Less the one week after taking over executive vice-president and general manager’s duties, Ron Francis has started to make changes in the Carolina Hurricanes organization. The Hurricanes have fired head coach Kirk Muller, as well as most of his coaching staff.
Also let go are assistant coaches Dave Lewis and John Maclean. Rod Brindamour will remain an assistant coach with the team, while goaltending coach Greg Steffen was re-assigned to the pro scouting department.
“We thank Kirk, John and Dave for their time and effort during the past three seasons,” said Francis in a statement released by the team. “Kirk and his staff worked very hard, but we feel that the team is in need of a fresh start at this time.”
The 48-year-old Muller, compiled a record of 80-80-27 during three seasons with Carolina, but could not get the Hurricanes into the playoffs. He was named head coach on Nov. 28, 2011. It was his first head coaching position in the NHL. Muller was previously an assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens, as well as a head coach in the AHL and in the CIS.
The Hurricanes will now begin a search for a new head coach. It will be interesting to see if former Francis team and Hartford Whaler/Carolina Hurricanes legend Kevin Dineen is one of the candidates for the job. Dineen has NHL coaching experience with the Florida Panthers. He has recently been working for Hockey Canada, coaching the Women’s National Team to Olympic Gold at the Sochi games, and coaching the U18 team to a bronze medal at the U18 World Championships.
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