Which team has most attractive coaching vacancy?
Where everyone may or may not wind up is unknown at this point. What we can say, though, is that there are some great landing spots.
Anybody who gets to coach in the NHL for a living knows — pressure-packed existence notwithstanding — it’s a gig you’re fortunate to have. At this moment, there are a lucky No. 7 openings around the league, as teams unsatisfied with the direction they’ve taken look for new leadership.
The coaching carousel creates intrigue every spring. Our interest is particularly piqued this year, though, as some golden opportunities with up-and-coming clubs exist, as well as the chance to guide some heavyweight, legacy franchises. In fact, three Original Six clubs have ‘now hiring!’ signs on the front door.
On the flip side, as of Monday, Mike Sullivan — owner of two Stanley Cup rings with the Pittsburgh Penguins — is looking for a new job.
The name Joel Quenneville — a three-time Cup champion with Chicago — is making the rounds as well. Quenneville was reinstated by the NHL last July. Before that, he was deemed ineligible to work in the league for more than two years due to his inadequate response to learning about an alleged sexual assault by a Blackhawks video coach against one of the team’s players in 2010.
David Carle, who’s had remarkable success coaching the NCAA’s Denver Pioneers, is also on the radar, and don’t forget about Jay Woodcroft, a coach who won three playoff series in two years with the Edmonton Oilers in 2022 and ’23.
Where everyone may or may not wind up is unknown at this point. What we can say, though, is that there are some great landing spots.
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With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at each franchise in search of a new coach right now.
How’s this for a pitch: Come oversee a squad with young studs at every position — and more on the way in the pipeline — all while enjoying a sunny ride to work in Orange County?
If that won’t make you lie on your résumé, what will?
Seriously, the Ducks are an enticing opportunity because they’re clearly a team on the rise. The rub, though, is you’ll be expected to get Anaheim — if not into the playoffs — right on the doorstep by this time next year.
The Ducks made a 21-point jump this year from 59 to 80, but that still wasn’t enough to save Greg Cronin’s job after two years on the bench. General manager Pat Verbeek has only been on the job for three-plus years himself and already hired and fired Cronin.
A number of people, including Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, have linked Anaheim to Quenneville.
The bounce-back Bruins?
Boston may not be poised to return to contender status as early as next fall, but there are a few reasons to expect the B’s — attempting a re-tool on the fly — can be a competitive club again in 2025-26.
Internally, Boston will be counting on healthy years from its top two defencemen after both Charlie McAvoy (32 games missed) and Hampus Lindholm (65 games) were out for huge swaths of the season.
Jeremy Swayman jumps off the page as a bounce-back candidate in goal after a rough season this year that came on the heels of drawn-out contract negotiations.
And just go ahead and put David Pastrnak down for 105 points.
The oldest guy of that aforementioned group is Lindholm, who turned 31 in January. Everybody else in their 20s.
Also, expect the B’s to be aggressive on all the markets — free agent, trade, even restricted free agent — this summer.
Mike Sullivan, a Massachusetts native who already coached the Bruins for two seasons 20 years ago, is an obvious candidate here.
The Hawks’ standards may not be quite as high as the Ducks’ in terms of making the playoffs next year, but there is a clear sense of urgency in the Windy City.
And while it’s unfair to compare this rebuilding iteration of the team to the one that won three titles in the 2010s, there’s a lot to like in Chicago.
Despite not dazzling the way some (perhaps unreasonably) expected in his first two seasons, Connor Bedard remains a fantastic, foundational piece. Artyom Levshunov, a right-shot defenceman selected second overall in 2024, looked very promising in the 18 NHL games he played this year, while the likes of forward Frank Nazar and defencemen Kevin Korchinski and Sam Rinzel could all be elevating this team’s fortunes very soon.
The expectation in Chicago is this spring will be the last time for a while the club is concerned with draft lottery balls.
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If you were to categorize the three Original Six squads on this list, you’d say Chicago is firmly in the building phase, the Bruins are hoping for one step back, two forward, while the Rangers expect a return to Cup contention immediately.
Is that possible?
Well, having Igor Shesterkin in net is certainly a great start. And while you could easily argue many of the wounds were self-inflicted, the Rangers clearly just had a year from hell and were still in the playoff chase until the final week of the season. Getting back to the 100-point range would seem very doable for a squad with Shesterkin — now fully settled with his new contract signed at the beginning of the season — in goal, Adam Fox on the blue line, Artemi Panarin up front and an entire summer for recently extended GM Chris Drury to shed some salary and manipulate the roster.
This is a win-now situation with at least some of the components in place to do just that.
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At his year-end presser, GM Danny Briere indicated the Flyers are moving from a position where they’re selling off players to bringing in help this summer. Philadelphia has the fourth-best odds at the first-overall pick in next week’s draft lottery and if the balls fall Philly’s way, it could add a first- or second-overall talent to a team that already has Matvei Michkov on the roster.
This is a proud franchise with an impatient fanbase. The Flyers likely don’t really expect to end a five-year playoff drought next spring, but they’re shifting gears and looking to make substantial gains.
It’s tempting to think a team that just had John Tortorella on the bench will change course and go with a more player-friendly coach, but Philly is still looking to crank up the heat on this young club.
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Pittsburgh Penguins
Actually, do you mind telling us what this team is doing?
OK, we kid. It’s just that — speaking of kids — the plan of changing the cast around Sidney Crosby in time to build a winner before he retires feels impossibly difficult to pull off.
Reminder: Crosby turns 38 in August.
Great as he is, Pittsburgh, we think you have a timeline problem.
Think of it this way; if the Pens are “lucky” enough to bottom out next year and draft Gavin McKenna first overall, Crosby will be 39 to start McKenna’s rookie year and 40 when, let’s say after a year to figure things out, McKenna theoretically becomes a nuclear threat at the NHL level. And, by the way, McKenna would be joining a roster that was bad enough to finish in the bottom few slots in the entire league.
Hmmm.
Listen, this situation is worth well more than a flippant “there are only 32 of these jobs in the world” observation. This is a legacy franchise with an all-time NHLer at the centre of it. Still, if you’re applying for this gig, get in writing that your success or failure will be determined by more than how many points the team accumulates in the next few seasons.
The Kraken will begin their fifth NHL campaign next year and are already in search of their third coach following Dan Bylsma’s one-and-done year.
This team signed two big contracts in free agency last summer, handing seven-year deals to Brandon Montour and Chandler Stephenson. While Seattle has patient builders in the building with president of hockey operations Ron Francis and newly appointed GM Jason Botterill, it can sometimes feel like they’re chasing the ghost of 2023, when Seattle unexpectedly made the playoffs and won a round in Year 2 of its existence.
This team was 20 points from a post-season spot this year and it’s hard to imagine the Kraken will be a 95-point club next season.
This is a long-term project for any coach who comes on board. Mike Sullivan has a history with Botterill from the Penguins organization but, then again, so did the recently axed Bylsma.
