SAN JOSE — Two hockey analysts with ties to the Sharks have very different ideas about what general manager Doug Wilson should be seeking in his next coach.
“A coach is going to have to be able to come in there and be a fence-mender a little bit,” said Drew Remenda, longtime Sharks broadcaster until this season and a onetime assistant coach for the team. “The coach coming in, he’ll be solid in X’s and O’s — and everybody who gets a shot is — but his communication skills are key.”
NBC analyst and former Sharks forward Jeremy Roenick suggested Wilson should hire someone a bit rough around the edges to replace Todd McLellan, who left the team by mutual agreement last week.
“They need someone with a firm hand, someone who is not afraid to challenge the players verbally,” said Roenick, who played one season for McLellan in San Jose. “I thought Todd was a great player’s coach. If there was one thing that I wish he did more was be a little bit more verbal and vocal on a fiercer side.”
There are some players, he added, “that need to be motivated, that need to be kicked in the ass on more of a regular basis. When they disappear for four or five games, it’s not acceptable.”
Wilson was short on specifics last week when asked what he is seeking in McLellan’s successor other than to say he wanted someone whose puck-possession style meshes with the current roster.
Asked, for example, if he was looking for a disciplinarian, Wilson responded: “I’m not going to exclude anything.”
There is no shortage of unemployed former NHL coaches available.
The gambling website Bovada.lv lists former Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Bylsma as the 5-to-2 favorite to land the Sharks job. Bylsma’s name came up in November with reports — vehemently denied by Wilson — that he already had been approached about the job.
Bylsma, as well as John Tortorella and Randy Carlyle — two other former coaches looking for work — have won Stanley Cups, a priority for Wilson in his hiring of McLellan and acquisition of players from Dan Boyle to Tyler Kennedy. Others out of work with NHL head-coaching experience include Kevin Dineen, Paul MacLean and Peter DeBoer.
According to other NHL analysts, the most important thing for Wilson to find is a coach whose message to players, young and old, is credible.
“When you go and stand in front of a group of players, the players need to believe in what you’re telling them,” said former Calgary Flames general manager Craig Button, who works for the NHL Network and TSN. “It’s not about yelling at them, or being a hard ass or being a player’s coach. It’s about the message you have and do they believe in it?”
In San Jose’s case, he noted, the Pacific Division competition is intensifying.
“I think you need a coach that can help that team move forward, whether it be Joe Thornton or Tomas Hertl or the next group of young players coming through.”
And Button offered cautionary words to whomever does get the job: “I don’t think it’ll be an easy task following Todd McLellan. I do believe he is one of the league’s best coaches.”
Jamie McLennan, a former NHL goalie now with TSN and the NHL Network, said, “The biggest thing you need is a fresh voice where the players will buy into it. Not that they weren’t buying into Todd, but I think eventually sometimes the message just falls on deaf ears.
“Players need to own that. Any time a coach parts ways, that falls on the players,” added McLennan, who played for McLellan when both were with Houston in the AHL.
Remenda, who lost his job in San Jose a year ago and now broadcasts Edmonton Oilers games, has continued to follow San Jose’s ongoing drama.
For the team to get back on track, he said, “Everybody in that organization is going to have to check their egos at the door and reconnect for a common purpose.”
Does Remenda think Wilson needs to hire a big name to satisfy the Sharks’ fan base?
“I don’t think it has to be a name,” Remenda said, “but it has to be a résumé. Sharks fans are smart enough to know that things have changed with the team.”
Wilson interviewed 21 candidates before hiring McLellan, so it’s not unreasonable to suggest that this coaching search will be extensive.
Wherever it ends, at least one Sharks player won’t mind if the new coach shares some characteristics of the old coach.
“Obviously he has to be a leader, and a lot of the same things Todd had,” Patrick Marleau said. “Leader, motivator, great hockey sense, knows the game. I think you have to be personable. You’ve got to know how to treat each individual player, you just can’t treat everybody as a group. You’ve got to be able to build relationships with everybody.”
For more on the Sharks, see the Working the Corners blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/sharks. Follow Curtis Pashelka on Twitter at twitter.com/CurtisPashelka, and David Pollak at twitter.com/PollakOnSharks.
