Charlie Huddy Hired By Dallas

by Jonathan Willis on Aug 4, 2009 12:51 PM PDT in News Comment 5 comments

Charlie Huddy, the long-time assistant coach to Craig MacTavish here in Edmonton, has been hired by the Dallas Stars as an assistant coach to Marc Crawford. It's a solid hire; the Oilers defense corps has generally been a strength during Huddy's tenure, and he helped not only to develop some excellent young defensemen (players like Eric Brewer, Tom Poti, Marc-Andre Bergeron, Matt Greene, Ladislav Smid, Tom Gilbert, Denis Grebeshkov, etc.) but he's done tremendous work with older defensmemen cast adrift by their former teams (Igor Ulanov, Steve Staios, Jan Hejda) or with some holes in their games (notably Sheldon Souray this past season).

It's difficult for fans to evaluate assistants, but Huddy has a tremendous track record and I'm very sad to see him going to Dallas (I'd have preferred somewhere out East). Defending Big D, which has been following this story, will likely have a little more on Huddy's hiring over on their site.

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I feel two ways about this:

1. Extreme pain in seeing a name so synonymous with the Oilers heading to the Stars. It was hard enough to accept Huddy being canned, now he’s part of a conference rival’s organization with an already impressive blue line. Makes me think of ‘Back Like That’ by Ghostface and Ne-Yo…

Come through the block, in the brand new Benz
Knowing that me and this dude ain’t friends
(Ok girl) Yeah, what I did was wack
But you don’t get your man back like that;

2. Relief. Charlie Huddy has actually done us all a favor by electing to listen to all of Crow’s screechy, half-cocked analysis, so the hockey watching public doesn’t have to anymore. Thanks Chaz!

by Downright Fierce on Aug 4, 2009 3:00 PM PDT reply actions

Ouch, that video is harsh. I’ve been a Huddy fan for a long time; since he was signed by the Oilers as an undrafted free agent shortly after the exceptionally rich 1979 Entry Draft, he has provided 20 years of solid service to the organization, the city, and its hockey fans. I was sorry to see him let go, am happy he got another job, and wish him success in the broad sense, although the mitigating factors — Dallas, Crawford — are likely to sap my good will.

Writer for The Copper & Blue

by Bruce McCurdy on Aug 5, 2009 11:34 AM PDT reply actions

Who's bad?

Was Huddy this bad when he was playing with the Oilers too? If so, I have two things to say:

1) No wonder Paul Coffey wanted a trade away from him and this team.

2) How good could Coffey have been with a reliable defensive partner?

by doritogrande on Aug 5, 2009 3:04 PM PDT reply actions

On the flip side, does Huddy look that bad because Coffey is off in no man’s land?

SNN Sports - A theoretical Oilers blog (i.e. theoretically, I write stuff there)

by Doogie2K on Aug 10, 2009 6:53 AM PDT up reply actions

Huddy was excellent

That video is an extreme example of cherry-picking … I’m sure if I had ten years of game film I could make Wayne Gretzky look like an idiot too.

Huddy was a first-rate defender, very solid and smart with the puck. Job 1 was to get it to Coffey, of course, but Huddy was much more than a stay-at-home guy; instead I would call him one of the keys to Edmonton’s famed transition game. Charlie could bring the offence — he scored 20 goals and 57 points in 1982-83 his first season as a full-time player — and was a regular on the powerplay. He was +50 or more three years running, followed by 3 more years of at least +23. He posted a very solid +241 in his regular-season career, and is the all-time playoff leader (stats kept since 1984) at +82.

Writer for The Copper & Blue

by Bruce McCurdy on Aug 10, 2009 11:36 AM PDT up reply actions

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