No surprise here, but the Sharks fired coach Ron Wilson earlier tonight. Here's San Jose Mercury News columnist Mark Purdy:

The dismissal of Sharks coach Ron Wilson comes as no stunner. As a regular season coach, he was great — and I do not use that word lightly. But in three of his four playoff trips, the Sharks were defeated by a lower-seeded team. On the fourth occasion, the Sharks were leading higher-seed Detroit before everything fell apart.

The franchise had to change the formula. Wilson was the most obvious move to make.

Wilson is the eighth most winning coach in NHL history, ahead of Jacques Martin, Jacques Lemaire, Pat Burns, Toe Blake, Ken Hitchcock, Roger Neilson and Jack Adams. He's never won the Stanley Cup, however, and his teams have a history of terrific regular seasons and losing to lower seeds some the postseason.

My thoughts on Wilson from last week. The Sharks become the sixth team with a coaching vacancy, meaning we could see some new faces join the ranks.

Which of Bob Hartley, Joel Quenneville, Wilson, John Paddock or Paul Maurice returns to the NHL next season?
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