McLellan has been a head coach in the league for each of the past 16 seasons – all out west – with San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles.
When examining the list of available free agents to fill the Ottawa Senators’ coaching void at season’s end, it would behoove GM Steve Staios to look at the one with the most seasons as an NHL head coach.
Todd McLellan has 15 plus years as an NHL bench boss, which trumps Craig Berube and Dean Evason among coaches who have worked in the league recently. If you add the 11 years in the CHL/AHL, you're talking about someone who has managed to stay relevant as a head coach for over a quarter of a century.
McLellan's shortest head coaching tenure was in Edmonton with three plus seasons. In terms of staying power, this is critical. It may take at least the remainder of Brady Tkachuk’s contract (four seasons) for the Senators to become a serious Stanley Cup threat.
Like Berube and Evason, it was a surprise to see McLellan on the unemployment line mid-season. In his case, even more so, given the incredible start that the Kings had this season (16-4-3). He seemed poised to lead them into the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
Like Evason, McLellan's NHL coaching resume is far more impressive as a regular season head coach. Although he does bring an AHL Calder Cup championship and two trips to the NHL Western Conference Final to the table.
What can’t help but be noticed is that since those conference final runs in 2010 and 2011, McLellan’s teams have two playoff series wins in six trips to the dance. Has McLellan learned from his failures as a head coach? This is a question that would need to be addressed during the interview process.
His playing resume (5 career NHL games) won’t necessarily work against him, though he has far fewer stories to tell than the likes of Berube and Evason. If he weren’t an effective communicator, it would have revealed itself before now.
This really comes down to looking at the teams he's had to work with before and how well he got them to perform.
The Kings aren’t the most talent-laden team in the Western Conference but they are deep down the middle with Kopitar, Dubois and Danault. Their key is structure and playing hard. They obviously felt their time was now with the Dubois trade. And though his production hasn’t been great, McLellan’s goalie-friendly system was making Cam Talbot look like a viable starter again.
It would be very important to understand what happened in LA and how things got off the rails. Of course, the Kings are on the cusp of falling out of a playoff spot now. Perhaps this isn’t the roster everyone thought it was.
In San Jose, McLellan had Thornton, Marleau, Heatley, Pavelski, Boyle and Couture. He had early McDavid, Draisaitl, RNH and even a younger Cam Talbot in Edmonton.
McLellan has driven the Formula One car and had some measure of success. His resume is worth talking about. That said, after 15 plus seasons of driving those cars, it makes one wonder why he never made it to a Cup Final. What more did he need to get it done?
Staios can’t be wrong about this selection, and he needs to ask himself if recycling someone who appears to have been given ample opportunity is the way to go.
In McLellan’s defence, he did coach the Canadian IIHF World Championship team to a gold medal in 2015 with a 10-0 record in the tournament. This is short-term success, but it is winning, it is recent, and he was driving a Formula One car.
The question isn’t whether McLellan can coach in the league. The answer is obviously yes. The question is can he win in the league?
It will be interesting to see if McLellan is asked to do another tour of duty by new Canadian GM Rick Nash. Berube and Evason have never filled that role and they're available as well.
Has McLellan run out of NHL coaching runway? That's the key question that needs answering.