FFH Round Table: Should Dave Tippett Move on?

Should Dave Tippett move on? This is a highly debated topic at the end of a pretty miserable season. It was also a popular topic with our staff as well. Starting today, we will have our full staff with the round table questions.

Please feel free to join the conversation in the comments.

Those who think he should move on:

Carl Pavlock

At this point, I think it’s time for Tippett to move on from his role of coach. I think that he can work with the youth movement, and his strategy can fit with the team, but at this point, the team has been bad for years and a shakeup is needed.

Michael Z. Morrissey

Absolutely yes. I still think he is a good coach and can succeed with the right tools at his disposal, but he does not have the tools that suit him at the moment. I don’t think he can manage a youth movement and his defense-first mindset will ultimately hold back the development of our young guns, as well as the Coyotes in general.

Taylor Clark

Looking at how this season went, yes. Tippett helped coach a successful youth-driven roster at the World Cup with Team North America, but for some reason, that success hasn’t been seen with the Coyotes. Tippett also seems like he doesn’t want to shake things up too much within the current roster. So maybe as the losing years continue, it’s time to shake things up by removing him as coach.

Zack Zeig

I think Tippett should still have a job come next season, but I don't think it should be as our Bench Boss. He has too much stuff on his mind and he's worried about too much. I believe he should help with developing our youth and just focus on that. I think a new coach should be hired to take over Tippett’s position.

One more year?

Sarah Hall

I’m conflicted on this question. I want to say fire Dave Tippett, but there are no other options that would work for the Coyotes as coach available at the moment. He needs to adapt his defense-first game to allow the skilled forwards to show what they are made of. The new NHL is about speed, skill, and controlled zone entries with the puck.

But, he does deserve a chance to show that he can work with a young team. At one point, the average age of his team was 22.9 years old, which is almost unheard of in the NHL now and Tippett showed us that he can handle young defense while coaching with Team North America. What I’m more concerned about is the special teams coaches and how bad the power play and penalty kill were this season. Tippett will most likely be on a shorter leash than this past year.

Brendan Porter

Just one year into a total rebuild of Arizona’s management structure, the odds of Tippett moving on have to be next to none. That being said, Arizona has finished in the bottom ten in corsi-for percentage three years in a row. Even given the fact that shot attempts are not a perfect predictor of performance (hello, Los Angeles), good teams hold onto the puck more and generate more offense. The Coyotes have not been doing that recently under Tippett. If they underperform next year too, I think it’s fair to wonder if more aggressive changes in coaching are necessary.

Alex or Temsey

I think there are two trains of thought to this question. The first is that Tippett has only been with GM John Chayka for a year and was restricted for a long time under the Maloney regime. He was handicapped by a tight budget and poor free agencies. The other hand says that Tippett has been around for years with minimal results and an 8-point regression from last season. My take is that he should get another year to try and put it together, but if this trend continues, he’s gotta go.

Brandon Sparks

I think it all depends on how his end-of-year conversation goes with Chayka. While I appreciate Tippett’s insistence that all players play hard at both ends of the ice, his defensive orientation to coaching is going to hold back the Domi’s, Dvorak’s, Duclair’s, and Perlini’s, not to mention guys like Jakob Chychrun and Anthony DeAngelo. If he can’t utilize these guys properly, Chayka needs to cut the cord, but if Tippett acknowledges that a change in strategy is warranted and is willing to do it, I say give him another year.

Now that Gerard Gallant is behind the Vegas bench, I don’t see many upgrades available. I also look at a guy like Barry Trotz, who employed a very defensive approach when he was in Nashville (without high octane players), but hasn’t attempted to implement that same style of system in Washington, as evidence that coaches can change. Perhaps Tippett feels that the team simply isn’t talented enough for a run-and-gun style. Our record when outshooting opponents is pretty dismal, so he may have a point. For that reason, I say give him another shot (but put Newell Brown on the next train out of town).

Those who think he should stay:

Joe Versen

Nope, and I don't think he will. Now that the youth movement is in full effect, he can be a valuable asset in John Chayka's grand scheme, both as a coach and as an aid to personnel management.

Tyler Childers

It would be unfair to expect Tippett to move on after last season. Yes, it was disappointing, but at the same time, that's what is to be expected during a rebuild. The team made positive improvements, especially during the second half of the season, and I believe that Tippett had some sort of impact on that.

Jack Harris

I'm still behind Tippett. His dedication to the franchise can't be understated, and he knows more about this team than anybody else in hockey. But beyond that, the Coyotes are never going to be big spenders, or have the most talented players. Tippett, in both his time in Arizona and in Dallas, has proved he can take a less talented team and mesh them into a playoff and title contender.

If he can continue to show his ability to develop young players, I have a hard time seeing any other potential coaching candidates that will have as much of a positive impact as Tippett. If this team finishes third-last again next year, then it's probably time to reevaluate, but the least he has earned is the chance to guide his team back to the playoffs, a feat he is perfectly capable of achieving.

Seth Juneac

The ownership has too much vested in Tippett to ax him less than halfway through his five-year extension. As much as it might have stunk to see Dylan Strome yanked around, Tippett’s earned the benefit of the doubt with Domi, Dvorak, and Perlini’s development to at least give him a fair shake to see how the overall development continues to shake out. I think the front office knew this was a lost year, wanted the young guns to progress, and as the season moved along they did, so what exactly didn’t he accomplish this year? Next year is when I start to hold Tippett accountable for more wins.

Paul Wheeler

Only if he’s unwilling or unable to adapt the Yotes style to the resources they have. This is a team that needs a dynamic coach to go with its system and Tippett isn’t that, or at least hasn’t been so far. Let the leash off and let the kids play.

The problem the NHL has is that coaching is an inherently conservative mindset, and there needs to be new thought and new approaches brought in. Until then, this ‘Yotes team won’t reach its full potential.