It appears that Barry Trotz is not planning to make a return to coaching this season.
The longtime NHL coach joined “The Chirp” podcast with Darren Millard and said he hasn’t really thought about when he would be ready to be behind the bench again.
“I don’t know yet,” Trotz told Millard. “I’m deciding. There’s a couple teams that reached out and I said I’m not there yet. I’m probably going to take the rest of the year off and see where I am. It’s still a part of me, but I’m going to continue to stay true to myself and my family right now.”
Back in November, Trotz said that he would consider returning to coaching if the right opportunity came his way and that he would ideally look at January as a potential timeline to work again.
After leading the Islanders to a 37-35-10 record last season and missing the playoffs, Trotz decided to take a temporary break from coaching.
“I’ve got some things personally that I’ve got to take care of, family-wise that I’ve got to take care of,” Trotz said then. “I didn’t feel … if I’d said I’ll take the job, I think I would have done any team a little bit of a disservice and myself a disservice because to be a coach in the NHL, it is demanding and it requires your all. It just does, emotionally it just does, mentally it just does. So I couldn’t go down that path.”
Over the summer, Trotz was connected to Winnipeg as a possibility to coach his hometown Jets, but they went with Rick Bowness when Trotz couldn’t commit.
Trotz has coached in Nashville, Washington and New York with the Islanders in his NHL career. He was also recently asked about the possibility of coaching a Canadian team, where the pressure and attention are on another level.
“I don’t know if any coach that takes a job in Canada ever wants to deal with it,” Trotz said on the Cam and Strick Podcast back in October. “Original Six, for me, I have never coached an Original Six team. That would intrigue me … those teams always intrigue you. But the Canadian teams — you’re under the microscope. You sort of are in New York, too.
“I think it takes a special coach, special player, to play in Canada because there’s a different pressure.”