Will David Quinn’s second chance benefit the Sharks? Mike Grier is counting on it

When the Sharks needed to hire a general manager for the first time in nearly two decades, the franchise opted for a completely new direction.

Mike Grier is a first-time GM, and one with an intriguing backstory. From his family’s history in pro sports front offices to a post-playing resume that is relatively brief in length but also expansive in variety of duties, Grier offers both hope and the uncertainty of the unknown.

There’s a distinct contrast with his first head coaching hire.

Grier introduced David Quinn on Tuesday as the next coach of the Sharks. He is familiar, both in this role at the NHL level and for his decades-long connection to Grier.

It makes them a fascinating pair. The Sharks have a barrier-breaking GM, and by the definition of the phrase in this sport, a retread coach. Quinn’s first head coaching job in the NHL was not a failure, but he’d also still be coaching the Rangers if it was a success.

“I think he’s had a lot of experience on many different levels, which was something that meant a lot to me,” Grier said, noting that Quinn had “two great interviews” with him and assistant GM Joe Will.

“Hi, I’m David Quinn.”

🎙️ We mic’d up new #SJSharks Head Coach David Quinn as he arrived at SAP Center yesterday. pic.twitter.com/XIxqZcUqKo

— San Jose Sharks (@SanJoseSharks) July 27, 2022

There were individuals who found great success playing for Quinn in New York, but the team’s results were not strong enough for him to survive a tumultuous period for the franchise and ultimately a transition of power.

In another intriguing twist to this story, the man who was general manager of the Rangers when Quinn was fired — fellow Boston University alum Chris Drury — also hired Grier as an adviser seven days later. His one year with the Rangers was a big step toward landing this job in San Jose. Their paths did not cross with the Rangers, but Grier and Quinn have known each other for the better part of three decades.

Quinn’s playing career at BU ended seven years before Grier arrived, but the connections through Jack Parker’s storied program were plentiful. Grier played for Parker with Drury and John Hynes, who is one of Quinn’s closest friends. Hynes also hired Grier as an assistant coach with the Devils when Quinn was across the Hudson River with the Rangers.

Grier said, on multiple occasions, that his past relationship was not a factor in the hiring process. He touted Quinn as the best candidate for the job and for the alignment in how they think the game should be played. The GM did joke that the decision is “just a cherry on top trying to get some more Terriers out West.”

If this hire works, their strong bond in the years before they worked together will probably be lauded. If it does not work out, their previous connection will surely be pointed to as a negative. That’s just sort of how the narrative will likely go in this type of situation.

“I think what was a big factor when we went through the process of how I see the game and how he sees the game,” Grier said. “They kind of mesh well. That’s not to say that we won’t push and challenge each other if we see things differently, to help us get better and move forward.”

It is worth noting the tone Grier took a couple of times Tuesday. While Grier’s ability as an NHL GM was a mystery when he was hired, there are already preconceived notions about how Quinn coaches at the NHL level.

His new boss defended him, pretty aggressively, on a couple of those points. Particularly how Quinn handled the Rangers’ top young players who weren’t named Adam Fox during his tenure.

“Whether you’re an 18-year-old kid in the league or a 35-year-old, accountability is for everyone,” Grier said after Quinn spoke at length about his philosophy of being tough but fair with young players. “When you’re in the dressing room, you know when someone isn’t being held to the same standard as everyone else. … Some of the stuff that is out there about the Rangers, I don’t think it is fair in that regard.”

Quinn was fired after three seasons in New York, a tenure that began during a full-fledged rebuilding process but expectations quickly changed after the Rangers landed premier free agent Artemi Panarin, Fox became a Norris Trophy-winning defenseman and Igor Shesterkin made the club’s transition away from late-career Henrik Lundqvist an upgrade in net.

Tony DeAngelo became a breakout star one year, then rivaled Evander Kane as one of the most contentious presences in an NHL dressing room the next. Panarin was a legitimate MVP candidate in his first year with the team. He missed a chunk of the second because he needed a leave of absence.

It wasn’t a standard-issue “first-time NHL coach loses a lot of games, gets fired” scenario.

“I think guys are always for the most part better in their second job,” Grier said. “I think he’s a better coach for that Ranger experience. And we have some big personalities on our team. You look at the guys he had to deal with in New York. Panarin was third in the MVP voting when (Quinn) was coaching. Adam Fox won the Norris. Mika (Zibanejad) had his best season I think up until maybe this year. He ended up passing that with this playoff performance, but he had his best season under (Quinn). So he gets the most out of his best players. He knows how to manage his best players. And he believes in some of the player development principles that I believe in.”

That was one of the most interesting soundbites from Quinn’s opening news conference. Is Grier right? Do second-time NHL head coaches typically get better?

This is far from an exhaustive study, but there are 16 other current NHL head coaches who have run at least two teams in this league. How do their first two tenures compare?

We looked at two barometers — points percentage during the regular season and playoff appearances.

Neither of those is a perfect metric. Every coach is in a different situation.

Sheldon Keefe has a wonderful regular-season record and hasn’t missed the playoffs in Toronto. He could move on to a second job someday, collect fewer regular-season points and still consider it a bigger success.

Meanwhile, Peter Laviolette made the playoffs one time with the Carolina Hurricanes, but there is a Stanley Cup championship banner hanging in Raleigh. How we measure success can vary from coach to coach based on expectations.

Twelve of the 16 coaches in that chart above had better regular-season success in their second stop, though Lindy Ruff’s improvement was the equivalent of a few extra overtime/shootout wins. Bruce Boudreau had worse regular-season numbers but more postseason success. John Tortorella won more games in New York but he won a ring at his first stop with Tampa Bay.

Generally speaking, you can say Grier’s hypothesis, at least among current coaches in the salary-cap era, checks out. Look a little closer, and the genesis of his thought process makes more sense.

Who are the three coaches in that group of 16 that Grier likely knows best besides Quinn? One is Hynes, who has made the playoffs all three seasons in Nashville. One is Mike Sullivan, another New England native/BU Alum.

Sullivan is a best-case scenario for Quinn’s career arc. His first run with the Boston Bruins ended quickly. His second job has likely earned him a future spot in the Hockey Hall of Fame, with multiple championships and an extended run as an annual Jack Adams Award contender.

The third guy is Bruce Cassidy, who had a rough first coaching experience with the Washington Capitals before helping the Bruins to the Cup Final in 2019 and winning the Jack Adams in 2020. Anyone want to guess who was Grier’s coach when he played for the Capitals?

None of that means that Quinn is definitely going to work out in San Jose. Sullivan’s second chance has included writing names like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang on the lineup sheet most games. Cassidy probably did improve as a coach, but going from a disinterested Jaromir Jagr and a dysfunctional roster to Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand and company also certainly helped.

Expecting Quinn to be the second coming of Sullivan, or even Cassidy, is not fair, given the state of the Sharks roster. Can he mimic Hynes’ results? That would be an improvement from the past three seasons, and considered a big success for a lot of people around the league (though maybe not for the portion of the fan base that wants the club to completely revamp the roster to try to build a consistent Stanley Cup contender years from now).

The Predators were better in the years previous to Hynes’ arrival than the Sharks have been before Quinn, but the Nashville roster was aging and headlined by a couple of questionable contracts. The calls for a rebuild were there too.

One of the key things Quinn said Tuesday is he wants to help squeeze a little more out of everyone on the roster, including the top players. He doesn’t want to ask a depth player to suddenly be a front-line scorer, but incremental improvements from everyone could get them where he wants them to go.

That’s what Hynes did in Nashville. All of the Predators’ top players either had career highs in goals, points or production on a per game basis. None of them was particularly drastic, but everyone was better.

That might be harder to do without Brent Burns around, both because of his consistent production and ability to help the forwards find more offense as well. It would almost certainly mean a monster season from Erik Karlsson, which means staying healthy and playing more consistently at the high-end level he did for part of last season. For any concerns about how certain players performed or developed with Quinn in charge for the Rangers, Fox and DeAngelo produced at elite levels for an offensive defenseman.

Grier has already added a handful of NHL veterans who play the style of hockey he and Quinn are going to want to see in San Jose. It might not be a coincidence that two of those additions, Luke Kunin and Matt Benning, played for Hynes in Nashville.

“You have to coach the team you have,” Quinn said. “I used to say this when I was with the Rangers — I wouldn’t coach the New York Islanders the same way I coach the New York Rangers, because we were just completely differently built. There are things from a coaching standpoint, you have standards and you have coaching DNA that I like to call it that will never change. But I think you also have to have adaptability with the roster you have. So there are going to be certain things that we demand here that we did with the Rangers, but there may be a little bit of a different approach with some of the things that we do or don’t do based on our personnel.”

(Photo: Kevin Hoffman / USA Today)