they have indicated some of the people that they want interview are still going. But I do believe they are interviewing people. It’ll be interesting here I think Buffalo they had a target, and they got their target. So I always wonder when that happens. Is it going to be the same for the other teams?
And you’ll learn because one of the guys I think a lot of these teams are interested in is Craig Berube. Teams that are right now like Ottawa and New Jersey, obviously he is not going back to St. Louis and they if they wanted to, they can close this quick.
So I I’m kind of wondering about that. Does somebody say No, He’s our guy, and we’re gonna close it. Kind of like Buffalo did. At this point in time as I talked to you, I don’t have any evidence. That’s the case. So we’ll see things kind of go on.
One thing I kind of got these teams that have coaches that are openings. They’re talking to people and I do think there was two things on kinda noticing. Number one, I think some of them are motivated to get it done. And for example, more teams get through the playoffs, and they kind of figure out, okay, we’re making a change. We want to enter the market to which some of the teams feel they have a bit of an advantage now and might want to take care of that.
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The other thing is, we’ve had two coaches in the last calendar year. Don Granato and Darryl Sutter were fired before extensions kicked, and if it happens with Dave Hakstol, that will be three. And I think some of these teams are pushing back on coach’s contracts now, not to defend these coaches you can’t expect them not to sign extensions if they are offering particularly if the money is good, but I do think it has owners and in some of these cases, are wary of some of the contracts that are out there, or some of the contracts for coaching.
So those are the two kinds of things that I’m looking at here. Ottawa has indicated how important this hire is now? I think that they’re, you know, I think we’re definitely interested in Berube. I think they’re, they’re interested in Toronto Marlies head coach John Gruden, who has a long history with Staios and Mike Andlauer.
I thought Berube would be the guy. I really did. Now I’m not as certain but I still think he’s in the mix. St. Louis is one of the few teams is openly come out and say NHL experience is not a priority. So I wonder though, David Carle, the University of Denver
Some of these have said there are people they want to talk to who are still in the playoffs. And we’ll see. Buffalo obviously targeted Ruff and got that one done pretty quickly.”