Seats can get hot fast in the NHL. Just ask two of the coaches who’ve been canned already this season.
Jay Woodcroft had a career .643 points percentage in 133 games as coach of the Edmonton Oilers. Dean Evason, meanwhile, was only slightly behind with over 100 more games under his belt, posting a .639 mark in 251 nights as the Minnesota Wild’s bench boss.
Still, that wasn’t enough for either of them to survive horrible starts by their now-former teams.
A third coach fired this year, Craig Berube, did miss the 2023 post-season, but still had a great five-year run with the St. Louis Blues that began with him hoisting the Stanley Cup in the spring of 2019 after being an in-season replacement for Mike Yeo just months prior.
Which brings us to, who else, the Toronto Maple Leafs.
It’s not like Sheldon Keefe hasn’t faced job security questions before. And with his team really struggling to earn regulation-time wins and, most pressingly right now, hold leads, some are wondering if first-year Toronto GM Brad Treliving could make a change even after giving Keefe an extension in the summer.
Of course, speculation only surges when there’s a Cup-winning coach (and former Maple Leafs player, no less) like Berube out there openly expressing his desire to immediately jump back in the game, to say nothing of the precedent set by Berube’s 2019 Blues and Mike Sullivan’s 2016 Penguins as teams that went on to win a title after an in-season coaching change.
With the bench boss of a supposed contender suddenly seemingly like he could be in a precarious position, we’re using this week’s Power Rankings to do a coach check on each of the NHL’s 32 squads.
1. Winnipeg Jets (29-10-4) How do you like Rick Bowness hockey, Manitoba? The oldest most experienced bench boss in the league* has the Jets playing air-tight defensively, surrendering a league-low 2.28 goals-against per game. How easy is Bowness to root for, especially in a season where his personal life has been impacted by his wife, Judy, suffering a serious seizure that took him away from the team for a stretch.
*Technically interim Sens coach Jacques Martin is the oldest bench boss in the league, at 71, but 68-year-old Bowness is the most senior full-time coach.
2. Boston Bruins (26-8-9) Jim Montgomery is the reigning coach of the year and has the Bruins firing again. His personal story of overcoming alcoholism is also a shining example of a person finding the support and courage to overcome an enormous life challenge.
3. Vancouver Canucks (29-11-4) Rick Tocchet was hired last January and has now coached nearly the equivalent of an entire season (80 games, to be exact) with Vancouver and his team has won 49 of those outings. Next question.
4. Colorado Avalanche (29-13-3) As you may know, Jared Bednar is the only man to coach teams to titles in the ECHL, AHL and NHL. He’s in Year 8 with the Avs and his .614 career points percentage is best among active coaches.
5. Edmonton Oilers (24-15-1) Life has been good under Kris Knoblauch, who’s guided Edmonton to a 21-6-0 mark since taking over from Jay Woodcroft. Don’t forget, Paul Coffey joined the bench with Knoblauch and the Oilers legend has also had a hand in getting this team turned completely around.
6. Florida Panthers (27-13-4) Paul Maurice has been delighting us with one-liners since he broke into the league at age 29 nearly 30 years ago as coach of the Hartford Whalers. Maurice made his second run to the final last spring with the Panthers, but is still in search of that elusive first ring.
7. Dallas Stars (26-12-5) Pete DeBoer is in his second year with the Stars after guiding the club to a final-four appearance in Year 1. Remember, DeBoer took the Devils and Sharks to the Cup final in his first season behind their benches, so let’s hope, for the Stars’ sake, he hasn’t already crested in Texas. (FWIW, we don’t think he has).
8. Carolina Hurricanes (24-14-5) Rod Brind’Amour is basically ‘Mr. Hurricane,’ having been captain of the only Cup-winning club in team history and now being in his sixth year as coach and, you could argue, the franchise face in Carolina.
9. New York Rangers (28-13-2) First-year Rangers coach Peter Laviolette has always been a guy whose calling card is getting teams to attack and score. Last year under Gerard Gallant, the Rangers finished 12th overall with 3.33 goals per game. This season, the Blueshirts are…12th in the NHL with 3.30 goals per game.
10. Vegas Golden Knights (25-14-5) Bruce Cassidy had a .672 points percentage in five-plus years in Boston, but lost Game 7 of the 2019 Cup final on home ice. He got his ring in Year 1 in the desert, but needs to get the banged-up Knights playing better hockey right now.
11. Los Angeles Kings (21-12-8) The four active guys who have more wins than Todd McLellan — Lindy Ruff, Paul Maurice, Peter Laviolette and John Tortorella — all basically got a 10-year head start on the Kings bench boss. L.A. was playing tight, tight hockey for two months, but needs to score more to pull out of its current tailspin.
12. Pittsburgh Penguins (21-15-6) When the Pens were under .500 in early December, it was fair to wonder if the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL was coming to the end in Pittsburgh. But Mike Sullivan has the club cooking now in a season where it absolutely has to make the playoffs.
13. Detroit Red Wings (23-16-5) Detroit was on a real December slide, but second-year coach Derek Lalonde has helped steer them back into a playoff spot with a 6-0-1 start to January.
14. Philadelphia Flyers (24-14-6) Seriously, who’s doing a better job than 65-year-old John Tortorella? The two-time Jack Adams winner could add a third coach-of-the-year trophy if Philly sees this through and makes the playoffs.
15. Seattle Kraken (19-16-9) Dave Hakstol was a bit of a surprise hiring for Seattle, but he made the second round of the playoffs in Year 2 and has the Kraken on course again this year after rocky start. (That, of course, has a lot to do with Joey Daccord’s play, which brings us to one this game’s great truisms: Show me a good goalie, I’ll show you a good coach.)
16. Toronto Maple Leafs (21-13-8) It’s just hard to get away from the fact Sheldon Keefe has lead this team to just 13 60-minute wins this year, which is one more than Ottawa has and fewer than 24 clubs in the league.
17. New Jersey Devils (22-17-3) Last year started with “Fire Lindy!” chants in the cheap seats when the Devils lost a couple home games out of the gate. Then they surged to the playoffs and a Round 1 win. This club was expected to battle for the division title, so if Jersey misses the playoffs — even with injuries to several key players — hard questions are going to be asked.
18. Nashville Predators (24-19-1) Andrew Brunette is an O.P. — Original Pred. It seemed like he might be the long-term coach in Florida after he took over from Joel Quenneville in 2021, but a brutal playoff exit that spring probably helped the team decide to tab Paul Maurice instead.
Brunette is part of a re-fresh in Nashville now and the Preds are currently tracking a playoff spot.
19. Washington Capitals (21-15-6) Rookie head coach Spencer Carbery arrived with the reputation as a power play guru, having handled that department for the Toronto Maple Leafs for the past couple years. Washington’s PP has been trending up, but still ranks 30th in the league right now.
20. Tampa Bay Lightning (22-17-5) Jon Cooper just notched his 500th career win, all with the Bolts as the longest-tenured coach in the league. No active coach has more post-season victories than Cooper’s 86 and he and Mike Sullivan are the only active guys with two rings. If best-on-best international hockey wasn’t on an eight-year hiatus, Cooper would have been behind Canada’s bench at the 2022 Olympics.
21. Calgary Flames (21-18-5) Rookie head coach Ryan Huska has the Flames playing their best hockey of the year. Calgary desperately needed a tone change behind the bench after two-plus seasons of Darryl Sutter.
22. Montreal Canadiens (19-18-7) The only Hall of Fame player among current coaches, Martin St. Louis is learning right alongside his rebuilding team. It’s pretty crazy to think he had no coaching experience beyond youth hockey when he was hired basically two years ago and a credit to him to note his inexperience hasn’t seemed to matter — at least not yet — in terms of the job he’s doing coaching the Habs.
23. New York Islanders (19-15-10) The Islanders have three wins in their past 11 outings and are allowing nearly four goals per game in that stretch. Second-year bench boss Lane Lambert needs to clamp down fast.
24. Arizona Coyotes (21-18-3) Andre Tourigny was hired for the long haul in 2021 and the club has made progress in each of his three seasons behind the bench. If the Coyotes ever do fully turn a corner, Tourigny will likely still be the coach.
25. St. Louis Blues (21-19-2) The Blues started 5-0-1 under new coach Drew Bannister, but are 3-4-1 since then. The interim boss has the rest of the season to prove his worth. The 49-year-old former NHL D-man has coached in OHL and AHL finals.
26. Buffalo Sabres (19-21-4) Players have strongly backed Don Granato, but that might not be enough to save him if the Sabres don’t make a serious second-half playoff push. If Ryan Miller was still this team’s goalie, we wouldn’t be talking about Granato’s job security.
27. Columbus Blue Jackets (14-21-9) Nobody started this year in a tougher spot than Pascal Vincent, the rookie head coach who replaced Mike Babcock after the latter couldn’t even make it to training camp before controversy hit. With Columbus struggling again, it feels like Vincent could be just one of a few hockey ops people in Ohio in search of a new gig next season. Vincent was certainly well-regarded before he got this job under less-than-ideal circumstances, so if the Jackets do make a change, he should be fine.
28. Minnesota Wild (18-20-5) First 14 games under John Hynes equaled new-coach bump: 11-3-0. Past 10 equaled new-coach dump: 2-7-1. Obviously this isn’t all on him, but a Hynes-coached team has never finished higher than fourth in its division in eight seasons.
29. Ottawa Senators (15-24-0) It’s stiff competition for the most bizarre thing to happen in Ottawa this year, but let’s not sleep on Jacques Martin being the Sens coach again as No. 1. He may never set a microphone on fire, but — in his coaching prime — the man sure knew how to get the most out of a team.
30. Anaheim Ducks (15-28-1) Greg Cronin is obviously going to need a couple years to see what he can do with this young Ducks squad. He was a bit of a surprise hire last summer and it’s pretty cool to see a guy get his first NHL head coaching gig at 60 years old.
31. Chicago Blackhawks (13-29-2) Second-year Hawks coach Luke Richardson is a widely respected person who will get a long leash to oversee this ground-up rebuild. Coaching Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini might make him look like Scotty Bowman.
32. San Jose Sharks (10-31-4) David Quinn cannot be having much fun through a season-and-a-half in San Jose. The Sharks won just 22 games last year and are on pace for fewer than that this season.
