Senators Goaltending Coach Pierre Groulx Gets Re-assigned
With Matt Murray and Marcus Hogberg close to their respective returns from injury, the Ottawa Senators announced this morning that they had made a change to their coaching staff.
In an official press release, the Senators indicated that goaltending Pierre Groulx has been re-assigned from his goaltending coach position and will transition into scouting and player development.
Taking over for Groulx is Zac Bierk. The former Tampa Bay Lightning draft pick spent the last few years as a goaltending development coach with the Arizona Coyotes. Bierk also has a connection to head coach D.J. Smith. The two were together on the Oshawa Generals’ coaching staff that led the OHL franchise to the Memorial Cup in 2015.
Between working for the Coyotes and having ties to D.J. Smith, Bierk checks all the boxes on HR’s hiring matrix for the Senators.
Groulx was not formally fired, but this is not a situation where the coach was looking to change his role or responsibilities. The organization never mentioned anything about Groulx demonstrating an aptitude for scouting or player development in the press release, but instead, general manager Pierre Dorion actually scapegoated the coach for the performance of his goaltenders in the team’s official press release.
"Unfortunately, a number of our goaltending performances this season have been underwhelming," said Senators general manager Pierre Dorion. "I think very highly of Pierre Groulx, he's as dedicated and tireless a worker as anyone in the organization, but we recently reached a point where we thought a fresh outlook could help return some stability to our crease."
The “goaltending performances this season have been underwhelming”? Let’s take a deeper dive here.
Using the date range tool to sort through NaturalStatTrick.com’s goaltending data, it easy to determine how the Senators’ goaltending has fared this season using arbitrary endpoints. March 10th was the last game that Matt Murray played. From March 11th onward, the Senators’ goaltending duties have been handled exclusively by Joey Daccord, Filip Gustavsson and Anton Forsberg.
Which makes the timing of today’s announcement interesting. I will be the first to admit that I have no idea whether or not Pierre Groulx is an exceptional or even a good goaltending coach. I’m not a goaltending savant and I’m certainly not around the organization or players to know whether his input, methods and ability to convey information are of benefit to the players.
At the same time however, since Matt Murray’s last appearance, the Senators have gone 4-3-3 during this span and competent goaltending has been a large part of the equation. The performance of the prospects like Daccord and Gustavsson has been impressive. They have demonstrated an athleticism and a confidence that we have not seen enough of this season. These two prospects have been around Groulx for a period of time too, so does the goaltending coach not deserve some of the credit for their play?
It feels like a bit of a raw deal, but the timing of Groulx’s dismissal from the goaltending coach position coincided with Matt Murray has been activated off the injured reserve. With his imminent return to the lineup, all the focus will be on Murray’s play down the stretch.
Having traded a second-round pick in 2021 and having signed Murray to a four-year contract worth $25 million ($6.25 million AAV), there is a ton of pressure on the organization to help him get back to the level that he experienced during his first two years in the league. And unquestionably, the performance of Murray and Marcus Hogberg this season has been dreadful.
There are reports out there that Groulx had some strong influence in the team’s decision to acquire Matt Murray in the offseason and that may have worked against him here.
Inevitably, the goaltending coach is going to be asked about an organization’s interest in a particular player. Getting that positional expertise from a staff member totally acceptable as part of an organization doing its due diligence.
Faced with the likelihood that Anders Nilsson would not play this season because of a concussion, targeting Matt Murray in the offseason made sense. The 26-year old was young enough to be in his prime and have a chance to grow with the young core that the Senators have assembled. Having won two Stanley Cups early in his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he had that championship pedigree that executives just love. With the Penguins pressed up against the salary cap ceiling and needing to make room for Tristan Jarry to take the reins, an opportunity presented itself.
There were some very obvious warts. Statistically speaking, Matt Murray was one of the worst goaltenders in the league last season.
According to Evolving-Hockey.com’s expected goals saved above expected metric, only five other goaltenders in the league saved fewer goals than expected than Murray. And one of those goaltenders, Marc-Andre Fleury, was reportedly offered around the league with a second-round pick to take him off Vegas’ books. (Note: Fleury’s contract runs through the 2021-22 season and pays him $6.5 million this season and $6.0 million the next. The average annual value is $6.0 million. For what it’s worth, Matt Murray will be paid $6.0 million next season, $7.0 million in 2022-23 and $8.0 million in 2023-24.) In a league that often lends itself towards loyalty and the status quo, that the Penguins were willing to move on from a relatively young goaltender in Murray spoke volumes.
Given Murray’s age and past success, it is easy to understand why the Senators felt like they could roll the dice. He was a sleeper candidate to potentially bounce back. Ignoring the opportunity cost used to acquire Murray, the organization double-downed on the acquisition. Without having played a game for the organization, the Senators extended Murray a qualifying offer before finally agreeing to a four-year, $25 million deal. The extension flew in the face of a goaltending market that was about to get saturated with options thanks to the complications of the 2021 expansion draft.
What the Senators did was essentially akin to what some fantasy league managers do after reading any well-publicized list of sleepers before an auction draft. Rather than recognize that a sleeper’s true value lies in paying below-market prices, the Senators wound up paying market value for Murray’s ceiling without any guarantees that he could fulfill it. And worse, the Senators were only bidding against themselves.
Even if Groulx went to bat for Murray and exhibited some confidence in being able to turn the goaltender’s game around, it was never his fault that the organization overextended itself in terms of the relative opportunity cost and the contract that the Senators handed over to Murray.
If anything, his dismissal from the goaltending position is simply the latest in a long line of coaches who have paid the price as scapegoats for the continued mismanagement of the roster.