Todd McLellan safe? Sharks GM telling owners he wants coach back
The San Jose Sharks became just the fourth team in NHL history to be “reverse swept,” allowing a team that had under their collective thumb down 0-3 to rally for the 4-3 series win.
Big changes were expected. If the team’s general manager has his way, one of them will not be his head coach, according to CSN Bay Area’s Kevin Kurz:
Todd McLellan’s job as the head coach of the San Jose Sharks appears to be safe. Doug Wilson will recommend to team ownership that McLellan and the team’s staff remain in place, the general manager revealed on Friday. It’s believed McLellan has two years remaining on his contract.
McLellan took full responsibility for the playoff disaster. “I’m in charge, I’m responsible for the group that performs on the ice. I have to accept that responsibility,” he told Working The Corners. “When we break down the series, I’m not going to throw any individuals or group of individuals under the bus, because we lost it collectively. But I’m responsible for that group.’’
Of course, the key here is that it’s Wilson petitioning for McLellan’s job, and there’s no guarantee Wilson will return as general manager.
The Sharks have been eliminated in the first round of the playoffs twice in the last three years. The lengthy contracts Wilson handed out to the team’s core make them nearly untradeable – given they all have no-trade clauses. Depending on how ownership reacts to this historic playoff choke, Wilson’s job could be on the line, too.
But from the sounds of things, San Jose will stay the course after their playoff flop at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings, hoping for the same success that arrived for the Boston Bruins in 2011 after the Flyers did the reverse sweep thing in 2010.
Should be easy; they just need to find a Zdeno Chara and a Patrice Bergeron and a healthy David Krejci and a pre-freakout Tim Thomas and a Nathan Horton to score in overtime and …
