subby13

I find that 'coach of the year' debates normally end up being highly dependent on the unique situations that each coach faces in a given season. People end up talking a lot about year over year improvements, or pointing to teams that are playing better than they look on paper. With these kind of factors dominating the debate, we rarely talk about who we actually feel is the "best" coach in hockey. Not the best in one season, just the best.

So, if you were building a team, and you could choose any coach in hockey to take the helm, who would you want? You can only pick a coach who is either active, or who can realistically be expected to step behind the bench again. In other words, you can pick someone like Pat Quinn, but you can't pick someone like Scotty Bowman.

I haven't added a poll because there are many possibilities and I'm sure I'd end up missing people that you guys might choose.

My choice: Lindy Ruff.

It amazes me to think that the same guy who coached those physical, defense first, low scoring Buffalo teams of the late 90s, also coaches the uber-speedy, high scoring, post-lockout Sabres. The fact that he has been able to coach effectively with those two extremely different philosophies shows that he has a great understanding of the game in a really well rounded way. It also shows that he's adaptable, and that he's able to tailor his systems and philosophies to suit the players that he has on his roster.