David Quinn was fired as the head coach of the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday. The Sharks finished in last place in the NHL and failed to make the playoffs for the fifth time in a row. 54 defeats in the regular season, plus zero progress in the development of some players, all this was signed under the dismissal. The Sharks have not yet announced a successor.
“After going through internal meetings at the end of the season and evaluating where our team is and where we want it to go, we made the difficult decision to make a head coaching change,” said Sharks general manager Mike Grier. “David is a good coach and an even better person. I would like to thank him for his hard work over the past two seasons. He and his team have done an admirable job under difficult circumstances and I sincerely appreciate the way they have handled the whole situation.”
San Jose’s season ended on April 18 with a 1-5 loss to Calgary. Basically, he couldn’t find any positive moment. The Sharks conceded at least seven goals ten times and ten goals twice. They started the season with a 0-10-1 record, the second worst record in NHL history.
However, Grier said the Sharks’ record and performances were not the main reason for the decision.
“It didn’t play a huge role,” Grier said. “It was something I was aware of. But at the same time, going into the season I knew what the roster was like and I didn’t expect us to be a playoff team. The year was a bit worse than expected, but the decision is not only related to performance.”
Grier also added that San Jose will take its time in finding a replacement for Quinn and that he does not have a deadline to stick to.
“We’re going to be thorough about this,” he said. “It’s a pretty important position, so we want to make sure we get the right person in it.”
“It’s part of the post-mortem of the season,” Grier added on when the decision was finally made. “All these things go into it. We talk to the staff, the players, the owner. With everyone who was in the hockey operations department. I would say the decision wasn’t made until this week.’
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