I imagine Valakari didn't want to come into a situation where he's the worst squad in the division and he's to go straight into games while also trying to figure out who everyone is and their strengths/weaknesses and find an entire backroom staff, while doing all the training himself aswell.
Kirk will be useful in that regard even if he's not rated and I'd be pretty surprised if the idea wasn't, regardless of how the season went, for Valakari to go his own way in terms of backroom staff gradually until such point as a purge can happen.