What the coaching overturn means for the Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators fired head coach Peter Laviolette on Monday and has hired former Devils coach John Hynes to replace him.

Things move quickly in Nashville as the Nashville Predators fired head coach Peter Laviolette on Monday and less than 24 hours later have a new coach to run the show.

The new man on the job is former New Jersey Devils coach John Hynes. He was fired in December by the Devils and now will be the man looking to turn the Predators season around. The hiring comes right before the Preds’ next game against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night.

There was hope that starting at the Winter Classic that Laviolette would turn things around, but that did not happen. The Predators have struggled with consistency all year, and now the Preds have a new coach because of it.

General Manager David Poile isn’t one to fire coaches midseason, either, so that has to bring up the question, is there something going on inside the locker room that we don’t know about?

Just last week, Poile said he wasn’t looking to fire Laviolette, so something has changed over the past week for him to change his mind.

Hynes is an interesting choice for his replacement with his firing coming this past December. Instead of promoting from within, Poile went outside the box and hired a pretty average coach to take over a pretty average team.

Poile seems to be sold on him, though, and he knows more than me as an NHL GM. I don’t think it’s a great hire, but he can prove me wrong. The Preds haven’t proved me wrong too often this season except for early in the season when I said they’d be good throughout the 2019-20 season.

"“John Hynes is bright young coach and great leader who has a track record of both effectively developing young players and successfully motivating veterans,” David Poile said. “We love his coaching résumé and are confident that he has learned from every stop during his career, and has the best skill set to get the maximum potential out of our team.”"

So what all does this mean for the future of the Predators? Well, the back half of this season will be Hynes’ opportunity to prove to the front office that he’s worth their time and a long-term contract.

If Hynes can get the Predators to the playoffs and maybe even to the second round, then I think that could do it. Otherwise, he’s a lame duck interim that will get the Preds to the end of the regular season where he will be dismissed, and the real coaching search will begin.

This hiring could bring some energy to the Preds and offer some new motivation to win. I don’t think there’s any better motivation than trying to keep your head coach of six years without getting fired, but that didn’t work, so maybe an interim will.

We see this in football, where an interim coach gives the team a boost. It’s not exactly the same in hockey, but it could happen (fingers crossed).

On the other hand, the Preds could be sellers at the trade deadline and tank the rest of the season. Honestly, I’d be fine with either as long as we do a good job with whichever they choose.

It’s not like the Predators hired an elite head coach. Hynes is 150-159-45 in his career. He’s not a great coach. He’s had some good seasons in his career, but he’s never been an outstanding coach.

Laviolette is currently 248-143-60 in his NHL coaching career. If we’re picking coaches based on merit then I’d rather keep Laviolette, but there are a lot of unknowns right now and questions that need to be answered.

We might learn some answers on Tuesday night when Hynes makes his Predators coaching debut, and we will obviously learn everything we’ll need to know by the trade deadline.