The Jets’ Rick Bowness, the Predators’ Andrew Brunette and the Canucks’ Rick Tocchet are this year’s finalists for the Jack Adams Award, the league announced Friday. The honor is given to the head coach who “contributed the most to his team’s success.”
We’ll have a first-time winner for the fifth year in a row. Last year’s recipient was Bruins bench boss Jim Montgomery, who led Boston to the best regular season in league history (.823 points percentage) since the Canadiens’ 60-8-12 (.825 points percentage) run in 1976-77.
Bowness, 69, is by far the most veteran option among the finalists. A good portion of his 30-plus years behind an NHL bench has been spent as an assistant, but he’s still managed 310 wins and 803 regular-season games coached as a head coach. After guiding Winnipeg to only its second 100-point season in franchise history with a 52-24-6 record, Bowness is the first Jets/Thrashers coach to be nominated for the Jack Adams in franchise history.
Brunette is also gunning for his first Coach of the Year honor despite holding less than two full seasons as a head coach. Both have yielded great results, though, guiding the Panthers to the 2022 Presidents’ Trophy after taking over for John Quenneville early in the season. He was back in a head coaching role this year, taking over behind the Predators’ bench and guiding what many viewed to be a fringe team to a 99-point season, including a franchise-record 18-game point streak from Feb. 17 to March 26. Nashville’s 47-30-5 record placed them in the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference, returning to postseason play after missing out in 2023.
The 60-year-old Tocchet rightfully gets a nod here in his first full season as head coach of the Canucks. Vancouver was arguably the league’s most surprising team this season, especially considering their level of dominance. They weren’t just a playoff team like some had hoped for at the beginning of the year – they were one of the best in the league for long stretches, finishing with a 50-23-9 record and their first division title in 11 years. The Canucks’ 109 points were their most since hitting 111 in the 2011-12 campaign.
Brunette should get it.
May I ask why he deserves it over Bowness. The Jets were a miserable team before he took over. In fairness to Brunette, he did coach more games this season, as Bowness dealt with family/medical issues. I just feel the culture change and the record should trump all other reasons. He’s likey to retire so let’s send him off with some hardware.
Let’s go Rocket!
I’m shocked Knoblauch isn’t a finalist. I mean he took the 2nd worst team in the NHL into playoff contention. McDavid and Draisaitl aside they were not playing NHL hockey for the 1st two months and once Knobby and Coffey took over it was a totally different team. But I still think Bowness took a below average canucks team to top of the league so certainly gotta give him props.
Stuart Skinner save percentage before November 12: .861
Jack Campbell save percentage before November 12: .873
Stuart Skinner save percentage after November 12: .912
Calvin Pickard save percentage after November 12: .909
Not to criticize Knoblauch by any means – he’s a fine coach. But the coaching change wasn’t the primary reason for their turnaround, IMO. The Oilers’ possession numbers were actually slightly better under Woodcroft, albeit in a small sample size.
Lol whoops I mean tocchet got my Canadian coaches mixed up lol
I mean you have to wonder though those save percentages go up because of a different style of play limiting high danger chance? To be fair skinner was Wayyyy better after that horrid start but the D was also wayyyy better. Either way I am not saying the 3 finalists don’t deserve to be there because they absolutely do. I was just a bit surprised not to see the knobster on there. Tocchet gets my vote! (Got it right this time!!!)
Under Woodcroft, the Oilers allowed 2.41 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5v5 – eighth-lowest in the league through Nov. 12th, per Natural Stat Trick. Under Knoblauch, they were essentially the same (2.40), so no significant difference in the cumulative quality of chances they were allowing. Pretty much all came down to goaltending and finishing.
Ok very interesting. It really makes one wonder what the spark of a new coach does to a team. I mean the oilers changed in play was astronomical, but nearly every team that fires its coach mid season gets a significant boost in their quality of play. Also for the record I did not think Woodcroft deserved to be fired he did a fine job with that team they just were not playing at the start of the year but I was shocked by the drastic turnaround when knoblauch took over.
You mean Tocchet in reference to the Nucks team? Hard to be bad when you have two of the top 5 players in the NHL, but Knoblauch should have been a finalist. I think the lack of games / late start was to his detriment.
Two of the top 5 players in the NHL? Just a bit of a stretch there.
Would you prefer I say forwards? Or top 10? Or change my statement to arguably top 5? It’s not much of a stretch, but would love to know your top 10.
Not in any particular order but Matthews, Kooch, MacKinnon, Drais and McDavid form the top 5 for me. Was hard to overlook Pasta for the group.
You made the claim that Vancouver had “two of the top 5 players in the NHL,” who are they? And you made that comment in a way to say Tocchet isn’t worthy of this award because somehow having a couple of talented players means you don’t have to be a good coach to win. Colorado actually has “two of the top 5 players in the NHL” and Bednar isn’t a finalist here.
I made a claim that the Oilers have two of the top 5. I also listed my top 5. Cheers
Yeah Pasta is certainly in that consideration. I’m didn’t know how so many guys passed over him in his draft year. Same with Kuch.
Fair enough, I read it wrong and had to go back and re-read it; I saw that comment right after the comment on Tocchet. Cheers
I can see the lack of clarity in my statement so that’s probably on me :)
Would love to know your top dogs.
I have him around 6-7. It’s not an easy list.
As a Devils fan this is even more depressing
Tocchet would be my pick.
Winner gets a trophy, 2nd & 3rd place get fired within a year.
And winner might get canned in a couple of years, it’s the business they’re in, hired to be fired. And when they do get canned they stay home and college their full salary to not work. Because of that I’ll never feel sorry for these guys.
If Boston doesn’t win tonight, not impossible last year’s finalists hit the trifecta lol