Gambo: Gretzky era over, Tippett hungry to coach
Sep 24, 2009, 4:43 PM | Updated: Jan 14, 2011, 4:21 pm
Now that the Wayne Gretzky era is mercifully over in Phoenix it is time for the Coyotes to turn the team over to a real NHL coach and that coach will be Dave Tippett according to my sources.
Tippett is a solid NHL coach, a career coach with a good structure, a plan and also a former player who spent 11 years in the NHL. He spent six seasons as the head coach of the Dallas Stars and had a very good record 271-156-28-37.
Tippett is a close personal friend of Coyotes assistant coach Ulf Samuelson. He also has two years left on his Dallas contract which makes his timing of returning to the league a little curious. With the uncertainty surrounding the Coyotes and his current Stars contract, Tippett is coming back not for the money but because he is hungry to coach again.
The Coyotes had also been considering Peter Laviolette who coached the New York Islanders and Carolina Hurricanes and was very high on General Manager Don Maloney’s list.
