Flyers Coaching Candidate: Barry Trotz

If you’ve been reading my coaching candidate series, one of the things I have been adamant about is not getting a retread coach. The last the the Flyers need is someone who has struggled and failed over and over again in several different cities helming several different teams. There is a constant coaching carousel that happens where teams will hire a coach who struggles to coach their team and expect different results and it doesn’t happen.

BUT …

What if that coach is the third winningest coach of all time? What if that coach is a Stanley Cup winner? What if that coach has been able to take teams that have been struggling and turn them into winners?

The New York Islanders have just let head coach Barry Trotz go after four years. Should the Flyers take a look at him?

Trotz’s story begins as a coach in various minor league systems. In 1998, he became the first coach of the Nashville Predators. Like most expansion teams, the Preds struggled early on. But Nashville stuck with him and in their sixth season, they made the playoffs for the first time, being bounced by Detroit in the first round.

Over the next four seasons, Nashville would reach the playoffs only to lose out in the first round. It wasn’t until his 12th year of coaching that they would advance into the second round. Three years later, Trotz was let go after back to back seasons of failing to reach the playoffs.

It was here that Trotz moved on to Washington to coach the Capitals. The Caps were a team that would put up good regular season numbers, thanks in part to having one of the greatest players alive, Alexander Ovechkin, on their roster. They were a talented squad that could never get over the hump in the playoffs. In many seasons, they would run into the Pittsburgh Penguins and then get knocked out of the playoffs in an embarrassing fashion.  Year after year, it was the same thing. They couldn’t seem to get past the second round (Flyers fans…sound familiar!)

in 2018, Trotz and the Caps finally got over to hockey’s promised land. They captured their third straight Metropolitan Division title. The Caps finally dispatched the Penguins in the second round and squeaked by the Tampa Bay Lightning in a seven game series in the Eastern Conference final. In a five game series, they bested the expansion Vegas Golden Knights on their surprising Cinderella run. The Capitals had finally hoisted the Stanley Cup as their experience and firepower trounced the up-and-coming Knights.

Remarkably, the Capitals let their Stanley Cup champion coach walk after a contract dispute. He quickly signed on with the New York Islanders; a team badly in search of some direction. They had just lost their star player, John Tavares, to free agency and looked as if they would again be basement dwellers.

Trotz quickly turned them into a model of what he had in the Capitals; a team built on defense and speed, capitalizing on the mistakes that other teams made. They, surprisingly, made the playoffs in their first season; losing to Carolina in the second round. The following year, they took Tampa Bay to seven games during the playoff bubble in Toronto. Tampa would go on to win the cup that year.  The Isles would lose out to the Bolts again the next season. This past year, the Islanders faced a lot of injuries and stiffer competition and failed to reach the playoffs; resulting in Trotz’s dismissal.

Why He Should Be The Flyers Next Coach 

He flat out knows how to win. He’s coached superstars like Ovechkin, and yet has taken a scrappy team (Islanders) to within a game of reaching the Stanley Cup. The Isles are just a faster version of the Flyers. They’ve had similar problems that the Flyers have had recently. If there is ANYONE out there who could change this team around quickly, it could be him. He does a great job of grooming younger players into stars. He could be a great fit.

Why He Shouldn’t Be The Flyers Next Coach 

Is this a case of a retread? Are we picking up a coach who can’t win? Yes, the Islanders have a talented team that plays behind their abilities. They also had many of the same problems that the Flyers have had recently with COVID and injuries. With the rest of the Metro Division getting stronger, the Isles stumbled out of the gate, just like Philly did, and never recovered. Is this what we want?

Final Verdict

There are only a scant few retreads I would welcome with open arms. Barry Trotz is one of them. One of the major differences between the Flyers and Islanders is that Philadelphia has solved their goalie situation; the Isles haven’t.

With a young core of players, Trotz could whip them into shape and the Flyers might be able to leapfrog over older teams like Pittsburgh and Washington. Trotz could be the guy the Flyers need to get back into the playoffs.