Well I for one don't care about his association with Simms.
I don't like him because I don't rate him as a coach. There was a point in time where you could have blanked out all names and numbers on the Blaze and you would have known they were the Blaze by the way they played. They were great to watch and the AC/DC/Payette line is still my favourite non-Devils line aside from Keefe/Lloyd partnership in Belfast.
That time quickly passed and his coaching style became very old, tiresome, lethargic.... He's completely out of touch and there's even rumours to suggest that his most successful period of coaching in British hockey was actually Neal Martin running the team.
With the Devils it would be more like the Blaze days. Players would be settled and not getting gassed every few weeks.
As for Neal Martin running the team. That is incorrect. He ran the team no more than Hotham or Fournier did. Your key players will always be the ones making decisions on the ice, especially your mobile D-Men.
After AC/DC he won plenty more trophies. I think people simply have a view based on his post game interviews after a loss plus being coach of a main rival.
As for his poor last season that was mainly down to goaltending. A coach/team is only as good as the netminder. Jackson Whistle was not an EIHL starter.
As for Budget, that may or may not be true, but factor in that budget to what the Devils/Giants/Panthers were using and it may have been far less. We do not know. Looking at the make up of the 4 teams that season, based on NHL/KHL/AHL experience, you would assume Sheffield had the 4th biggest budget, but we will never know.
Did he get outcoached by Lord? In certain games yes. Not all of them though. His style was usually agressive. Payette/Fitzgerald, Armstrong with net crashing. Devils fans hated it but we loved Matt Miller doing exactly the same thing as Armstrong.