A year after feeling the burn of the hot seat following his team’s seventh-place regular season finish and first-round exit at the hands of St. Louis, it appears that Sharks head coach Todd McLellan will hold onto his seat for a while longer. According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the San Jose Sharks have awarded McLellan with a contract extension.
No surprise, the San Jose Sharks have wisely extended Todd McLellan’s contract as head coach.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 12, 2013
This, of course, comes after a more successful campaign in which the Sharks forced a Game 7 against defending champion Los Angeles in the Conference Semifinals. It was also a season in which McLellan’s mid-March decision to convert defenseman Brent Burns into a forward while subsequently moving Joe Pavelski back into the third-line center role in which he had previously excelled arguably, in conjunction with the club’s trade deadline moves, saved the floundering Sharks from missing the playoffs all together. General manager Doug Wilson had already confirmed the return of McLellan and the rest of his staff, including associate coach Larry Robinson and assistants Jim Johnson and Jay Woodcroft, for next season with this reported extension presumably kicking in afterward.
In the wake of the firing of highly-regarded veteran coaches Alain Vigneault and John Tortorella as well as the speculation mounting over Dan Bylsma’s future in Pittsburgh and Dave Tippett’s in Phoenix given the Coyotes‘ ownership situation, it’s possible this extension was primarily about Wilson reaffirming his long-term commitment to McLellan behind the bench. We’ll have more on the terms of the deal if and when they become available.
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