With speculation of Jaromir Jagr eyeing a front office role in Pittsburgh, he could become the most recent in a long line of star players turned staff. While not all have succeeded, many have, and fans can't get enough.
There’s speculation the Pittsburgh Penguins are looking to hire franchise icon Jaromir Jagr in a front office role whenever he decides to retire from active competition, and you can certainly see why a team would want the opinion and insight a surefire Hockey Hall of Famer like the Czech legend would provide.
And it’s not as if Jagr is the only elite athlete teams would want to remain in, return to, or join their organization once their playing days are over. In Ottawa, longtime star and former captain Daniel Alfredsson is currently apprenticing as an assistant coach under interim bench boss Jacques Martin. In Edmonton, all-time great defenseman Paul Coffey is presently an associate coach for the Oilers. And there are whispers Columbus cornerstone Rick Nash is being considered as the Blue Jackets’ next GM.
But wait – there’s more: in Montreal, Martin St-Louis has enjoyed a lot of success in his first stint as an NHL coach. In Vancouver, Rick Tocchet is thriving as Canucks coach. In Detroit, Steve Yzerman has the trust and respect of Red Wings supporters in his GM role. And on Long Island, Patrick Roy is trying his damnedest to push the New York Islanders into a playoff spot. Where there’s a vacuum of leadership, there’s an opportunity for retired elite players to step in and try their luck at coaching and management.
Some experiments over the years have not worked out for teams that have hired one-time stars. The most famous example, of course, is Wayne Gretzky’s stint behind the bench of the Arizona Coyotes. Gretzky was some six years removed from his final game as a player when he took the ‘Yotes coaching gig in 2005, but in his four years behind Arizona’s bench, Gretzky’s teams never made the Stanley Cup playoffs once, and he finished his coaching days with a 143-161-24 record. Try as he might, The Great One could not convert his outstanding instincts as a player into coaching success, and he’s far from the only star who met that fate on the coaching front.
That said, the allure of bringing back a recognizable name brand to NHL markets is too great for some organizations to steer clear of. Fan bases that suffer through extended competitive dry spells are desperate for good news, and that’s what a returning star like Alfredsson or Nash would bring to Ottawa and Columbus respectively. Ideally, there should be a meritorious element to any coaching or management hire, but when all other elements are considered equally, teams are likely to go with the name-brand element rather than an otherwise unknown quantity. And there are instances of superstar on-ice talents transitioning to solid off-ice managers – think of Joe Sakic in Colorado. Rob Blake in Los Angeles, or even Brendan Shanahan as team president of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The acclimation of an NHLer from star on-ice force to expert coach is not an easy one. When players were still active competitors, they really ultimately had to only worry about their own performance. The best players – the best leaders – ultimately start caring about their teammates and their franchise in general, but taking on a head coaching job is another kettle of fish altogether. Coaches often feel they have no choice but to be the “bad cop” to their charges, and the bad blood that may ensue from such an approach is not something stars were accustomed to as players. Coaches also have to delegate responsibility, engender trust, and find ways to motivate players in a way they likely didn’t need to be motivated when they were on the other end of the coach/player relationship.
There are so many ways things can go sideways or worse, and that’s why the best NHL coaches and GMs wind up being outstanding jugglers and judges of talent in ways they didn’t need to as players. Longtime San Jose Sharks GM Doug Wilson was a great example of an on-ice star who became an excellent judge of talent and character as the architect of a team. For the most part, hockey lifers who haven’t been stars are the people teams choose to lead them, but in a business in which personal branding has a direct impact on the faith fans and media choose to invest in their favorite franchise, there’s no harm in trying to go with hockey figures the average Joe would recognize on the street.
A GM or coach who once was a Grade-A player is under the same pressures that any other figure would be under in a management role, but fans who remember those former players from their heyday always afford them a little more landing strip to get the job done. That’s the case for many NHL teams now, and that’s going to remain the case both for the rest of this season and the foreseeable future. The reputation you build for yourself as a player can serve as the foundation for you as a coach, GM or team president, and from there, it’s up to you to deliver the same excellent results you delivered when it was you who was being coached and managed.