Yesterday, the Boston Bruins announced that Head Coach Claude Julien would be back for another season in Beantown.
Normally such an announcement wouldn’t be of much consequence to the Ottawa Senators but this was obviously a pretty significant development. It was sort of known that Claude Julien would be at the top of Ottawa’s list if he was let go in Boston.
Whether or not the Senators would have been able to afford him is another issue entirely but the Sens were definitely interested.
So with Julien no longer available, Pierre Dorion and his staff will turn their attention to some of the other names already on the market. And while it’s fairly early in the process, it seems like former Minnesota Wild Head Coach Mike Yeo is among the early favourites for the job in Ottawa.
In five seasons behind the Minnesota bench, Yeo put up a 173-132-44 record. He led the Wild to the playoffs in four of his five seasons with the Wild.
Darren Dreger was on TSN yesterday and mentioned that Yeo has emerged as a top candidate. Bruce Garrioch echoed that interest in his column this morning.
To be honest, I get the sense that it’s still a little bit early in this process to be labeling anyone as the favourite. If Julien was available he would be a slam-dunk but at this point, I think it’s wide open.
Sounds like the Senators plan to interview multiple candidates and are going into the process with an open mind.
The Draft has been set as a tentative timeline for the hire but I expect it to happen well before that.
