San Jose Barracuda
REACTION: Quinn Fired!
It’s an emergency episode of the San Jose Hockey Now Podcast!
San Jose Sharks GM Mike Grier has fired head coach David Quinn.
When did Sheng first get wind that Quinn’s job might be in jeopardy? He had an idea on Monday. (1:10)
What’s our first reaction? Sheng argues that the Sharks’ ill-constructed roster wasn’t on Quinn, but more on Grier. (4:33)
So if not the roster, did Quinn get fired because he didn’t develop the young San Jose Sharks players? (23:00)
Were Grier and Quinn on the same page about what they wanted out of the Sharks, their identity?
Keegan wonders if player perception of Quinn doomed him. (26:40)
Sheng and Keegan speculate on other reasons why Grier fired Quinn. Is Grier feeling the heat from above (read: Hasso Plattner) after back-to-back disappointing seasons? (34:40)
Keegan argues there isn’t much downside to letting Quinn go right now.
Was Quinn a fall guy for Grier?
What type of coach should the San Jose Sharks target in this stage of their rebuild? What about David Carle? (43:30)
What are our thoughts about Grier keeping John McCarthy behind the San Jose Barracuda bench? (47:05)
Finally, a note about the San Jose Sharks hoping to sign Will Smith. (53:20)
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REACTION: Quinn Fired!
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Agree with much of the tone of this. A few notes. Can’t credit Quinn with Bordeleau’s development. He came back from the AHL taking a healthy step forward. But I can give Quinn credit with Eklund and Zetterlund. Not convinced with Thrun., As you pointed out, he has prior history with some positive development, including Timo last season. EK65 and Granlund are among higher level talents who had among their best seasons under Quinn. I don’t blame Grier for the roster, it was what you get when you have to clean house and accept poor contracts in the process. Vlasic,… Read more »
These are all fair points, but the missing piece of analysis is how bad an NHL coach David Quinn has proven himself to be. The roster doesn’t particularly matter, it was still made up of NHL players and Quinn couldn’t figure out a system that made them even close to competitive. Back to back 10 goal shellackings and that goal differential tell a story beyond a badly constructed roster. Quinn was out of his depth, and now he’s been put out of his misery.
of course the roster matters. It’s literally the most important thing. Coaching in the NHL maybe has a 10 to 25% impact on how well a team does. Talent (includes internal drive of the players to excel) is the overwhelming number one reason and then chemistry is second. Coaching is a distant third in percentage of impact on a games outcome.
All that being said, a new coach is fine. Lots of good names available.
I still believe it’s more players, but I didn’t coach, and I’ve heard this enough from fans and other people in the game, I’ll check in with some people. I think Elliotte Friedman alluded to something systems-related and wrong with the Sharks earlier in the season, but I believe it was more in the context of the players can’t execute a fairly basic system.
The roster is Griers job but I agree this is what was necessary to try and get the top pick. I do t think Quinn was the problem though. I will concede that his defensive structure seemed passive and lacking but not sure if that was the system or the players. Team was slow over all.
For Bordeleau, I do give Quinn some credit. From last season, he (and the Sharks) set high standards for Bordeleau. Remember when fans were penciling in Bordeleau for a spot on the 2022-23 team? In retrospect, that would’ve been a disaster. He might’ve put up points, but some really bad habits might’ve engrained. One thing that Quinn showed well to me too, he knew the guys who could still develop in all this adversity. I think he identified guys like Eklund and Thrun as being able to deal, having that mental toughness. I know you don’t agree on Thrun, but… Read more »
Fair enough, but it was pretty obvious, at least to me, that Bordeleau wasn’t NHL ready in his late season stint in 2023. He had a terrific shoot out goal highlight. But actual play? It wasn’t good — he was pretty much pushed around the ice. He picked up essentially where he left off to start 2023-24 season — he didn’t belong on an NHL roster. He belonged in the AHL and it wasn’t some great insight. Can’t say he’s NHL material even now, but he is a lot closer after his AHL time. As for Thrun, I operate on… Read more »
The hope IMO is that Bordeleau can be packaged with picks to bring back something actually useful for a contender.
First time, I read that wrong. Thought you wrote “Bordeleau can be packaged with pucks …” I think the challenge with him is simple. If he’s going to have an NHL career, he’ll do it was skill guy. Which usually means playing a top-6 role. 3rd and 4th lines are where the PK guys, grit, etc typically go. Less room for an offensively gifted, defensively suspect sort. But his all-around game isn’t projecting that high. Maybe he finds a spot. Maybe he finds a specific skill which gets him a role (face-offs, for example). He’s still on the fringe on… Read more »
This season was brutal for the players and the coaches. There was some good, but a lot more bad. A lot of players won’t be coming back next year and some of them may have played their last games in the NHL. The Sharks desperately need a reset this summer. Take the good from last year and leave the bad behind. Quinn wasn’t the problem, but his tenure represents a continuity with the last two bad seasons. A new coach means everyone gets to start fresh on day 1 next season. No one is in the doghouse, no one is… Read more »
Quinn being good/bad at developing young players has been brought up a lot this year and I think its way overblown. How much effect does a head coach have on development? I always assumed it was the assistants and other staff that was much more involved with individual players and their development. Its the head coaches job to put players in the right positions in the line up and teach systems/strategies.
I agree it’s a little overblown insofar as one man isn’t responsible for all the development of one player. But it’s a constant talking point with Quinn, and how much credit you want to give him (or not), it is an important aspect of being the Sharks HC in this rebuild. So to be fair then, I think between Quinn and his staff and the development coaches, I think they’ve all done a good job
I think there’s a bit more nuance to the on-ice portion of Quinn’s results this season. The roster was very poorly constructed, no doubt about that, and the point about having a glut of wingers with the same general profile is right on the money. You’ve also mentioned a similar redundancy on the back end, which I think is spot-on as well. Where I think we diverge is the idea that Quinn couldn’t have done anything to get more out of the group he had, as flawed as it was. Perhaps not many more wins, but a more respectable performance… Read more »
Wasn’t there an article about some issues with DQ and preparedness? Thought you guys would talk about that a bit. I know it was an article based on some one else rumor, and there were guys that seemed to support DQ. I chalked it up to some of the guys that seemed disinterested from day one, since there were more prominent guys that came out in support. But now wonder if maybe it was not the/just the hoffmans or Labancs but mote core guys
I address that speculation here:
https://sanjosehockeynow.com/san-jose-sharks-david-quinn-mike-grier-hockey-now-podcast/
At this point, and I’m still checking, it’s not the core guys.