Truitt's Move Makes Sense in More Ways Than One!

The timing couldn't have been more right for Jeff Truitt.
Pro jobs come and go quickly, and when you are offered the chance to move up the coaching ranks, you have to seize the opportunity.
Truitt did that Tuesday.
With the 2007-2008 regular season now just over 3 months away, many believe Truitt would have been on the chopping block had the Rockets gotten off to slow start this season.
Oh sure the Rockets will be a considerably better team than a year ago, but substantially better?
If the Rockets struggled just 10 games into next season, hockey fans in these parts would be calling for his head. It happened last season when the Rockets iced a young team, short on talent.
General Manager Bruce Hamilton wouldn't come out and say it, but the leash for Truitt coming into this season was likely a short one, and had the team struggled 20 or 30 games in, my gut feeling is Hamilton would have made a change and pulled the trigger, sending Truitt towards the unemployment line.
I'm not saying Truitt avoids a disaster waiting to happen by leaving the organization, but the room for error behind the Rockets bench was extremely small. Truitt's successor, whoever he may be, will be able to struggle and get away with it, something Truitt no longer had the luxury of.
Truitt new job allows him the ability to again get out of the spotlight. As an assistant coach, Truitt can wait patiently, like he did in Kelowna, for his chance to prove he can get the job done at the pro level.
He did it in junior, and will again prove to us he can do it at the next level.
Now that Truitt is with a new organization, he has bought himself some wiggle room, something he unjustly was running out of within the Rockets organization.
Truitt officially joins the Edmonton Oilers family today, and as an assistant coach of the American Hockey League team, I wish him all the success in the world. To say I'll miss him is an understatement.