Paul Maurice!? Florida Panthers swap coach of year finalist for guy No. 1 in career losses | Opinion
The Florida Panthers’ latest in a franchise merry-go-round of coaching changes will register as a dubious decision until the new guy proves it was the right one.
The Cats, coming off their best regular season ever and first playoff advance since 1996, think they are close to winning a Stanley Cup. And hired a coach, Paul Maurice, who is most noted for not winning one.
(The club confirmed various media reports with an official announcement early Wednesday evening).
Maurice will replace interim coach Andrew Brunette. We wondered if Brunette would finally lose the “interim” tag. Didn’t figure he would lose the “coach” half of the title, too.
Taking over eight games into the season for departed Joel Quenneville, Brunette guided Florida to the NHL Presidents’ Trophy for best season record and put on ice the league’s highest-scoring team since 1995-96. Plus that series advance past Washington. He was one of three finalists for coach of the year, though he didn’t win.
The thud ending to the magic season, a second-round sweep by rival Tampa Bay, cast Brunette’s future in some doubt, but we still thought he might hang on. Though he’d never been a head coach before, Brunette proved himself fast in suddenly replacing, in Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup champ abruptly forced out over a 10-year-old scandal from when he was head coach in Chicago.
Maurice becomes the 18th head coach in 29 seasons for a Panthers franchise not blessed with great front office stability. Only two coaches, Jacques Martin in 2005-08 and Pete DeBoer in 2008-11, lasted long enough in Sunrise to coach more than 200 games and win more than 100.
The Panthers join the Dolphins, Inter Miami and Canes football with new head coaches in the past year among South Florida’s six biggest teams. Only the Heat with Erik Spoelstra and Marlins with Don Mattingly enjoy stability.
Panthers general manager Bill Zito evidently was looking for Quenneville-like experience to replace the relative novice in Brunette, calling Maurice a “perfect fit.”
In Maurice, the Cats get plenty of experience on the resume but less on the accomplishment end.
Maurice, 55, an Ontario native, is fourth all time in NHL games as a head coach with 1,685, and seventh in most career wins with 775. Florida becomes his fourth franchise, after Toronto, Hartford/Carolina and Winnipeg, where he coached nine years before stepping down 29 games into this past season.
But Maurice’s resume’ also contains this:
▪ The most losses of any NHL head coach ever, 681.
▪ And zero Stanley Cups in 24 seasons. His only time reaching the Stanley Cup Final was in 2002 with Carolina.
The Panthers have two legit stars in Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov and the depth of talent to have had a better record than anybody right up until the sudden second-round collapse against Tampa.
Didn’t Brunette prove enough this past year to earn a full season? To lose the “interim” but keep the ”coach?”
I can also see why Zito might prefer to go all-in with a more experienced coach, perhaps the safer call. But was Maurice the best option? A guy who has coached more games without winning a Stanley Cup than anyone in history?
There had been reports Florida was interested in available Barry Trotz, who has won a Stanley Cup. There also had been speculation the Panthers might bring back DeBoer (before he hired this week by Dallas), who has led teams to two Stanley Cup Final appearances. Trotz was such the obvious prize that one can only surmise Florida cast a line his way but could not land the catch.
Instead they will count on Paul Maurice to do what he hasn’t done in 24 seasons: Win a Stanley Cup.
On the bright side: Well ... he’s due!
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 3:27 PM.
