2021: NHL Head Coach and Front Office Hunting Season
Hockey has gone through some tough times between 2020 and 2021. Pandemic, season stoppage, a bubble playoff, a shortened 2021 season, a massive scandal at one of the biggest clubs, and recently, hefty amounts of executive changes with the clubs. Since the end of the last season, starting with the New York Rangers and all the way to the Vancouver Canucks as of December 5th, 2021, there have been five clubs who have decided to sack their executive leaders, be it the general manager, head coach, both, and a combination of assistants and lower-level management. 2021 has been NHL's season of executive turnover, so just what does this mean about the state of club leadership during a time of great change and uncertainty? Hockey has always been a volatile sport from the business side. Coaches get recycled far too often, GMs can fail with one team but manage to pick up a job in the same role with a new club for an even higher salary, ownership groups tend to make very hasty or late decision...