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Bruce Cassidy

Vegas Golden Knights Hire Bruce Cassidy

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The Vegas Golden Knights have officially named Bruce Cassidy as the third head coach in franchise history. GM Kelly McCrimmon released the following statement about his new bench boss:

The Golden Knights are very pleased to have Bruce come in to coach our team. His success in Boston over six years is extremely impressive. His teams have had a clear identity, having been among the very best in the NHL in terms of goals for, goals against, goal differential and special teams. This is the right coach for our team at this time.

Vegas’ head coaching vacancy opened up when the team fired Peter DeBoer on May 16 after they missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Cassidy met a similar fate last week, despite his Bruins taking the Metropolitan Division champion Carolina Hurricanes to seven games in their First Round series.

Cassidy had an incredibly successful five-and-a-half-season stretch in Boston, and he’ll look to bring that consistency to the Golden Knights. The 57-year-old Ottawa native brings an Eastern Conference title in 2019 under his belt as well as a consistent regular-season track record. The worst points percentage a Bruins team had under Cassidy was .652, a mark they hit in 2018-19, 2020-21, and 2021-22. That’s a 107-point pace over a full 82-game season. It was an unexpected firing, to say the least, and the Golden Knights hope they’ve capitalized on another team’s seemingly poor decision.

The veteran of 509 games as an NHL coach instantly became one of the elite names on the coaching market this offseason alongside DeBoer and former New York Islanders bench boss Barry Trotz. Cassidy had multiple suitors, but the Golden Knights were the first to focus on Cassidy as their top candidate. He’s got a history of managing a top line that’s terrorized opponents, something the Golden Knights hope they can replicate with a trio of Max Pacioretty, Jack Eichel, and Mark Stone. With arguably a better supporting forward cast in Vegas than Cassidy had in Boston, at least on the wings, the Knights hope Cassidy can help guide a healthy team back to elite status.

ESPN’s Kevin Weekes was the first to report that Vegas would be hiring Cassidy.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Golden Knights Showing Interest In Bruce Cassidy As Next Head Coach

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It has been an offseason of some surprise when it comes to the coaching carousel around the league.  Vegas opted to part ways with Peter DeBoer, their second coaching change in their five seasons of existence, making them one of the more prominent teams looking for a new bench boss.  Recently, there was a surprise addition to the coaching market when Boston let Bruce Cassidy go earlier this week.  As Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (video link), the Golden Knights have started to key in on Cassidy as their top candidate over the last few days.

Regular season success is something that Cassidy had plenty of in his days with the Bruins posting a 245-108-46 record with him behind the bench, good for a .652 points percentage.  Vegas has been under that mark in two of the last three seasons.  However, his track record of playoff success hasn’t been as good as Boston went 36-37 in the postseason under their former bench boss which is something that teams will certainly be considering as they work through evaluating him.

Vegas is certainly one of the more appealing teams looking for a head coach.  They’re an organization that clearly has a win-now mindset and they have shown no hesitance towards spending to the Upper Limit (or higher, considering their cap management in recent years).  Both of those have to be appealing to any coaching candidate although the quick trigger on coaching changes also stands out.

Cassidy has expressed a desire to jump right back into coaching and would be a good fit in Vegas so it will be interesting to see if they can get a deal done over the next few days.  It would go a long way towards kickstarting the coaching shuffle as things have slowed to a crawl on that front with many feeling Barry Trotz’s decision on where to go next is holding things up.  If Vegas goes a different direction and opts for Cassidy, perhaps that domino falling will get things going on that front soon after.

Bruce Cassidy Hopes To Coach In 2022-23

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Former Boston Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy met with the media today including Amalie Benjamin of NHL.com to discuss his recent firing, and after explaining how much he cared about the organization, indicated that he does want to coach again next season. “This is what I do,” Cassidy said when asked if he would coach in the NHL next season should an opportunity present itself.

The 57-year-old coach is still under contract with the Bruins for next season, meaning other teams would need to cover part or all of the $3MM he is owed on the final year of an extension he signed in 2019. That came just a few months after the Cassidy-led Bruins lost in the Stanley Cup Final against the St. Louis Blues, a loss he referenced today as something that still bothers him.

Interestingly enough, Cassidy wasn’t really high on most lists of coaching candidates when he first took over in Boston. When he was announced as the replacement for Claude Julien partway through the 2016-17 season, he was regarded as a good AHL coach who had failed in his previous stint behind an NHL bench. Cassidy’s first go-round as a head coach at that level was with the Washington Capitals, where he lost in the first round in year one and then was fired partway through his second season after an 8-16-1 start.

He hadn’t even had much playoff success in the minor leagues, though his AHL teams were regularly near the top of the standings in the regular season. In the NHL, he took the Bruins to at least the second round in four of his five full seasons, and reached the postseason in all six years he was behind the bench. Overall, his record improved from 47-47-9-7 with the Capitals to 245-108-46 with the Bruins, though his overall playoff winning percentage is still below .500.

Confirming today that he has talked to “a number of teams” already, it appears as though he’ll get his wish to be behind an NHL bench again next season. He was linked to the Philadelphia Flyers this morning, though, with so many openings around the league, Cassidy will likely have several interested teams.

Coaching Notes: Richardson, Flyers, Samuelsson

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When Dominique Ducharme was unavailable due to a positive COVID-19 result in the 2021 playoff run, assistant Luke Richardson stepped in without missing a beat. The long-time NHL defenseman, who played more than 1,400 games in the league, had some head coaching experience with the Belleville Senators previously and had no trouble taking the reins in Montreal. The team played well, and Richardson was suddenly being looked at as a future NHL coach.

Now, with openings all over the league, Richardson’s name has emerged again. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reports that the Chicago Blackhawks have asked permission to interview Richardson for their head coaching vacancy, and Renaud Lavoie of TVA Sports confirms that he is a candidate. Chicago has also requested permission to interview Vancouver Canucks assistant Brad Shaw.

  • The Philadelphia Flyers have not yet started their second round of interviews, according to Seravalli, but did speak with Jeff Blashill during the first round. Bruce Cassidy and David Quinn are also expected to be on their list (with Quinn also linked to the Detroit Red Wings), and John Tortorella will be a part of the second round, whenever that occurs. It’s quite a carousel this offseason with such a deep pool of qualified candidates available.
  • Even if Shaw doesn’t leave the Canucks, the team is looking for another assistant coach. Rick Dhaliwal of CHEK TV tweets that Ulf Samuelsson could be a candidate, as he is no longer with the Florida Panthers. Samuelsson had been with Florida for two years but there could be more changes coming for the Panthers, who have yet to announce whether Jack Adams finalist Andrew Brunette will return as head coach.

Bruins Notes: Coaching Staff, Buyouts, Rebuild

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After the Boston Bruins made news last night by relieving head coach Bruce Cassidy of his duties, general manager Don Sweeney met with the media today to explain the decision. Sweeney told reporters including Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic that it was time for a new voice, and that he and Cassidy had already decided assistant coach Kevin Dean would not be returning.

Chris Kelly and Joe Sacco, however, are currently still under contract. It obviously remains to be seen whether they are kept on by whoever the Bruins hire next, but they were not relieved of their duties with Cassidy. Here are some more notes from Sweeney’s presser:

  • The team is not expected to buy anyone out this offseason, despite lots of speculation about Nick Foligno after his poor debut with the club. The 34-year-old forward (35 in October), is signed for one more season at a $3.8MM cap hit and scored just two goals in 64 games this season. The Bruins already have more than $80MM committed to next season, though with the injury timelines of players like Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy, long-term injured reserve can obviously give them some flexibility to start the year.
  • Of course, that also doesn’t include Patrice Bergeron, who is an unrestricted free agent this summer after winning his record-setting fifth Selke Trophy. Matt Porter of the Boston Globe relays comments from Sweeney which suggest a “directional shift” if Bergeron doesn’t return, or if the injured players struggle to get back to full strength. It seems unlikely that a full tear down is on the horizon, given the team just recently traded for and extended Hampus Lindholm, but Sweeney already seems to be preparing for the possibility of a down year in 2022-23.

Boston Bruins Fire Bruce Cassidy

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The Boston Bruins have announced tonight that they have relieved Bruce Cassidy of his duties as head coach. Cassidy had been the Bruins’ head coach since 2017-18 and led the team to the playoffs in each season he coached, including a run to Game Seven of the Stanley Cup Final in 2019. Bruins GM Don Sweeney issued the following statement as part of the announcement:

Today I informed Bruce Cassidy that I was making a head coaching change. After 14 years working with Bruce, this was an extremely difficult decision. I want to thank and acknowledge Bruce for all his work and success with the Bruins organization. His head coaching record for the Bruins is impressive, and we are appreciative of Bruce both professionally and personally. After taking some time to fully digest everything, I felt that the direction of our team for both this season and beyond would benefit from a new voice. I want to wish Bruce, Julie, Shannon and Cole much success as a family and with their future opportunities.

This move is a genuinely surprising one, although there have been some hints of simmering unhappiness in the Bruins’ organization that may not have been seen by observers outside of the Boston market. The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa covered the disconnect on offensive philosophy between Cassidy and Sweeney, and further reported that the team’s management had turned up the heat on Cassidy. While at the time some may have looked at Shinzawa’s reports and seen the normal, expected reaction of a team reeling from a difficult playoff exit and not any indication of any looming changes, it’s now clear that his work was foreshadowing the major change that was just announced.

For some, there is a sense of great confusion regarding this firing, and such feelings are definitely reasonable. Cassidy’s ability as one of the league’s top coaches in not up for debate. He led a Bruins team that had stagnated near the end of former coach Claude Julien’s tenure back to the top of the NHL’s pecking order, coming within a single win of capturing the Stanley Cup in 2019. Cassidy took the reigns of a team ready to compete and navigated the challenges of managing a team with such established, veteran stars in order to deliver competitive, playoff hockey year after year.

Cassidy finishes his Bruins tenure with a 245-108 record in the regular season and a 36-37 record in the playoffs. Cassidy had one year remaining on his contract, per TSN’s Chris Johnston.

With this firing, the Bruins enter one of the most competitive coaching markets in recent memory. As part of their announcement, the Bruins stated that they would be beginning their coaching search “immediately,” and that Sweeney would be running the search process. Fellow contending teams such as the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars are among the clubs in search of a new coach, and the number of teams the Bruins will be competing with for any desired candidate is six. It’s still too early to know exactly which direction the Bruins will go with their next head coach, but seeing as the team still intends to compete next season with their core of Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, and Patrice Bergeron (should he opt to re-sign instead of retire) it’s easy to connect them with the veteran coaches already on the market such as Barry Trotz or Paul Maurice.

For Cassidy, this development is definitely an unfortunate one, of course, but also one that could represent a major opportunity. Cassidy immediately joins Trotz as one of the top names on the coaching market, and he is in a position to join another team at a time when his stock as a coach is sky-high. The 2020 Jack Adams Award winner will definitely have a multitude of suitors this offseason and could even choose to wait until the next cycle if a break is what he desires. As previously mentioned, Cassidy has a year remaining on his contract so, financially speaking, there is no rush for him to accept a new job.

There is a sentiment among some that Cassidy’s firing is proof of his role as the “fall guy” for the Bruins’ front office in the face of the team’s inability to win a second Stanley Cup since 2011. Ty Anderson of The Sports Hub detailed that line of thinking, stating that the Bruins’ problems lay more in their personnel than their coaching. With Cassidy now fired, the blame for any struggles the Bruins face from this point forward will now be more easily targeted at the team’s front office. Sweeney and the rest of the Bruins’ brass seemingly have the full faith of ownership, but with Cassidy gone the heat they face gets turned up.

With a new coach needed and their captain out of a contract, this summer could be one of major changes for the Bruins’ roster and should be one of major consequence for what remains of this era of Bruins hockey.

Atlantic Notes: Cassidy, Soderblom, Campbell

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After being eliminated last month, Bruins president Cam Neely indicated he hoped to have a new contract in place for GM Don Sweeney within the coming days who would then decide the fate of head coach Bruce Cassidy.  More than two weeks have passed and there has been no word on either front yet.  Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe opines that Neely and Sweeney – the talent suppliers – are the ones to blame for their recent early exits while he suggests firing Cassidy wouldn’t make sense based on how the team has performed during the regular season in recent years even without the playoff success they were hoping for.  That said, a change for the sake of change to bring a new voice in the room – which is a lot like what happened when Cassidy took over for Claude Julien – could certainly happen but a determination on his future won’t come until Sweeney and Neely can work out a new deal.

More from the Atlantic:

  • The Red Wings are hoping to work out an entry-level contract this offseason with prospect Elmer Soderblom, notes MLive’s Ansar Khan. The hulking winger stands 6’8 and weighs 249 pounds and is coming off a good season in the SHL that saw him put up 21 goals in 52 games with Frolunda of the SHL.  His deal in Sweden is now up so assuming the 2019 sixth-rounder does sign, he’ll almost certainly play in North America next season instead of being loaned back overseas like Detroit did with prospect blueliner Albert Johansson this season.
  • At this point, it appears as if Maple Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell will test unrestricted free agency next month, TSN’s Chris Johnston suggested in a recent appearance on TSN 1050 (audio link). Toronto knows what Campbell’s asking price has been for quite some time dating back to contract talks in the fall and they haven’t been willing to meet that just yet.  Campbell, who was named to the All-Star Game this season, had an up and down year, posting a 2.64 GAA along with a .914 SV% in 49 games.  He’s set to be one of the better goalies to hit the open market and could push for three times the AAV he had on his expiring deal which checked in at $1.65MM.

Latest On Boston Bruins Management, Coaching

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After a few days of player, coach, and management press availabilities, Boston Bruins president Cam Neely took the podium today to speak with the media and updated the status of some high-level employees. Neely admitted that he and Bruins ownership were disappointed in how the team bowed out of the first round, and that changes may be on the horizon.

On general manager Don Sweeney, who does not yet have a contract for next season, Neely indicated that they would sit down and work out a deal in the coming days. He praised the work that Sweeney did at the deadline to give the Bruins a better chance and expects to reach an extension without issue. Sweeney said earlier this week that he expected a resolution in “short order” suggesting that he too thinks there won’t be an issue with working out a new contract.

With regards to head coach Bruce Cassidy, Neely was a little more uncertain. He told reporters that while he believes Cassidy is an excellent coach, there is a need for change in terms of how the team plays. He suggested that it will ultimately be Sweeney’s decision whether to bring Cassidy back next season, and that the two hadn’t really spoken about it to this point because of Sweeney’s own uncertain future throughout the year.

Cassidy, 56, has one year remaining on his current contract and is owed $3MM next season. He took over as head coach of the Bruins during the 2016-17 season and has led them to plenty of success, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2019, which they ultimately lost to the St. Louis Blues in seven games. It’s likely the results since then that have put some doubt into Neely’s mind, especially this year’s game seven performance that he mentioned specifically several times.

There is of course a long list of highly qualified coaching candidates available, including names like Barry Trotz, Pete DeBoer, Paul Maurice, Mike Babcock, Jeff Blashill, Joel Quenneville, Claude Julien, John Tortorella, and many more. While there is no indication that the Bruins will make a change just yet, that deep pool of candidates likely has several executives around the league at least considering their options.

Charlie McAvoy Enters COVID Protocol, Will Miss Game Four

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In what could ultimately decide the result of their first round series, the Boston Bruins have announced that star defenseman Charlie McAvoy has been placed in the NHL COVID-19 Protocol and will not be available for Sunday’s Game Four match-up with the Carolina Hurricanes.

The news comes as an unforeseen, last-minute change, as head coach Bruce Cassidy told the media no more than an hour earlier that he expected no changes to the lineup in Game Four from Friday’s Game Three. McAvoy’s absence is very much a change in the lineup and one that the Bruins may not be able to withstand. As the Bruins look to even the series at two games apiece, they are now without their entire top pairing, as McAvoy joins Hampus Lindholm on the shelf. The defense pairs will shift upward accordingly, with Matt Grzelcyk and Brandon Carlo playing on the top pair, Game Three hero Derek Forbort and Connor Clifton playing on the second pair, and Josh Brown drawing in to the lineup alongside Mike Reilly on the third pair. It is a much different looking group without McAvoy and Lindholm and they will have their work cut out for them against a high-energy Hurricanes team.

The Bruins have to hope that they can somehow eek out a win in Game Four or at the very least can get McAvoy back for Game Five. Cassidy also stated that Lindholm too could return for Game Five. However, down 3-1 going back to Raleigh will not be ideal even at full strength. McAvoy averaged nearly 25 minutes of ice time per game this season and has been over 25 through three playoff games. That ice time alone will be extremely difficult to make up, but McAvoy also led all Boston defensemen in points, hits, and blocked shots. His absence cannot be understated – the Bruins will need all the luck they can get on Sunday.

Bruce Cassidy Placed In COVID Protocol

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The COVID announcements are coming fast and furious this morning. After the Edmonton Oilers canceled practice for precautionary reasons, the Boston Bruins report that head coach Bruce Cassidy has entered the protocol. The Bruins are scheduled to take on the Detroit Red Wings this evening. Don Sweeney explained that Cassidy does have mild symptoms and Joe Sacco will take over primary coaching duties in his absence.

It’s certainly not an ideal time for Cassidy to be put in isolation, as the Bruins are win-starved lately and actually sit behind the Red Wings in the standings (though they’ve played four fewer games). Since the head coach has tested positive and is experiencing symptoms, he’ll be held away from the team for a minimum of ten days. That could mean five games without their bench boss, right as the Bruins’ schedule starts to ramp up after a slow first two months.

Remember the team is also without Brad Marchand after he was issued a three-game suspension, meaning the Bruins will be short-handed as they try to leapfrog Detroit and climb back up the Atlantic Division standings. Jake DeBrusk, who is currently hoping for a trade out of town, was at the morning skate and on the fourth line with Erik Haula and Curtis Lazar. The team actually doesn’t currently have the ability to recall anyone from the Providence Bruins, as that team is in their own COVID lockdown after positive cases reached double digits.

As with any COVID designation, but especially that of older coaches and executives, the focus obviously lies on Cassidy’s health. The hockey world hopes the 56-year-old comes through without any serious symptoms and is back on the bench in no time.

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