Burnside: Forecasting the future for 12 NHL coaches in flux
Less than a month until the end of the regular season.
Less than a month until the start of the playoffs, and the yin to the yang of that benchmark in the hockey cycle of life means it’s less than a month until the start of the annual coaching carousel.
Roughly one third of NHL teams – 11 to be exact – have head coaches on expiring contracts in one form or another. Given the implosion of some teams and the stalled evolution of others this season, it’s fair to suggest the summer could see a groundswell of coaching migration around the NHL.
Here’s a quick look, in alphabetical order by team, at those bench bosses whose contracts are nearing their ends and what the future landscape looks like – plus one whose contract isn’t expiring but is on thin ice.
Dallas Eakins, Anaheim Ducks
Anaheim has a club option to bring Eakins back. He is finishing up his third season with the Ducks. All three will end with the team outside the playoff bubble and this season has been more disappointing than the first two in many respects given the team’s strong start. There’s also a new GM in town with Pat Verbeek cleaning house at the trade deadline, dealing Hampus Lindholm, Josh Manson and Rickard Rakell after Verbeek was tabbed to replace Bob Murray, who resigned after an investigation into a long pattern of abusive behavior. So Eakins’ roster has been threadbare since the deadline, adding to the team’s last-quarter slide.
Does Eakins get a chance to put Verbeek’s rebuild plan into action? The blossoming of players like Troy Terry and Trevor Zegras suggest Eakins has got the goods to help this team get back on track, plus there is always the old adage that a GM needs to play the ‘fire the coach’ card sparingly to preserve his own job security. That caveat is counterbalanced by the idea that Eakins is not Verbeek’s guy and thus may be considered more expendable as Verbeek continues to put his stamp on the team. Our guess is that Eakins, considered a fine teaching coach, returns, especially with the team in definite rebuild mode.
Derek King, Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks are in the crawling, not walking stages of trying to repair a broken franchise. General manager Kyle Davidson, like Verbeek, took over late in the season as full-time GM, although he had been acting GM since Stan Bowman departed the team in the wake of the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandal. Davidson fired Jeremy Colliton and installed interim head coach Derek King and then sold off parts like Brandon Hagel and Marc-Andre Fleury at the trade deadline. The team has been a disaster, though, especially defensively and in goal. They are tied for 26th in goals allowed per game. They have a minus-61 goal differential and a woeful 11-18-6 record at the formerly fortress-like United Center. Chicago’s uninspired play down the stretch, including multiple games in which the team blew large leads, reinforces the feeling that King is really a placeholder as head coach.
But Davidson will have to make a hard choice. Does make a change this off-season if he believes the Blackhawks could quickly jump back to playoff contention after failing to win a traditional playoff round since winning the Stanley Cup in 2015? Or does he bide his time in making a coaching change as he deals with reconstructing his hockey ops department? Given the lackluster play of late, we won’t be at all surprised if the Blackhawks look to find a young coach that could grow this team back to contention a la former Ranger bench boss David Quinn or highly regarded assistant coach Lane Lambert.
Rick Bowness, Dallas Stars
Two years ago the 62-year-old Bowness was one of the feel-good stories of the NHL’s bubble playoffs, leading the Stars to an unexpected berth in the 2020 Stanley Cup final against Tampa after he’d taken over for Jim Montgomery, fired by the Stars 31 games into the 2019-20 campaign. Last season, COVID-19 derailed Dallas’s season early, and this year there’s been a mixed bag of stellar play juxtaposed against curious coaching decisions and lack of consistency on special teams and overall play. The Stars are master of their own destiny vis a vis making the playoffs, and frankly it would be a shock if they don’t end up in the tournament. Given their experience, they have the kind of team that could prove a handful in the post-season. If the Stars fall out of the playoffs, that might force GM Jim Nill’s hand regarding a coaching change. At some point it would seem inevitable that, as Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn age out of the Stars’ plans, a new voice will be required to get the most out of top young talent like Miro Heiskanen, Jason Robertson and Jake Oettinger. But whether that time is at hand will depend largely on the next few weeks – or months, depending on Dallas’ ability to revive its playoff magic of two years ago.
Jeff Blashill, Detroit Red Wings
This is Blashill’s seventh season in Detroit and will mark his sixth consecutive season outside the playoff tournament. A team that, in the first half of the season, appeared to be tracking toward a return to relevance has gone off the ledge in recent weeks, regularly embarrassed defensively and in goal, where they boast an ungodly minus-67 goal differential, 30th in the league. This season is trending towards being the second time in the last three seasons the Red Wings are dead last in goals allowed per game, and whatever gains were made early in the season seem to have been lost in the haze of perpetual losing. Fans have taken lately to chanting “Fire Blashill,” which is neither here nor there when it comes to making those kinds of choices, but it’s a reflection of the unrest within the Red Wing fan base at the slow pace of reconstruction for a team that hasn’t won a playoff round since 2013. Regardless of the chanting, it’s hard to imagine Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman doesn’t make a coaching change in the hopes that it’s a catalyst to a return to at least competing for a playoff spot.
Jay Woodcroft, Edmonton Oilers
The Oilers have played themselves back into a solid playoff spot with less than a month to go and a lot of the credit has to go to interim head coach Jay Woodcroft, who has helped produce a more consistent level of team defense and generated better production from the bottom end of the team’s offensive alignment. Even if the Oil are one-and-done in the playoffs, the fact remains that most of the criticism regarding another disappointing season will fall for the most part at the feet of the team’s architect, GM Ken Holland, as opposed to the engaging and highly regarded Woodcroft. It seems a bit counterintuitive, given the angst and instability that seem to continuously swirl around this team and given the Oilers’ renaissance under Woodcroft, that Holland hasn’t moved to lock up Woodcroft long-term. Whether it’s in Edmonton or elsewhere, we can say with relative confidence Woodcroft will be behind an NHL bench next fall.
Andrew Brunette, Florida Panthers
Brunette started the season as an assistant on Joel Quenneville’s staff and may end up winning the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year after taking over the bench when Quenneville was forced to resign following the Chicago sexual assault scandal. Sure, if the Panthers got bounced in the first round (they’ll likely play Washington) it might give GM Bill Zito pause, but our guess is a deal is already in place and this will be a long marriage between the well-liked Brunette and one of the NHL’s most impressive, entertaining teams.
Martin St. Louis, Montreal Canadiens
We spoke recently with GM Kent Hughes about his first months on the job and he spoke with great admiration about the palpable change in the Montreal locker room after St. Louis took over for Dominque Ducharme. There’s lots of work yet to be done around this team, but it seems clear the job will be St. Louis’ if and presumably for as long as he wants it.
John Hynes, Nashville Predators
The Predators also have a club option on Hynes for the coming season and, given the turnaround in Nashville this season, we’d be taking it to the bank that Hynes will be back behind the Predator bench next fall. We spoke with Hynes earlier this season about the difficult learning curve for this team and for himself since he took over for Peter Laviolette during the 2019-20 season. In spite of all the obstacles presented by the pandemic, Hynes has managed to affect a dramatic identity change in the Predators in mid-stream. They play as tough as any team in the NHL and their skilled players Matt Duchene, Ryan Johansen and Filip Forsberg, along with Norris Trophy favorite and captain Roman Josi, are all producing at a high level. They’ll be a tough out in the playoffs and it wouldn’t be a shock to us if Hynes gets some Jack Adams love when the votes are cast by the NHL’s broadcasters.
Lindy Ruff, New Jersey Devils
Ruff is an outlier on this list in that he has one more year left on his deal with the Devils. But given the persistently uneven play of this team and the general lack of patience ownership in New Jersey has shown in the past, it’s hard to imagine that GM Tom Fitzgerald won’t be looking to see if there is a coach who could get more out of this talented young squad. Sure, a lot of this team’s problems are rooted in a lack of quality goaltending, but they are also a team that has yet to fully embrace an identity and a style of play that makes them playoff worthy. As of this writing, the Devils have a minus-50 goal differential, just eight road wins, fewest in the NHL, and are 30th in goals allowed per game. The last two seasons they were 28th and 29th. There’s a trend here and it’s not a pretty one and it may suggest a change is needed for a team that is about to miss the playoffs for the ninth time in the last 10 seasons and hasn’t won a round since its fluke run to the ’12 Stanley Cup final.
So, who is available to fill some of these and other coaching spots that might pop up?
We mentioned Tocchet and (later in this article) Bruce Boudreau, pending what happens in Vancouver, and Quinn, who probably didn’t get a fair showing in New York and will have learned from his stint with the Rangers. We could see Quinn in New Jersey or Philadelphia. Does Paul Maurice have another run in him? Former Jack Adams winner Bob Hartley is just back from a successful four-year run in the Kontinental Hockey League where he won a championship. Also filling out the roster of coaches with NHL experience are Claude Julien and Mike Babcock, although Julien’s age – he’ll turn 62 before the end of the month – and Babcock’s checkered past vis a vis relationships with players may be factors in their returning to full-time gigs. Lambert deserves a shot somewhere. Montgomery has slowly been rebuilding his career with his role on Craig Berube’s staff in St. Louis after alcohol issues led to Montgomery’s firing in Dallas. If the Blues go on a long run, Montgomery’s stock will rise again. Coaches making a name for themselves with strong American Hockey League seasons include longtime NHLer and former NHL head coach Kevin Dineen, who has guided Vancouver’s top farm team, Utica, to the top of the North Division; and Ryan Warsofsky, who has the Chicago Wolves at the top of the AHL’s Central Division standings. At some point an NHL team will look beyond North America, won’t it? If so, Rikard Gronborg has been on a number of NHL teams’ radars in the past and has a strong resume.
Mike Yeo, Philadelphia Flyers
We have all kinds of time for Yeo and he hasn’t had much to work with since taking over for Alain Vigneault earlier this season. That said, with the Flyers floundering their way through this miserable season – with a minus-66 goal differential good for 28th in the NHL, just 10 road wins and fans staying away in droves – there are clarion calls for change in Philadelphia. Again. Lots of folks have already drawn a line between longtime Flyer Rick Tocchet and the Philadelphia coaching job and that may make sense, although Tocchet, on the national panel with TNT this season, will have his choice of NHL jobs and the Flyers are a long way from anywhere. Still, whether it’s Tocchet or someone else, it seems inevitable the Flyers will once again be looking for a new head coach to try and make sense of their mess this off-season.
Bruce Boudreau, Vancouver Canucks
The Canucks have a club option for another year with Boudreau and there will be compensation for him if he’s not brought back. The veteran coach, who has reinvigorated the Canucks, also has an opt-out option if he wants to move on. The complicating factor – maybe – is that Boudreau was hired by ownership ahead of wholesale changes to Vancouver’s management structure that saw Hall of Famer Jim Rutherford take over as president of hockey ops and then hire Patrik Allvin to be his GM. The Canucks are almost certainly going to run out of runway and miss the playoffs. But there’s no denying the impact Boudreau has had on the team’s culture and the overall psyche of the franchise. The Canucks would be wise to move quickly as Boudreau’s performance has re-established him as a top NHL coach and there are going to be lots of teams looking for good coaches this off-season. Our guess is Boudreau returns and the Canucks are a playoff team next spring. But if the Canucks move in a different direction with their coaching, Boudreau will be on lots of teams’ shortlists.
Dave Lowry, Winnipeg Jets
The Jets remain one of the most confounding of NHL teams. Even after head coach Maurice stepped away unexpectedly, believing he had lost the ability to get the most out of this team, we were among the many who believed the Jets could find their way to the playoffs and had the ability to make some noise. It’s not going to happen and GM Kevin Cheveldayoff has some difficult decisions with respect to this roster and whether to retain Lowry, who stepped from assistant to interim head coach. Cheveldayoff’s modus operandi has been to take the cautious road so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Lowry got a full season to try and turn things around in Winnipeg or at least the start of a full season. But the team’s inability to gain any traction under Lowry suggests Cheveldayoff needs to be more bold and find someone who can take advantage of a team that has, since a 2018 trip to the Western Conference final, been more than a little underwhelming.