Just like players, coaches in the NHL are just as much of a talking point when they’re available for hire.
Throughout the latter months of the 2025-26 NHL season, we’ve seen coaching changes that sent waves throughout the league. Most notably, the New York Islanders replaced Patrick Roy with their late-season hiring of Peter DeBoer with four games left in the regular season. Before that, an even more surprising move flooded the headlines when the Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy and brought on John Tortorella as his replacement.
Since being let go, Cassidy has made appearances on TNT’s panel for their Stanley Cup Playoffs broadcasts, but that hasn’t taken away his potential of getting behind a new team’s bench. According to David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period on Hello Hockey, he said that the free agent is under consideration with two Western Conference teams that would keep him in the Pacific Division: the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers. Both are potential teams that could benefit from Cassidy as their bench boss.
The Kings currently have D.J. Smith, who was elevated to interim head coach after they parted ways with Jim Hiller. In his short tenure, Smith kept them on pace for the playoffs with an 11-6-6 record before falling to the Colorado Avalanche in the first round.
Los Angeles is at a pivotal turning point in losing their longtime franchise center in Anže Kopitar and will have to evaluate how they can utilize $18MM in cap space this summer to remain competitive with a forward group that has Quinton Byfield, Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe and Artemi Panarin all under contract through the 2027-28 season, when Drew Doughty, the Kings longtime franchise defenseman will be a free agent.
The Kings have lost in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of the last five seasons. If they want to make a deeper run, maybe Cassidy is the guy who can help them make one final push.
As for the Edmonton Oilers, Kris Knoblauch is finishing his third season behind the bench, in the approaching climax of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl‘s quest for both superstars’ first Stanley Cup. Since his hire, Edmonton has a .624 points percentage; good for the fifth-most regular-season wins in the NHL (135) and second to the Florida Panthers in playoff victories (31).
Through all that success, the Oilers still have yet to hoist the Stanley Cup within this timeframe. Back-to-back Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025 have both seen Edmonton clawed away by the Panthers. This past season, without Florida as a potential East opponent, they’re already in offseason mode after a first-round exit to the Anaheim Ducks.
Along with Pagnotta, Frank Seravalli of Victory + has also weighed in, saying the Oilers have sought permission to interview with Cassidy. Unfortunately for the Oilers, although the Golden Knights haven’t outright denied Edmonton, they are withholding their ability to interview Cassidy for the time being. If Cassidy were to consider the Edmonton job, it would be much more attractive, given the star power they possess. However, the window is much shorter, and the seat would automatically have a hotter temperature, given the circumstances of McDavid’s two-year, $25MM ($12.5MM AAV) extension kicking in.
According to Eric Macramalla of TSN, Cassidy has a year left on his contract with the Golden Knights at $4.5MM. If Vegas allowed Edmonton to interview and eventually hire him, Vegas would typically only owe the difference in his salary and not the entirety of the remaining money left.
Cassidy took the wheel with Vegas in the 2022-23 season, winning the franchise’s first Stanley Cup against a Panthers team that Edmonton has yet to crack in the big dance. He left carrying a .623 points percentage in Sin City and amassed the most playoff wins by a coach (24) in the Knights’ short history as an NHL team. Before that, he spent six seasons as head coach of the Boston Bruins. He was a Jack Adams Award winner in 2019-20, the year after making the 2019 Stanley Cup Finals, where the Bruins fell to the St. Louis Blues in seven games.
Both situations are certainly attractive and would mutually benefit Cassidy regardless of choice. He’s been known as a coach who brings a direct approach and a winning mindset to an organization. For two teams that are in the midst of competitive windows, they could use the tutelage of a coach who has the caliber that Bruce Cassidy can stand on.
The Kings went 11 and 12 under Smith, The Kings were 35 and 47 overall, Including 20 charity points, L.A. was an embarrassment to the incredibly flawed NHL playoff system.
Whoever gets Bruce Cassidy is getting a really good head coach. He will definitely raise any team’s profile. It will be interesting to see where he ends up.