The Sharks have relieved head coach David Quinn of his duties, per a team announcement Wednesday. San Jose’s head athletic trainer Ray Tufts will also not return next season, per Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News.
GM Mike Grier issued the following statement:
After going through our end of the season process of internal meetings and evaluating where our team is at and where we want our group to go, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at the head coach position. David is a good coach and an even better person. I would like to personally thank him for his hard work over these past two seasons. He and his staff did an admirable job under some difficult circumstances, and I sincerely appreciate how they handled the situation.
Quinn, 57, lasted two seasons behind the San Jose bench. His 41-98-25 record was poor but not much worse than expected for the rebuilding club. He’d signed a three-year contract with the club in 2022 to replace Bob Boughner, who was canned after guiding the club to three straight seasons under the .500 mark, the franchise’s longest such stretch since their first season above the mark in 1999-00.
This season was exceptionally difficult for Quinn and the Sharks. With a 19-54-9 record, San Jose became the first team in the salary cap era not to reach 20 wins in an 82-game season. Despite having near league-average goaltending from Mackenzie Blackwood and Kaapo Kähkönen, who combined for 68 starts, the Sharks allowed 326 goals – the third most in the salary cap era behind last year’s Blue Jackets and Ducks squads. Considering their top four defenders by average time on ice this season were Mario Ferraro, Henry Thrun, Jan Rutta and Kyle Burroughs, though, it’s difficult to make an argument that Quinn’s coaching was the primary cause.
Quinn’s lone previous role leading an NHL bench was with the Rangers from 2019 to 2021, leading their retool in the first few seasons of Alexis Lafrenière’s and Kaapo Kakko’s careers. The team hovered around the .500 mark throughout his time there, posting a 96-87-25 record, including two COVID-shortened seasons. After missing out on a playoff spot by 11 points in 2020-21 in the temporary East Division, the Rangers sacked him with two years left on his contract. He was earning cashflow from both New York and San Jose last season.
Speaking to reporters last weekend, Grier didn’t tip his hand either way regarding Quinn’s future, saying he was still in the evaluation process. He said Quinn and his staff “did a good job communicating and motivating the players throughout the year” and “they should be proud of” their efforts behind what he admitted was a banged-up, understaffed roster (via Pashelka).
Those comments weren’t dissimilar to what Kraken GM Ron Francis said Monday about the future of head coach Dave Hakstol, saying they were still evaluating his future after the club missed the playoffs. He’s already inked a two-year extension that kicks in next season.
The Sharks were expected to finish 32nd in the league entering the season. Most betting markets set the over/under on their points at 67.5 during the preseason. Still, a historically bad campaign rarely results in coaches being brought back. Anaheim and Columbus parted ways with their head coaches after their sieve-like seasons last year. However, the Red Wings notably retained Jeff Blashill behind the bench for a few more years after finishing with a .275 points percentage in the stunted 2019-20 season, still the worst in the salary cap era.
Those odds were set before captain Logan Couture was lost for nearly the whole season due to osteitis pubis, though. Considering star center Tomáš Hertl also played just 48 games before being shipped to the Golden Knights at the trade deadline, there was incredibly little for Quinn to work, especially for the back half of the campaign.
There were some things Quinn should be applauded for. He helped coax a bounce-back season out of center Mikael Granlund, who led the team with 60 points and 69 games and averaged 20:58 per game, a career-high. His 0.87 points per game tied his 2017-18 showing with the Wild for the best offensive performance of his career. He also oversaw a strong rookie campaign from 2021 seventh-overall pick William Eklund, who had 16 goals and 45 points in 80 games, including 15 points in his last 14 appearances.
Nevertheless, the Sharks will move on from Quinn with one season remaining on his contract. They’ll scour the market for his replacement for 2024-25, a squad they hope will be led by presumptive 2024 first-overall pick Macklin Celebrini.
The organization also parts ways with Tufts, who held his role with the club for 26 seasons. The 59-year-old also served as the head athletic trainer for Team USA at the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
i bet he’s about to throw the biggest party ever
He will resurface. He’s now qualified as a retread
Kind of like being a captain and flown in on the Titanic as it was going down and then being blamed for it sinking ain’t it?
Hhmmmm I can think of a guy that would love to coach in the Sun of Cali…and would be useful to a young team that is rebuilding..
Wilf Paiement?
No, he wants the GM job in Seattle
Get an NCAA coach. It’s about what this roster will be the next 5 years. Need a player development coach who gets the best out of youngsters.
David Quinn is the exemplum of a coach criticized for going directly from college to the NHL! He was hired by the Rangers specifically because he was “a young coach the players can related to.” Boston from 2013-2018 and then Rangers in 2018.
Coach of the United States men’s national team and this team has college kids and AHL players.
Grier is an idiot.
In that case, this is super dumb… which is in keeping with Griers style
How cowardly you are Grier. Fools lauded this moron for getting his ass ripped on give-away deals, he decrying this necessary per a full rebuild. Any player of value was GIVEN away in order to receive top draft picks and now he blames it on the coach. Absolute scummery.
Where did Grier blame the coach for anything? He quite clearly stated that the team is simply going in a different direction and even praised Quinn. Perhaps they have a new strategy for development that Quinn’s style was incongruous with. You are literally getting angry due to your own imagination.
He fired him. The ultimate blame game move. Oh, but he praised him as he kicked him out the door? Owners and GMs do this most of the time when they fire someone.
I agree with your conjecturing. Perhaps they have a new strategy to gain high draft choices for three years and then give them another three to develop, so one can hypothesize that Grier being fired before his eighth season as GM is just being delusional.
Or hire a man, such as Barry Trotz, who needn’t debase the organization, but instead goes out and makes good trades and becomes competitive in two years.
One, a man, another imagines himself being so.
Different direction? Definitely. Absolute reality that is. Tanking is not For David Quinn and that is the different direction you are lauding.
This is a classless move by a GM that can’t even u it improve his franchise in 2k24. Sorry that Quinn prefers winning and coaching legit NHL players . Lots of trash happening inside SJ brass. Still no plan
Jay Woodcroft?
Turk Gallant
Shame coaches can’t fire GMs because this one sucks
When I worked in city government the city manager told me, “Whenever there is a problem in an organization, look at the next higher level of management to see where the problem is coming from.” How true. In the case of the San Jose Sharks, the problem starts in the GM office. You lose your best player (Logan Couture) for two seasons and you’re expected to win.
Correction: One season for Couture.
Couture is not the best player on the team, Hertl was the best player. After he was traded, they didn’t have a best player.
You mean he was supposed to win with that roster?
Talk about a scapegoat.
Fired for finishing where the Sharks wanted to finish, Great Job Boss now get lost
Addition bh subtraction.
I am willing to bet my mortgage the Sharks win the lottery and get the 1st overall pick due to their poor record unlike the Red Wings in 2021 who fell to 4th due to the “Betmann Conspiracy” as he hates the Wings so vehemently he’s done everything he can to punish them at every opportunity. If the Sharks do “win” the lottery an investigation on the 2021 draft needs to be opened. The executive management of the NHL is a complete joke
JayHeck2158! You called it!!!
Grier should fire himself!