While the rest of the hockey world was talking yesterday about the latest concussion suffered by Sidney Crosby, Pierre LeBrun of TSN tweeted out an interesting note about the Florida Panthers’ coaching search. The venerable hockey insider reports that the Panthers have asked for and received permission from the San Jose Sharks to interview Bob Boughner for their vacancy. LeBrun adds that they also may be after assistant coaches still working in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with teams that have yet to be eliminated.
Boughner, one may remember, was a candidate for the Colorado Avalanche job last summer after Patrick Roy left the team in August, a job that eventually went to Jared Bednar who had been coaching in the AHL. Boughner just completed just his second year with the Sharks, after a lengthy tenure with the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL.
Joining Windsor in 2006, he quickly turned around a franchise that had been to just one Memorial Cup in its history and never won the CHL tournament. Within four seasons, Boughner had led the team to back-to-back championships while guiding young players like Taylor Hall and Ryan Ellis to greatness. It earned him a spot on the Columbus Blue Jackets bench as an assistant coach for one season before returning to the Spitfires in 2011.
While Boughner doesn’t have any experience as a head coach at the professional level, he is considered an up-and-coming option that will eventually get an opportunity somewhere, and comes with a much different marketing spin than other “old guard” options like Michel Therrien or Lindy Ruff. Other assistants that may be of interest fall into both of these categories, like the experienced Marc Crawford from Ottawa or inexperienced assistant Phil Housley from Nashville.