Fantasy Impact: The Carolina Hurricanes have fired head coach Kirk Muller, along with assistants John MacLean and Dave Lewis.

New general manager Ron Francis, as new GMs are wont to do, will be putting in his own coaching staff. Muller was 80-80-27 with a team that was, while below average, was better than that win/loss record. From a fantasy standpoint, the Hurricanes scored more goals than just six other teams in 2013-14. Will a new coach improve on that?

Whenever a different coach is put in place, it’s important to take a closer look at the key players and determine which ones were possibly considered “favorites” of the departing coach. And of those favorites, which ones will maintain such a status. Eric and Jordan Staal led all forwards in ice time (hovering around 20 and 19 minutes per game respectively), which is probably how things will be under the next coach. And although one would think that Jiri Tlusty was favored under Muller, given all of his chances on the top line – his ice time was actually just 15:04 per contest. Then again, perhaps the new coach will bench him altogether. And that’s assuming Francis even qualifies Tlusty as a restricted free agent this summer.

One player who really popped this past season was defenseman Andrej Sekera. Any change in his situation at all has to be concerning for fantasy owners. After all, he had a dream season. A breakthrough. In his seventh year in the league he scored 11 times and had 44 points. Throw in a new coach and things are completely different for Sekera. And when something that is already “really good” faces a new scenario, it rarely improves things. It doesn’t necessarily hurt – but it rarely helps.

Another area of concern for poolies is goaltending. Just when we were starting to lean towards Anton Khudobin as the better goaltender over Cam Ward, this happens. A new coach will, more often than not, turn to the more reputable goaltender. The guy who has proven more over the years and the guy who is making more money. That’s Ward. So without knowing who the next coach is, I would probably dial down my expectations of Khudobin from starting 45-37 vs. Ward…to flipping that around (37-45). Furthermore, if the incoming coach has defensive leanings, such as a Barry Trotz, then Ward would quickly turn into fantasy gold.

The coaching carousal is spinning quickly these days, and how things look when it stops will be very interesting. Washington, Florida, Vancouver, Nashville and Carolina are all in the market for new coaches now. Is San Jose next?