Steve Ott’s AHL run proved he’s sure to be a great NHL coach. The question is which team should hire him? The Kings and the Maple Leafs make the most sense.
If there’s one takeaway from the Springfield Thunderbirds' turnaround and playoff run, it’s that Steve Ott is an NHL head coach in the making. He bet on himself when he moved from the assistant role behind the St. Louis Blues' bench to the AHL head coach, and that bet paid off. He turned the Thunderbirds into a competitive and structured team while pushing them to the Atlantic Division Final.
It’s a matter of when, not if, he’ll coach in the NHL. The question is where and what team is the best fit for Ott? His Thunderbird run proved he’s great with a younger team and can help put a rebuild ahead of schedule, the same way Dan Muse did with the Pittsburgh Penguins this season.
The Edmonton Oilers don’t fit this mold, and presumably, they’ll hire Bruce Cassidy (if they ever get permission to talk to him, that is). The Vancouver Canucks are a rebuilding team but if they are hiring a coach with an AHL background, they’ll promote Manny Malhotra from within. It leaves two openings for Ott right now, with the Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs looking for head coaches.
Los Angeles Kings
The Kings are in a murky middle where they either face a retool or keep pushing towards contention. They have an aging team on the decline, with a few good players to build around but if the First Round sweep to the Colorado Avalanche was any indication, they are far from Cup contention. That said, if they package Quinton Byfield in a deal with some prospects to land a star player, suddenly, they are in win-now mode.
In short, the Kings have an offseason of uncertainty ahead of them. That includes behind the bench since DJ Smith was the interim but there’s a chance he becomes the full-time head coach.
This team is still set up for Ott to come in and get the most out of it. He can keep them structured on the defensive end while tweaking things offensively to unlock Artemi Panarin and the other top-six. Ott also proved that in the playoffs, he can make the adjustments needed to win a series, whether it’s leaning on a hot line or reading the flow of the game.
Ott also gives the Kings the option to retool or rebuild if needed. His AHL experience allows them to call up some of the prospects from the Ontario Reign and allow a youth movement to take off. While the Kings want to contend, Ott would allow them to hit the reset button and rebound quickly if needed.
Toronto Maple Leafs
Like the Kings, the Maple Leafs are stuck in the middle. With Auston Matthews and William Nylander in their primes and on the roster, they can’t rebuild. With the top pick and a roster that was one of the worst in the NHL last season, a rebuild still looks like a viable path. The prospect system isn’t great, yet it has a few players in it who the team can call up and develop for the future.
This is where Ott becomes a good option for the Maple Leafs. He’s the type of head coach they can hire to keep the team competitive while bringing in the younger players. The top pick, Easton Cowan, Matthew Knies, and the other young players need a coach who can work with them. At the same time, the Maple Leafs want to return to the playoffs and, once there, have a coach who can get them over the hump.
The on-ice changes are another bonus to bringing in Ott. The Maple Leafs looked like an undisciplined team that was checked out by the end of last season. Ott will bring the energy back while adding creative flair to the offense that disappeared under Craig Berube. “The best thing about this league is you get to have fun with it as well, you can try different things you might have wanted to try in the NHL,” Steve Ott noted in a conversation with The Hockey News. His time in the AHL allowed him to find new ways to coach and scheme up systems, and it’s that mindset that the Maple Leafs need.
Other Teams To Keep An Eye On
The Nashville Predators are slowly but surely finding their general manager. They must find someone quickly, considering the NHL draft is a month away (they have the 10th pick, by the way). When they hire a new GM, they might replace Andrew Brunette behind the bench as well, following the same trend that the Canucks and Maple Leafs followed this year of starting from scratch.
If the Predators are looking for a new coach, Ott makes a lot of sense, especially if they are looking at a rebuild. The Predators don’t have a great farm system, and it might take them a few years to be competitive again. That said, it’s the right place for Ott to go and take some time to build up the team in his vision.
The Winnipeg Jets are another team to keep in mind. For now, they’ve kept Scott Arniel as their head coach but if they want to rebuild, they might move on from him and look for a coach like Ott to lead a younger team.
The other question is whether the Blues want to beat everyone to the punch. Would they want to make Ott their head coach, knowing they can lose him to another team this offseason? To do so, they’d have to fire Jim Montgomery, and that’s not something they want to do, not now at least.
That said, Ott is a good coach and one of the names to watch this summer. The 43-year-old longtime assistant was in coaching rumors for a while, and his tenure with the Thunderbirds further confirmed that he can lead an NHL team if given the chance.