The search for the 13th head coach in franchise history is underway for the Carolina Hurricanes after Kirk Muller was relieved of his duties Monday, with executive vice president and general manager Ron Francis offering a simple explanation for the decision.
“I just felt at this point going forward we needed a fresh start,” Francis told reporters at a media conference.
Although the Hurricanes finished 10 points out of the final playoff spot in the East with a disappointing 36-35-11 record, Francis feels the vacant head coach position in Carolina is an enticing one for potential candidates.
"I’ve already had some calls and emails today from people wanting to throw their name in the hat, so I think [position is] very attractive,” Francis said.
Francis said the plan is to have someone in place for the June 27 draft and outlined some of the qualities he'd like the new coach to possess.
“The biggest thing I’m looking for is a guy that’s a teacher,” he said. “You have to be accountable as a player, and having someone in that position that holds them accountable wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
While he thinks there's already quality components on the current roster, Francis stressed that the players share the blame with the coaching staff for last season's disappointing performance and that changes to the squad are possible this offseason.
Just because we change coaches doesn’t mean that everything is status quo in the locker room. We do need to evaluate that. We are looking at everything. We do have more meetings starting tomorrow morning going forward to look at all different facets of the organization from how we draft to what type of players we draft to our make-up and how we develop and so on.
