Rick Wamsley Fired from Peoria

Yesterday, Rick Wamsley was fired from his position as head coach of the Peoria Rivermen. Wamsley had taken over the position when Davis Payne was brought up to be the head coach of the St. Louis Blues, but the team decided Thursday that the operations in Peoria would be better off led by someone else.

The story ran in the Post-Dispatch, which indicated that Wamsley was upset by the decision. He had stated he wanted an opportunity to lead the Rivermen from training camp and through a regular season, but the team decided to go a different route despite the fact he still has one year left on his contract.

I am left with mixed opinions on this issue. Back when the Blues fired Andy Murray, Wamsley figured to be a candidate to take over the helm, but the team opted to go for Davis Payne, signaling they clearly did not want Wamsley running the show. They then had Wamsley take over the Rivermen and stated they thought this could help him on the road to becoming a coach at the NHL level.

One must feel bad for Wamsley as he was passed over as the choice to replace Murray and then was given false hope that his job with the Rivermen could lead to bigger things. Obviously the Blues don’t have much faith in his NHL coaching abilities as they don’t trust him to run the show over in Peoria, so perhaps there is more to this story that the casual fan will never be fully aware of.

I’m sure he will land a job in some capacity in a different organization, but one has to wonder how the relationship between Wamsley and the Blues came to a falling out so abruptly over the past year.