New Coach On Markets

There's no better way to start a summer if your a hockey coach. Winning the Stanley Cup as a coach is just as exciting for the coaches as it is the players. Winning the Cup can be the crowning achievement for a bench boss the same as it could be for his players. Well Barry Trotz is going out on a high note. Just weeks after winning Hockey's Holy Grail, Trotz has announced that he's stepping down as the head coach of the Washington Capitals.

It was announced earlier today by TSN and hockey insider Pierre LeBrun. According to a tweet from LeBrun: Barry Trotz had a clause in his contract where if he won the Stanley Cup he could accept a two-year extension with a $300k bump in salary. Obviously since he was only making $1.5M, low by today's NHL coach's standards, a $1.8-million salary doesn't cut it. So Trotz stepped down.

Here's the statement made by the Washington Capitals earlier today:

"Barry Trotz informed the organization today of his decision to resign as head coach of the Washington Capitals. We are obviously disappointed by Barry's decision, but would like to thank Barry for all his efforts the past four years and for helping bring the Stanley Cup to Washington. Barry is a man of high character and integrity and we are grateful for his leadership and for all that he has done for our franchise."

With the bump up in pay, Trotz was slated to make about $1.8 Million each of the next two years, which is a low ball offer by a lot of coaching standards these days. For a guy who just won the Cup, that's way below par. Perfect example is the salary of some of the other coaches around the NHL right now. Toronto coach Mike Babcock makes $6.25 million a year, while Joel Quenneville in Chicago is making $6 million a year, Claude Julien makes $5 million a year up in Montreal. Trotz now joins a list of four other coaches who have left their teams after winning a title. He joins Scotty Bowman (1979 Montreal for Buffalo GM and Detroit 2002 retired), Bob Johnson (1991 Penguins dude to illness) and Mike Keenan (1994 Rangers to coach Blues).

Here's the surprise factor. With the numbers that Trotz put up behind the Caps bench, I'm still surprised he got the low offer. During his four year run at the helm of the Capitals, Trotz lead the Capitals to a 205-89-34 record, which was the best in the league during that stretch. Which makes little sense that the Caps would let him go, after all he did just guide you to you're first Cup title in the 43 year history of the franchise. That has to speak volumes right there right?

Not by the Caps logic, who weren't going to really pay up for his services. Hey those win totals speak pretty well to how good the guy did. It doesn't hurt that you have one of the best players on the planet in Alex Ovechkin but still you have to know how to push the right buttons. You don't win over 200 games as a coach in four years if you don't know how to push those buttons. As it sits right now, the only other opening for a head coach around the league that's not the Capitals would be the New York Islanders. If, somehow, Lou could pull off resigning John Tavares and higher Barry Trotz as the head coach, that would speak volumes for the direction that the Islanders are heading in.

We shall see how things shape up over the next week or two, but there's a new coach on the market.