In yesterday’s 32 Thoughts Podcast Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek ended the show talking about former Islanders coach Barry Trotz and how the unexpected firing came to be. In the course of the discussion Marek asked Friedman (at 41:24 mark) if he thinks this “is the road Winnipeg goes down?”.
Friedman responded as follows:
“I think they will be interested for sure. By the way there’s another guy out there who has some Winnipeg connections who someone put in my ear and that was Alain Vigneault. And I am curious to see if he wants to coach again because it ended obviously very badly in Philadelphia and I’ve heard at times this year that Vigneault would like another chance to prove that wasn’t all on him. And he has Winnipeg ties right, he coached the Moose there. But that was another name I heard. I do think Winnipeg will want to talk to Trotz. I mean why wouldn’t they?”
Of course he then went on to say he’s had people tell him they would be shocked if Philadelphia didn’t “back up the Brinks truck” to try and get Trotz for the Flyers.
Vigneault spent one season in Winnipeg when he coached the Moose 1.0 in 2005-06 to a 44-24-12 record. He went on to coach the parent club in Vancouver for the next seven seasons which included a Stanley Cup Finals loss to the Bruins in 2010-11. Then five seasons with the Rangers and the last three with the Flyers.
