The issue with going outside the box when hiring a head coach is that too many first-year coaches have too many growing pains. Ideally, they make their mistakes elsewhere, and by the time you hire them they’re experienced and ready to win.

It’s not that guys like Mike Johnston, Guy Boucher, Dave Cameron, Dallas Eakins, Willie Desjardins, etc., can’t win in the NHL one day. It’s that the pressure is on to win now, get your owner some playoff gates, and ultimately take a good team like St. Louis or Anaheim to its preferred destination while the roster is in place to have success.

Or get Calgary to a new level, a job one would rather entrust to someone who has actually been to that level before. It’s the reason why Bruce Boudreau was only unemployed for a few days before Minnesota snapped him up. He may not have brought Anaheim or Washington to the Stanley Cup Final, but those experiences will help him in his quest to get the Wild there — or so goes the theory.

Sure, every now and again a guy like Dave Hakstol shows up in Philadelphia, or Bill Peters in Carolina, or John Hynes in New Jersey, and gets a foothold. We’re not saying a first-year NHL coach can never have success. But let’s see what those three have accomplished a few years from now.

There’s a reason why St. Louis went back to Ken Hitchcock on another one-year deal: He’s an experienced coach who has seen it all. Like a 30-year mechanic, he can lift the hood after a loss, tinker for a few minutes, and eliminate whatever gains the opponent had made overnight.

In fact, Hitchcock is so experienced, he’s about to hang ‘em up after the 2016-17 season.

“I’m not coaching after this year,” he said at his press conference on Tuesday. “After this season I’m not coaching. I don’t know if I’m going to retire. I might move over to the media. We’ll see.”

So the coaching search continues in Anaheim and Calgary, the only two National Hockey League teams without head coaches at the moment and two places who likely would have welcomed Hitchcock had he been available and interested. It’s a huge decision in both towns: Anaheim’s Stanley Cup window is right now, and they need to get it right; Calgary is ready to contend for a playoff spot, but needs a coach who can grow with the team.

So it seems strange that Randy Carlyle would, as Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported this week, have interviewed for both jobs. The Flames and Ducks aren’t the same animal, but remember, Carlyle had a modicum of success during his last run in Anaheim, and actually had the Toronto Maple Leafs playing some of the best hockey they’ve played in the past decade.

News that Kirk Muller has walked in St. Louis, where he was Hitchcock’s assistant, immediately makes him worth an interview in both Calgary and Anaheim. He was a head coach for three seasons in Carolina (where the Hurricanes failed to make the playoffs), and should be much wiser after spending the past two seasons with Hitchcock.

And what about St. Louis associate coach Brad Shaw? He’s been the Blues’ associate coach for the past four seasons and has 16 seasons of professional coaching under his belt. Surely he’s ready, no?

Travis Green is the top name out there who has never coached at the NHL level in any capacity. It’s fair to wonder if the recipe in Anaheim requires a young coach with new ideas — someone to engage veteran players with a new plan of attack — as opposed to the “Groundhog Day” of bringing back a familiar game plan like Carlyle.

Personally, we see Carlyle as a better fit in Calgary for just that reason. The last thing Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf need is a familiar, comfortable voice.

And as for the old rap on Carlyle, that he didn’t work well with young players? In today’s NHL, that can’t be a problem for a coach.

With the cap and the speed of the game, every good team has its Conor Shearys and Bryan Rusts. Hitchcock used to have a similar rap — that he couldn’t trust young players — but he went three rounds with Robby Fabbri and Colton Parayko as regulars this spring.

There is too much youth on every good team for that to be an issue anymore.