With this morning's news of the New York Islanders' firing of head coach Ted Nolan, another name has been added to the list of potential candidates for the Los Angeles Kings. The Kings fired coach Marc Crawford earlier this off-season, after the team finished last in the Western Conference (and second-to-last in the league), with a disappointing 71 points. In his two seasons behind the Kings' bench, Crawford amassed a 59-84-21 record.

Los Angeles' poor play have caused average attendance at the Staples Center to plummet from 17,821 to 16,583 within the past three seasons, while their cross-highway rivals Anaheim Ducks captured the Stanley Cup championship in 2007 and played to 77 consecutive sellouts.

During that same time period in Long Island, New York, Ted Nolan was achieving different results with the Islanders. Nolan racked up a record of 75-68-21 in his two years with the team, which included a playoff berth in the 2006-2007 season. While the Islanders were hardly contenders for the Cup, Nolan managed to take a team many sports analysts considered to be poor and maximized the potential and effort from his players. He was also awarded the Jack Adams Award for best coach in 1997, after leading the Buffalo Sabres to their first division title in sixteen years. After Islanders General Manager Garth Snow announced the firing of Nolan, Snow made it clear the Nolan did a tremendous job in making the team competitive. Nolan's ability as a coach was not the reason for the firing.

At first glance, hiring Ted Nolan would seem like the wisest move for the Los Angeles Kings and their GM Dean Lombardi. However, there are some issues that are of concern when Nolan's name comes up, which were highlighted when Snow brought up the reason for the firing in the first place. Snow cited "philosophical differences." The main difference being that Snow wanted to rebuild the team through developing their young players, while Nolan preferred giving most of the critical playing time to proven veterans. So let's take a look at each of the two main points that analysts and the average fan has for hiring or not hiring Nolan:

1. He Doesn't Like Working With Younger Players and Their Development

This is a big sticking point for the Kings. Most of their personnel is made up of youth like defenseman Jack Johnson, and GM Lombardi is dedicated to a long-term development process. This doesn't necessarily mean Nolan would have the same issues as in Long Island. First off, Nolan chose to shorten his bench because of his "in-the-moment" win-now approach. He's focused on that very minute, that very period, and that very game to win. This is why his team usually plays a feisty and tenacious style.

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