Having noticed who gets hired in the two sports of baseball and hockey I can conclude that baseball and hockey are quite backwards and guilty of the old boys network in terms of hiring practices.
You do not find many assistant coaches getting promoted to head coach or manager in baseball.
They tend to hire the tried and true candidates.
The New York Rangers fired Peter Laviolette recently after two years, one good regular season but ending short of the finals and missing the playoffs the next year. So who do they replace him with? Mike Sullivan of Pittsburgh who was fired recently as well. Yea Sullivan won two cups with Pittsburgh but that was close to a decade ago. But for the Rangers it will work.
It’s a major turnoff for me. Bring in new blood and fresh ideas.
Now you know why Bill Walsh is so revered in NFL circles. He was blocked from getting a job after Paul Brown passed on him to succeed him years ago. He hired minority assistants who would eventually become head coaches.
