In my humble observation, from watching him in games on TV, I believe Jon Cooper is one of the top NHL coaches. Brad Shaw seems to have the same persona. I have some Canadian friends and I’d posit that it’s uniquely Canadian. They tend to be soft spoken, they don’t try to overtly impress anyone, but do not push the wrong button as they are capable of responding violently if the situation requires it. It’s easy to mistake the soft speaking for a lack of a steel spine. Shaw played in the NHL for a number of years as an offensively minded defenseman, which means a lot when communicating with players as he knows what it’s like on the ice as a player.

Shaw would be a great hire for the Flyers in their current state. The players love and respect him. As pointed out so well in this post, Shaw seems to meet Briere’s criteria, and even better, they know what they’ll have as a coach.

That said, it would be foolish for Briere to not take the opportunity to meet with other coaching candidates, if for no other reason than to get other opinions on players, systems, and overall outlook.

Charlie, what are the chances the Flyers would keep Shaw as HC but bring in one of the hotshot college coaches (like Carle) as his assistant with the implicit guarantee that they’d take over the HC job in a couple years?

Shaw seems like a lovely guy and his work with the defensemen is a reason i too would strongly love to have him stay on with the Flyers.

But the thing about being the boss – there is no single formula that works for everyone. And even for the same player, how you handle them as a rookie is going to be different from how you handle them when they are a few years older.

And a HC is different from a position coach. It is all good to be warm and fuzzy when everything is going well or when you are only responsible for a very specific task. However, it is very different when the buck stops with you re the overall results. One lesson i have learned from working with some top CEOs and running my own company with 50+ employees is that your goal isnt to be everyone’s friend: it is to maximize performance.

In general, i do think that overly negative environments are not productive places in the long run, and a happy workplace is a productive workplace. However, there are limits to that, and taken too far, it can be counterproductive. “Demanding but reasonable & fair” would be a better description for the type of workplace that is a professional sports team. And there, the coach has to be able to provide both the carrot and the stick. It is hard to do that while being their BFF.

A last thought: many of us extrapolate our own workplace environments when we think of coaches. But it is worth remembering that a professional athlete is a very different beast from regular schmucks like us, in terms of motivation to excel. Give them a path that clearly makes them better, and they will take to it like a duck to water, regardless of how it is messaged.

There was some debate on the show about losing Shaw if they hire him as HC and eventually have to fire him. If he gets hired as HC, or even if another guy is hired as HC and either of them end up getting fired in three years, there is a chance Danny is going with them. In three years, this team should be getting to the point where they are considered contenders. If they aren’t, we will have much bigger issues than Shaw. I would have no issues with Shaw as HC, and I know that the brass will do their homework on potential hires. If the NFL has taught us anything about coaches, its not always the flashy names that end up finding success (Exhibit A: Doug Pederson, Exhibit B: Nick Sirianni). We might be selling Shaw short to think of him as the Flyers Jeff Stoutland.