Sportsnet 590 The Fan: Ian Mendes on the Jeff Marek Show discussion who could be the next head coach of the Ottawa Senators.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Mendes: “Steve made a pretty clear reading between the lines today Jeff. I think Jacques Martin ends the season as the coach, I really do, and I don’t think he’s the coach next year. I think they find their guy in the offseason.
Marek: “You know, we keep hearing the name John Gruden, who’s with AHL Toronto. I think that you know the the organization is very warm. I don’t know whether it’s for a head coaching position and assistant coaching position. I don’t know but the name Jay McKee is out there as well. You’re closer to it. How do you read the coaching tea leaves for Ottawa?
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Mendes: “Yeah, and obviously both of those guys, Gruden and McKee, have been in the Staios, Andlauer orbit in the past, right? And so that’s why there’s a natural connection there and, and you know, a lot of people are wondering with Gruden in particular, you know, would he be able to like, was Ottawa not able to sort of pry him out mid-season.
And Staios did say that, you know basically at the end of the season is when you know maybe there might be more candidates available. Now, I don’t know if I’m reading him saying that, that’s him saying, you know, that we could get permission to speak to a guy like that or is that him saying, you know at the end of the year, what if certain coaches that are in coaching now are available. But he did kind of allude to the fact that maybe the pool of candidates will be a little bit better in the spring.
And so I like, here’s the thing on like, and I’m going to bring up Craig Berube‘s name only because I know that Dave Poulin for example, played with, with Berube in Washington, in Philly. There’s a familiarity there. Like so I would think that they would think highly of Berube.
And I think when you, when you look at the coaching situation, Jeff, if you brought Craig Berube into Ottawa, I don’t think you would need to sell him to the fan base. I think the fan base would say, that’s the guy who won a Cup in St. Louis in 2019. He gets the best out of the group. Certainly, he’s a disciplinarian. He gets it.
If you bring John Gruden in, I think there’s gonna be, you’re gonna have to, there’s gonna be some PR work that needs to be done. Some selling because the fan base really believes Jeff that over the last 5, 6, 7 times that they’ve hired a coach, that they haven’t spent the most money to get the best available candidates. They’ve done it with finances in mind.
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And so if you go to Jon Gruden, if you, but if you believe he’s the right guy, if you’re Steve Staios, Dave Poulin, Mike Andlauer, you’re like, I believe that’s the guy, then you, you don’t acquiesce to public pressure. You sign him, you bring him in and then you explain to the fans why you think he’s the best. But there is a bit of a PR hurdle that they’re going to have to clear if they go with Gruden versus a more established coach in this market.
