Savard making smooth transition from Bruins to youth coaching
Savard/By S. Bradley
Followers of Marc Savard’s Twitter feed know that the Bruins center still suffers from headaches and keeps close tabs on his Boston teammates and friends around the NHL.
You also know that he’s been coaching his kids’ teams this season.
Mike Davies of the Peterborough Examiner today has a story about the start of Savard’s coaching career. Savard is coaching with his former Oshawa Generals teammate Jay Legault.
Here’s a great quote from Savard in Davies’ piece:
“I’m having a great time. It’s frustrating at times, but they’re kids and have to learn. You have to teach and be disciplined at times, but also understanding, too, because they’re young kids. They’ve come a long way since the start of the year.”
I bet plenty of coaches have said the same thing about mentoring Savard, including some of his NHL bosses.
Savard has more than $4 million reasons not to announce his official retirement until after the 2016-17 season. But it sure seems like he’s already transitioning from his playing career to his post-playing career, and he’s finding his niche. The best news is that he’s healthy enough to do anything after his unfortunate demise due to concussions.
went the other day to one of the games…Marc was the nicest guy..one of the other coaches was pretty cool, when they heard we were looking for Marc they brought us down to the change room area brought Marc out…He signed everything for us and took photos, super nice guy…we stayed a couple periods and watch the kids play too, pretty good for 11…his son looks like he’s one of the bigger kids and is pretty good too, nice to see the second generation play
Is it fair for him to be paid? Wow that’s cruel. How did he gain the ability to make $4mil a year? He worked his entire life to get into the NHL. How did he lose that earning power? He was taken out by a questionable, but legal, hit. Who made that hit legal? The NHL rule book. Who wants the rules to include rough plays like that? The NHL and the owners; big hits means big bucks in tickets, merchandise and broadcast rights. So who do you think should pay? The very people who stand to benefit from the very real risk that hockey players take every single shift of their career. Damn right the club should pay. If an oil rig worker is concussed by falling equipment his employer should support him and his family for the rest of his days. That’s just common-sense corporate citizenship.
I miss Savard! It’s a shame. Happy to know he’s still working it out. Hope he has fun.
“I bet plenty of coaches have said the same thing about mentoring Savard, including some of his NHL bosses.”
Nice zing Matt, either the rumors were true about Marc’s immaturity in Calgary and New York or he dissed you on more than a few interviews by not showing up or not giving you the answers you wanted.
The man’s gotta do something while the links are snowed over ;-D
Good for #91! Sounds like, hopefully, the noggin’s starting to straighten itself out.
insert sandusky joke here.
Good news on Marc Savard. Chiarelli stated there’s “some hope” he could play again.
Jen,
Marc Savard is still on the B’s roster and not on LTIR. His salary does count toward the B’s cap but I’d guess insurance is paying it. Unless the B’s make a trade that would bring them close to the cap, there’s no sense putting him on LTIR as the B’s would lose the advantage of exceeding his cap salary in any trade by placing him on LTIR,…He does deserve the contract $’s.
Good to hear Savard is keeping busy and happy. B’s ownership are the only ones really “suffering” ill effects from Savard’s contract, and I’m not really worried about their financial state.
Good luck Mr. Savard, groom our next big star!
MattK, thanks for all the updates on Savard’s health.
So it seems like the Bs made the right choice by putting Savard back in. They had no idea that he’d get hit again…by a player that should have known not to crush him into the glass…bug that is for another day. I’m just glad to see that he is at least enjoying this time he has with his kids because I’m sure there were days when he felt like he’d never be ok. Letting him recover with the comfort of being able to come back is what’s best at this point in time. He said this summer that playing is not on his mind, he’s just focusing on getting healthy again.
Oh…Where shall I begin…well, if Savard was to retire he would have to forfit the rest of his contract. Throwing in the towel this early doesn’t make sense. Sidney Crosby is doing the same thing. Concussions are tricky, he could turn a corner in a week and work his way back, or he could never recover…no one knows, and for him just to give that up now does not make sense. As far as it not being fair…he has lost the ability to play the sport he loves, and he has lost some quality of life that no money could ever repay. As a player, he is protected by the NHLPA, and him being on LTIR keeps him off of the Bs salary; therefore, he is not effecting the team. Having to move a player to get one back is never a good situation, but Strum was coming off of two knee surgeries and let’s face it, in the twightlight of his career. He was not as offensively gifted as Savard and I think Sturm wouldn’t have been let go anyways when his contract was up.
I think Savard deserves to collect the cash. It doesn’t hit our cap if he is on injured reserve.
I love Marc, and I wish he was on the ice with the Bs, but is it fair for him to be keeping that contract $ if hes not going to play? Im sad that we had to release Marco Sturm to stay under the cap only to have Savard play for a couple games. Just doesnt seem right.
I hope Marc feels better and comes back, but it seems so unlikely.