Predators' cap constraints frustrated young Trotz
/Barry Trotz has been making the rounds in the media since being hired this week as the head coach of the Washington Capitals. He joined Prime Time Sports on Sportsnet 590 The FAN Wednesday afternoon.
He discussed his plans to earn Alex Ovechkin's trust, coaching philosophies, keeping the Capitals scoring, being let go by the Nashville Predators, and more.
He transitioned from an excellent answer on what he thought he knew as a young coach in this league to what he actually learned as the years went on into being asked about the financial constraints on the Predators and if it became frustrating to him as a bench boss:
"At times it did... where it really was frustrating at times was maybe free agency. You know, as a coach you go, 'Man, I'd really like to add this player to our lineup.' And you can't do it because it's not in the budget or they didn't want to come because that free agent's going, 'We need to spend to the cap, I want to make sure you'll have players that'll be surrounding me.'
"As a coach that became, I think early, a little frustrating because you're trying to find your way. As you got older, I just realized it really doesn't matter. My job's to coach and the challenge became can I get it done with a small cap team in a market - and I thought the thing we were able to do, and this gets to the whole organization, our scouts, our minor league system, David Poile, everybody, is that we didn't use it as an excuse. We said let's make our way into the playoffs. Let's try to win the Cup. It can be done.
"But one of the things you run into is that you get the stars, when we crank it up to what they call that extra high level, you don't have an ability to match that sometimes. So it's very difficult sometimes when you get matched up there and you're a player or two short - a line short, if you will sometimes, to really taking that extra long run. You can knock off teams for a short period, but over the long haul I think it gets a little bit frustrating.
"We developed a lot of good players there and it's a great hockey town. I was there a long time. My legacy in Nashville is I think I made an expansion team competitive, but more importantly, took our great game of hockey and was able to bring it to a very non-traditional, maybe even a non-stable market, and made it a really good market. One that the NHL should be proud of."
On if finding a team that was a deep pocket, cap team was at the top of his priority list in searching for his next head coaching gig:
"No, it wasn't. It was probably the one thing that I didn't even care about because I hadn't been with a sort of high-spending cap team. So it wasn't a big priority."