Tips lose their coach

Published 9:00 pm Monday, May 28, 2007

Whew, what a whirlwind evening this has been. So Kevin Constantine is no longer Everett’s head coach. He’s taken the head coaching job of the Houston Aeros, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. It seems to have taken everyone by surprise, including me, as I had no advance indications anything was going down, and I didn’t hear a single peep of a rumor during my trips up to the Memorial Cup. But I’m not surprised it went down this way. Constantine’s always been pretty private when it comes to things like this.

There’s no question Constantine was an unqualified success during his time in Everett. When he first arrived in 2003, the scuttlebutt around the league was that the Tips were going to be awful, and many questioned the wisdom of putting an expansion team in Everett, a town with no hockey history or infrastructure. Well, the Tips became a sensation, accomplishing things no expansion team ever had before in the WHL, and Constantine played as big a role as anyone in those achievements, moulding a bunch of expansion players into a unit that was far greater than the sum of its parts. To this day I still can’t believe some of the things I witnessed that first season, and ever since the Tips have been one of the better teams in the league, so he’s certainly earned his return to the professional ranks. In many respects I’m surprised it’s taken this long for him to get back on the path to the NHL.

There’s naturally going to be some speculation that Constantine was looking to get out. He had some power taken away when Doug Soetaert returned as general manager prior to the season, and of course he has a history in the NHL. For what it’s worth, Constantine has always maintained he’s never pursued an NHL job — he says he was approached by Minnesota and not the other way around — and when asked he said the loss of power on Soetaert’s return played no role in the move. He was very adamant that having better access to his two kids who live in Minnesota was a huge factor, and having seen him interacting with his kids I fully believe that.

The players will probably have many different feelings about Constantine’s departure. On one hand, Constantine is a very demanding coach, can be somewhat abrasive in his coaching style, and his systems don’t always allow offensive players the full freedom they desire. On the other hand, his teams win, he’s found ways of getting the most out of players, and the players really seem to like him on a personal level. I know Constantine has the reputation of being this fiery, ultra-intense character. But off the ice he’s different, and I suspect his players feel more comfortable joking around with him than, say, Red Deer’s players would feel joking around with Brent Sutter.

So what happens now? It would seem that it’s all set up for associate head coach John Becanic to step in as the head coach. Becanic was being groomed even before the trio of Constantine, Becanic and Jay Varady arrived in Everett. During their two years with the USHL’s Pittsburgh Forge, Constantine was the head coach the first year with Becanic as the assistant, then Constantine moved into the front office the second year with Becanic taking over as the head coach. When Becanic was promoted to Everett’s associate head coach prior to the 2005-06 season, it seemed a precursor to just such a situation. However, there are other angles to consider. First of all, I’m sure Constantine would love to take Becanic and Varady with him to Houston, given the rapport the three have developed since their time in Pittsburgh. Secondly, does Soetaert want to change direction at all, maybe open things up and allow for a more offensive style of play? If so, is Becanic, a Constantine diciple, the right man for the job?

I guess we’ll all find out soon enough.