Mollie Walker #NYR have hired Christian Hmura as a skills and performance development coach, per source. He will be on the coaching staff and around the team regularly. Mark Ciaccio is still with the organization, but in a new role as a prospect development skills coach.
#NYR have hired Christian Hmura as a skills and performance development coach, per source. He will be on the coaching staff and around the team regularly.
Mark Ciaccio is still with the organization, but in a new role as a prospect development skills coach.
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) August 7, 2023
by blueline7677
8 Comments
Hiring a skills and development coach, yay!
He apparently has his own development camp, [Hmura Hockey Development](https://www.hhdhockey.com/)
From the website:
> Christian Hmura is a renowned skating and skills coach, as well as the owner of Hmura Hockey Development. Christian’s background and expertise extends from his current and past positions as a Hockey Director and Head Coach of many different levels and age groups. Christian has trained some of the most elite players in the world. He routinely works with players from many different NHL teams in the off season to develop diverse skating techniques and skill acquisitions. Hmura Hockey Development was founded on Christian’s core principal- being a well versed skater creates the time and space to utilize the skills that you practice day in and day out. Christian’s coaching accolades include assisting in the development of dozens of players advancing to professional & NCAA.
It’s your typical hype/fluff, but hopefully this means they will have people on staff whose sole job is too see where skills are lacking and get the players to develop them.
Now they need to hire a skating coach for Laf and Kakko. They won’t reach their potential without improving their skating.
You can develop prospects ? …must be a new thing.
/S
Taking your NHL Skills Coach, who didn’t seem to be generating a whole lot of tangible results, and letting him oversee your prospects? Seems questionable. But at least most prospects are still in some other organization and Ciaccio is just giving some input.
His new position is most likely something created for him until he can find a new job.
This demotion/firing was long overdue.
The Laf/Kakko haters and losers from r/hockey are probably seething at this news
Still funny to me that Jed Ortmeyer oversees player development. It’s great he had an NHL career, but he’s hardly the model of success when we’re talking about developing high draft picks.
Tried to explain this to anyone who will listen…Gorton and his staff of scouts were absolutely atrocious. He has 1 pick beyond a 2nd round draft selection to ever pan out. And that player is Barron. That is over his 8 year tenure. That is really bad.
If you look at what is considered a good GM or take a team you consider good and look at their draft history….consistent truth will be 3rd round picks and below seems to develop for them. Not every year. Not every time. But about 1 every draft will seem to make the NHL as a average. When Sather was our GM and making the selections ….this seem to happen every year. Zito and Yzerman seem to do it every year.
I am not excusing this particular individual of any blame. But his share is more likely 10 to 20% of the reason. Remaining is because the players/draft picks themselves just sucked or had bad work ethic. Add to the fact in more recent times we didn’t let players properly develop when it was clear they were not ready for the NHL.
This point is only valid because not one of these draft picks outside Barron ever became something elsewhere. I could completely agree like someone said so and so didn’t develop in Arizona and as soon as he left ….he became a good player. Not one of Gorton’s draft picks ever developed outside the top 2 rounds. Sather’s did and he just never held onto them.
I don’t buy the skills coach thing. Seems like a witch hunt. Kakko and Lafreniere have struggled for a myriad of reasons.
But when there are failures of this magnitude…probably should have shifted/fired a lot of the personal that are/were involved 2 years ago.