Who is in play for the Red Wings Coaching Vacancy?

Barry Trotz

The Red Wings organization is familiar with Barry Trotz. Trotz coached former divisional doormat to one of the most defensively sound teams in the salary cap era NHL. You still see that culture embraced in the Nashville Predators today. He then guided the championship bitten Alexander Ovechkin to raising the Stanley Cup. The biggest critique of the high-octane Washington Capitals was that they could not defend, and the team could never win with Ovechkin and Trotz proved the critics wrong.

His last tour was on Long Island. After their captain left to play for his child fanhood team that included a guarantee of first round exits, they were left without a face to the public eye. Trotz gave the team a contender image, a team that is hard to play against and wins. Trotz brought back a feeling to the New York Islanders that had not been felt since the creation of the “’Playoff Beard”.

Pros: His defense first structure creates opportunity to maximize depth. He’s believer in using all four lines. Gets buy-in from all players.

Cons: High-end offensive players can, at times, struggle in the system. Limits creative offensive output due to mindset of what their responsibilities are defensively.

Best Season:
2015-16 Washington Capitals- Lost in round 2 of Stanley Cup Playoffs
2017-18 Washington Capitals- Won the Stanley Cup

Key Players Coached:
Nashville: David Legwand, Kimmo Timonen, Shea Weber, Roman Josi, Pekka Rinne
Washington: Alexander Ovechkin, Nikolas Backstrom, TJ Oshie, John Carlson, Evgeniy Kuznetsov
NYI: Mat Barzal, Brock Nelson, Adam Pelech, Ryan Pulock, Anders Lee

Awards: 2016 Jack Adams, 2019 Jack Adams