Comment | It’s echoing from Tampere – an era that has stretched into a small eternity may end

I will kill of a heavily rumored coach Rikard Grönborgin hiring the reigning champions would end a long drawn out period in the League.

The head coaches of the main league have been in domestic hands since the beginning of the 2009–10 season. The league’s previous foreign head coach would already go through the quiz question. He spent the 2008–09 season in the Jokers Glen Hanlon.

Grönborg has coached the previous seasons in the Swiss league and before that in the Swedish national team. In his time, Hanlon was a coach hijacker who arrived on even tougher sea routes. He had coached the Washington Capitals in the four seasons before the Jokerit pesti. In February 2008, Jokerit reported their findings.

“We were looking for a top coach. This name jumped out and pretty much ignited,” said Joker’s CEO at the time Matti Virmanen hijacking.

Hanlon had been released from the Capitals when he was fired midway through a five-year contract. NHL doors have not opened for Hanlon since then.

After one Jokerit season, Hanlon spent less than a season in Minsk in the KHL, then national team coaching and smaller Euroleagues. This season, Hanlon is coaching Bolzano in Italy.

The time of Hanlon’s arrival tells about the coaching market in Finland, why Jokerit decided to leave by Doug Shedden between the extension washer and choose Hanlon. In connection with the news, it was reported that Shedden did not agree to a contract in February that would have prevented him from going to the NHL.

Getting to the Taala League did not materialize, but Shedden’s journey continued to the Swiss League.

Fair enough months after the release of Hanlon’s Jokerit pest, the puck world heard news that affected the player and coach market for 14 years.

From Russia, it was reported about the establishment of the KHL in the spring of 2008. Already for the next season, a handful of Finnish players and coaches left for the eastern neighbor Kari Heikkilä.

The era of domestic coaches in the League is fittingly coming to an end at the same time as the closing of the KHL.

Players already arrived in the League for this season, and Grönborg’s supposed arrival in Kirvesrinto shows that there is also a quality offer on the coaching side. At least for an organization like Tappara that is successful by European standards.

As long as the Swede’s arrival is confirmed, Tampere’s local games will have the right extra spice for the coaching side, when Ilvesen, who was at the top of the domestic supply Antti Pennanen tries to take a noose from his Swedish official brother.