Before we get to what’s next, I wanted to share a few thoughts on Keefe and his tenure.
The firing itself was not surprising at this point. Keefe was the fifth longest-tenured coach in the league at the time. The list of the four coaches ahead of him featured three Cup winners – Jon Cooper, Mike Sullivan, and Jared Bednar – and Rod Brind’Amour, who has won at least one playoff series in five of six seasons in Carolina and has been to two Eastern Conference Finals.
By comparison, Keefe is 1-6 in playoff series. To receive so much rope in a league where Martin St.