Bruins followers are actually not accustomed to watching the NHL playoffs with out their group being in it, whether or not as an actual contender or a by-default entrant.
Nevertheless, the 2024-25 season was clearly a unique story for Boston as their 33-39-10 report landed them on the backside of the Jap Convention.
Common supervisor Don Sweeney and group president Cam Neely have supposedly been arduous at work this offseason looking for a brand new head coach for the group that fired its Jack Adams winner in mid-November and spent the remainder of the yr with an interim coach.
However a number of the largest and most prized names have both been employed by different groups or retained by their earlier ones.
The Philadelphia Flyers snatched up former Canucks coach Rick Tocchet, and the New York Rangers grabbed former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. Moreover, the Anaheim Geese made a rent, and the College of Minnesota introduced that white whale faculty coach David Carle could be staying on as coach of the Gophers.
That leaves a a lot smaller pool for the Bruins to select from.
Listed below are some remaining contenders who may very well be tapped to be Boston’s subsequent head coach.
Bruins Teaching Search: Who Will Be Boston’s Subsequent Head Coach?
Peter Laviolette
This hiring could be a tough search for the Bruins franchise.
Mike Sullivan was one of many group’s most favored candidates to be their subsequent head coach earlier than New York employed him. He performed faculty hockey in Boston and is a local of Marshfield, MA. Laviolette can be a Bay Stater, however the Rangers fired him on the finish of final season.
It’s like in case your buddy began courting your crush and also you determined thus far his ex-girlfriend — it’s form of a loser transfer.
Laviolette has essentially the most head teaching expertise of anybody nonetheless obtainable for the Bruins.
He has greater than 20 years of head teaching expertise. He received the Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes and made a Cup Last look twice with the Flyers and Predators.
At his most up-to-date cease with New York, he was solely the coach for 2 seasons, with an total report of 94-59-11.
In keeping with The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, the Bruins could not have essentially the most curiosity in hiring Laviolette, given they didn’t aggressively pursue different high-profile teaching free brokers. However, as Shinzawa stated, Laviolette “has a historical past of speedy turnarounds upon touchdown a brand new gig.”
Jay Woodcroft
The Each day Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli recognized Woodcroft as “a number one candidate” for the job in Boston.
Woodcroft had restricted head teaching expertise with the Oilers for 2 years. He was fired 13 video games into his third yr with the group. General, he had a 79-41-13 report in Edmonton.
He led the group to a Convention Finals look, finally dropping to the Colorado Avalanche. The next yr, the Oilers misplaced to the Vegas Golden Knights within the second spherical.
Within the 2023-24 season, Edmonton had a 3-9-1 report by means of the primary 13 video games, which led them to resolve to maneuver on from Woodcroft.
Within the years since his dismissal from the Oilers, he’s been touring the world.
No, critically, he said it in an interview.
Joe Sacco
If the Bruins determined to rent their interim head coach, it could be form of like George Costanza’s transfer in Seinfeld, the place he stop his job after which got here within the subsequent day to work as if he by no means stop.
Besides, on this case, Sweeney and Neely made an enormous present about an intensive teaching search solely to then go together with the coach they already had.
Sacco is sensible as a possible teaching rent for the Bruins merely due to his information of the group. He spent a yr as an interim coach final season and a decade as an assistant in Boston.
From the beginning of the Bruins’ teaching search, administration has been upfront about the concept Sacco may very well be promoted from interim coach to full-time head coach.
“[Sacco]’s conscious that he’ll be a part of the ultimate group of coaches that we get right down to, as a result of I feel he’s earned and deserves that,” Sweeney stated.
I don’t understand how fashionable this determination could be with followers, however given the restricted remaining candidates, it could be Boston’s best choice.
