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The way Barry Trotz did John Hynes was cold, signaling a new Nashville Predators | Estes
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- The way Barry Trotz did John Hynes was cold, signaling a new Nashville Predators | Estes
The gloves are off. The vibe has shifted.
Our Nashville Predators are no longer in the status-quo business. No longer taking prisoners. No longer so concerned with pesky things like appearances or stability or even loyalty.
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The Predators are not as they have been.
Barry Trotz is not David Poile.
Were there any doubt about that, it vanished Tuesday, when incoming general manager Trotz fired coach John Hynes with a year remaining on his contract – about the same time news got out that the team would announce Andrew Brunette as Hynes' replacement.
Even for hockey, this was cold.
Hynes' firing came 46 days after the end of the regular season and after Trotz had conducted an extensive coaching search for a job that wasn't vacant.
More: How Nashville Predators GM Barry Trotz came to decision to fire John Hynes
More: How Mark Borowiecki's scary end to his NHL career brought out the fighter — against his demons
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Trotz said he interviewed six candidates , and narrowed it down to three finalists, while still keeping Hynes in limbo as a backup option. It wasn't until Tuesday, Trotz said, that he broke the news to Hynes, finally pulling out the scissors and cutting the safety net with Hynes' seat still warm for Brunette.
"I'm sure it happens all the time," said Trotz of interviewing head-coaching candidates with Hynes still employed. "I'm sure it happened here when I was here (as coach). You don't fire a coach and not have another one ready. It wouldn't be any different probably in your job."
Actually, I hope and trust that it would be different in my job. I'd imagine you would, too.
No one wants to be treated as Hynes was by the Predators. They did him wrong, frankly, leaving him to twist in the wind as the willing partner in a doomed marriage while his spouse took to scouring dating sites, seeing what was available while keeping the old partner around. You know, just in case.
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Trotz's intentions were sound. It was reasonable to conclude that Hynes wasn't the coach best equipped to take the Predators to the highest level. Hynes had his shot and had his moments, but there were multiple valleys in three-plus seasons, and the peaks weren't high enough. He went 0-for-3 in playoff series and didn't reach them this past season.
Yet even as the Predators embraced their late-season rebuild and traded off players while stars fell to injury, "Not once did John complain about the situation," Trotz attested.
Hynes won in the worst of times, which says something. He was always a stand-up coach, a company man for a classy organization that has tended to appreciate and value that more than others.
The right thing for the Predators to do would have been to cut Hynes loose long before Tuesday and let him get started in finding a new opportunity. To believe that Trotz ever expected to retain Hynes, that just doesn't pass the smell test.
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Even as Trotz said, "I was very comfortable with bringing the whole staff back," he added a caveat:
"Unless the right person came available."
Trotz said Hynes knew the Predators were looking. He said he told Hynes that the process would take until the end of May, and the reason for the extended timetable was simple: "A lot of my coaches that I wanted to interview or at least touch base with to see if they might be the right fit, they were all coaching," Trotz said. "I needed that runway to allow me to do that."
Give Trotz credit for being upfront about how this went down with Hynes, even as the optics aren't great for him or the team.
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Thing is, Trotz didn't seem to care much about letting that stop him. He could do it this way. So he did.
The ambition is real with Trotz. This is what he thought was best for the Predators, end of explanation. Eggs must be broken to make that omelet he envisions for a franchise he wants to break out of the – in his words – "mushy middle" of the NHL.
"We want to get back to growing so that we can challenge for the Cup year in and year out," Trotz said. "Not just make the playoffs and hope to win the Cup."
Trotz can read a room. For so long, fans of this team have been clamoring for these exact sentiments. The Predators, it can now be said, are no longer out for applause and admiration.
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They are out to win.
That can be difficult to stomach sometimes. But the Predators will get used to it.
Reach Tennessean sports columnist Gentry Estes at gestes@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Gentry_Estes.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Barry Trotz's firing of John Hynes signals a new Nashville Predators
