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Adam Nicholas Hired Director Hockey Development


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It beats me whether this is a good hire per se - the guy clearly has the credentials - but what’s even more important is that the Habs created this position in the first place.

 

It’s kind of depressing to read how the organization atrophied under old-school thinking, even as other franchises were moving forward. Believe it or not, there was a time when the Montreal Canadiens were the cutting-edge organization, schooling all the plodders. That hasn’t been the case since Sam Pollock left, really; ever since then we’ve been the Hockey Old Guard left scrambling to catch up. I loved Serge Savard as GM, but he was way behind the curve when it came to scouting Europe. The only innovation Houle brought was to blaze new trails of incompetence. Gainey brought the franchise back to a high level of competence after it had been gutted, but he was a conservative guy, no forward-looking organizational innovator. Goat was Goat (although under him and Jacques Martin the organization actually did do some innovative things, like having no captain, and developing a unique shot-blocking defensive philosophy which actually set the tone around the league for a few years). I originally thought MB would be a progressive new NHL type, but he revealed himself over time to be even more reactionary than his predecessors. 

 

So, at least Hugh-Gort is committed to catching up to current best practice. 👍 Time will tell whether this will evolve into them being the ones doing the innovating, which is where I think the Montreal Canadiens should be.

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Just hope that he is not a one-man operation.

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I think the Habs are gearing towards adding some more skills coaches which is what Nicholas will head up.  They'll be the ones charged with developing an individualized development plan for each prospect and working with them on specific areas in the offseason.  The player development coaches (Ramage/Bouillon) will be the ones that continue to check in on the players throughout the season when they don't have the ability to work with those skills coaches as frequently (since they'll be working with the coaches for their junior/college/international team) and assess their improvement/adherence to that plan.

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This makes me very optimistic that we're finally implementing a modern developmental program. Hopefully we'll go from one of if not the most backward-looking franchises in the league to the cutting edge. We should be outspending everyone besides Toronto on scouting and development.

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Maybe he is a reason Sean Farrell seems to be exceeding draft day expectations. 

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8 hours ago, tomh009 said:

So, if Nicholas (Hockey Development) works on improving player skills, what will Ramage (Player Development) do?

 

For some reason that reminds me of the question and answer for what's the difference between a alligator and a crocodile?    One you will see later and the other you'll see in a while.     

 

Both positions seem to be basically identical with very little difference.  

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1 hour ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

For some reason that reminds me of the question and answer for what's the difference between a alligator and a crocodile?    One you will see later and the other you'll see in a while.     

 

Both positions seem to be basically identical with very little difference.  

 

The difference strikes me that the hockey development work is very "micro", developing specific skills ... while player development is more "macro" as it focuses on the overall development of the player, which includes things beyond specific skills.

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1 hour ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

 

For some reason that reminds me of the question and answer for what's the difference between a alligator and a crocodile?    One you will see later and the other you'll see in a while.     

 

Both positions seem to be basically identical with very little difference.  

 

One is individual skill focused, one is team building focused.

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to be fair, MB changed the Habs a lot. He brought in more scouts, hired the best goalie coach and started doing European evaluation camps. Sly's record in the AHL was atrocious and development suffered but he did hire a bunch of people and expanded the operations significantly.

 

During the summers, sometimes he hired skating coaches to work with some players, a lady figure skater expert but those were off-season moves for the most part and depended on the players being open to it.

 

I think that the hiring of a mental health of sports psychologist came when Eller was here, and it became a permanent position.

 

Waite (the former goalie coach) has said that at the time he joined, the Bruins were really old school and the Habs were progressive.

 

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1 hour ago, alfredoh2009 said:

to be fair, MB changed the Habs a lot. He brought in more scouts, hired the best goalie coach and started doing European evaluation camps. Sly's record in the AHL was atrocious and development suffered but he did hire a bunch of people and expanded the operations significantly.

 

During the summers, sometimes he hired skating coaches to work with some players, a lady figure skater expert but those were off-season moves for the most part and depended on the players being open to it.

 

I think that the hiring of a mental health of sports psychologist came when Eller was here, and it became a permanent position.

 

Waite (the former goalie coach) has said that at the time he joined, the Bruins were really old school and the Habs were progressive.

 

He brought in his buddies from when he was growing up, or in the NHL, and than left a guy like Lefebve in his job hen he should have never been hired, or at least  fired after year 2.

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3 hours ago, hab29RETIRED said:

He brought in his buddies from when he was growing up, or in the NHL, and than left a guy like Lefebve in his job hen he should have never been hired, or at least  fired after year 2.

You got that wrong on MB

 

Lefèvre was given a chance after going through the Hamilton to St-John to Laval moves. 

 

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14 minutes ago, alfredoh2009 said:

You got that wrong on MB

 

Lefèvre was given a chance after going through the Hamilton to St-John to Laval moves. 

 

Ah, no. Lefebve was hired in 2012 by MB. The two grow up playing together as teens or junior.

 

o know the team want in Laval when he was hired. But he was hired by MB to be head coach of the AHL team.

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