Edmonton Oilers coach Pat Quinn (C) and his players react to losing to the Calgary Flames near the end of the third period of their NHL hockey game in Calgary, December 31, 2009.TODD KOROL/Reuters
As promotions go, Pat Quinn figured his was as good as a firing.
Instead of returning to the Edmonton Oilers as their head coach for the 2010-11 NHL season, the 67-year-old veteran hockey man was given a new title Tuesday - senior advisor.
He did his best to take it well.
"I had been looking forward to coaching the team next year,|" Quinn said in a conference call with reporters. "The decision was made they'd have a place for me. Is it a promotion? I'd say not ... I believed I was the best guy for the job and I believed I was the best guy going forward with the job."
Quinn, along with three other assistants, including newly named head coach Tom Renney, guided the Oilers to a 30th-place finish last season, the worst showing in franchise history. Contributing to the team's downfall was a series of injuries to forward Ales Hemsky, goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and defenceman Sheldon Souray.
Quinn's take was that no one could have foreseen Edmonton's run of misfortune and commented, "We weren't a deep enough organization to overcome it." Riddled by those injuries, the Oilers coaches focused on developing the players they had and tried "to change the culture in the locker room. We need to hold the players even more accountable," Quinn added.
The decision to oust Quinn as coach was dropped on him on Sunday. While he thought about leaving the organization to pursue a coaching job elsewhere, he decided to stay to work towards improving an Oiler team that will pick first in this week's NHL entry draft.
Oilers general manager Steve Tambellini said there had always been a succession plan that would see Renney replace Quinn. But he acknowledged Tuesday the plan had been accelerated.
"We spoke last year about bringing these two men in with a wealth of experience in winning, teaching, credibility and leadership," Tambellini said. "When you look at a plan that was in place when I discussed with Pat before he came here as far as a succession plan, the idea, for me, was that after year two I would ask him to take this position as senior hockey advisor."
But Tambellini opted to change the plan after a disappointing first season.
"Obviously, with what happened this year, in regard to the depth of our organization, the fact that we're rebuilding the Oilers, the fact that we're going to be young, it made sense to me over the last couple of months when I'd been thinking about this, and how we want to do this, our plan is basically being accelerated by one year," said Tambellini.
Quinn noted every good organization has a succession plan and insisted, "Whether they told Tom that [he'd be taking over as head coach in a year's time] I don't have any knowledge of that.
"I felt my contribution to the Oilers was to be as a coach. I considered walking away. I made a commitment to them. It's part of my honour to [honour]that."
The Oilers posted a 27-47-8 record last season, 12 points back of 29th-place Toronto and 33 points out of a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Edmonton won just 18 games on home ice at Rexall Place and nine on the road.
"Certainly it's a disappointment," said Quinn. "The frustration is not moving the kids along faster than we were doing. We saw some success ... It was up and down."