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On Tuesday morning, Binghamton Senators head coach Kurt Kleinendorst revealed that he would not return in his position for next season, effectively ending his run with the Ottawa affiliate.
Kleinendorst added no further comment, but it is expected he'll actively pursuit NHL employment.
For the Ottawa Senators, the loss is a massive one. Kleinendorst was measurably respected around the NHL as an insightful hockey mind and talent development wizard. Kleinendorst is just one year removed from taking a dark-horse Binghamton Senators(42-30-3-5) team to the AHL Calder Cup, beating the Houston Aeros in a six-game series.
Kleinendorst's quick turnaround of a struggling Binghamton franchise was well documented, as the team hadn't reached the post-season in five consecutive seasons prior to their championship run.
After winning the AHL championship, Kurt Kleinendorst was one of the finalists for the Ottawa Senators vacated head coaching position after the removal of Cory Clouston from his position of power. However, Ottawa opted with Paul MacLean of the Detroit organization, and the rest is history.
The Ottawa front office tried their best to keep the bright Kleinendorst in the system, offering multiple contract extensions over the course of the 2011-2012 season. Kleinendorst said no to all of them.
Said GM Bryan Murray of Kleinendorst's decision:
Kurt is an excellent coach and did a great job for us in his two years behind the bench with Binghamton. In terms of his future, Kurt has made the decision to look at other options outside of the Senators organization. We can appreciate his decision and wish him the best of luck in the future.
Considering the impressive work by Paul MacLean in such short order at the NHL level, Kleinendorst's decision to end his run as head coach in Binghamton doesn't come completely out of the blue. The guy is ready for the National Hockey League, but knows his opportunity will probably come elsewhere.
It should be noted that Paul MacLean's successful first year probably couldn't have come to fruition without the work of Kurt Kleinendorst in the year prior. Kleinendorst was responsible for the development and subsequent transition of a number of young players to the National Hockey League, including Colin Greening, Jim O'Brien, Zack Smith, Bobby Butler, Erik Condra, Kaspars Daugavins, Jared Cowen, et al.
The math, as expected, is absurd. Binghamton developed talent under Kurt Kleinendorst from 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 logged 538 (!) games for the '11-'12 Ottawa Senators.
We'll keep tabs on future developments here. Again, my guess is that Kleinendorst's name is popping around the NHL rumor mill sooner rather than later.
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