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Washington Capitals Hire Kirk Muller, Kenny McCudden

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The Washington Capitals have added two experienced names to first-year head coach Spencer Carbery’s staff: former Calgary Flames assistant coach Kirk Muller and longtime Columbus Blue Jackets assistant Kenny McCudden.

Muller, 57, played in over 1,300 games during his NHL career and was a star two-way center for both the Montreal Canadiens and New Jersey Devils. He won the Stanley Cup with the Canadiens in 1993 and began his coaching career in Montreal in 2006. He spent a half-decade on the Canadiens’ bench as an assistant before trying his hand at head coaching with the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL.

Muller lasted only 17 games with the Admirals before being promoted to NHL head coach with the Carolina Hurricanes, replacing Paul Maurice mid-season. While Muller didn’t quite succeed in Carolina, he returned to being an assistant coach and did quite well in that role. He coached two seasons with the St. Louis Blues before returning to Montreal, where he helped the Canadiens through a re-tooling process.

After he was fired from the Canadiens alongside Claude Julien, Muller moved to the Calgary Flames, where he joined the staff of Darryl Sutter. Sutter won the Jack Adams award for coach of the year in 2021-22 and led the Flames to an impressive regular season.

Although Sutter was fired earlier this summer and Muller departed as well, Muller’s work in both Calgary and Montreal lends to the impression that he is a capable, experienced assistant coach.

For a relatively inexperienced head coach like Carbery, who hasn’t yet run the bench of an NHL team, adding such an experienced name like Muller is an easy choice to understand. Same with McCudden, who was a longtime skills coach before joining Columbus alongside John Tortorella.

At Tortorella’s side, McCudden contributed to the most successful and winningest era of hockey in Blue Jackets history, including their famous 2019 upset of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team coming off of a historically good regular season.

The Capitals are looking to make a push for one more Stanley Cup during what remains of Alex Ovechkin’s career, and have selected Carbery as the man to lead them there. Now, Carbery has added two high-level assistant coaches to help him begin what he likely hopes will be a long career as an NHL head coach.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Toronto Maple Leafs Hire Guy Boucher, Mike Van Ryn

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired two coaches to head coach Sheldon Keefe’s staff: former Ottawa Senators and Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Guy Boucher, and former St. Louis Blues assistant coach Mike Van Ryn.

In Boucher, the Maple Leafs have added a coach with significant experience running an NHL bench. Although Boucher never coached a fourth season in any of his stops as a bench boss, even at the junior level, he could be considered a serial winner who managed to go on a long playoff run in every place he coached.

In his final season in the QMJHL, Boucher won 54 of 68 games with the Drummondville Voltigeurs and a league title. In his one season with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs, Boucher went 52-17-11 and got to the third round of the Calder Cup playoffs.

In the NHL, Boucher’s Lightning team nearly beat the eventual champion Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Final, falling just short in a Game Seven.

Boucher’s SC Bern team in 2014-15 made it to the second round of the Swiss NL playoffs, and then Boucher’s Ottawa Senators went on a miracle run in his very first season there, coming one goal short of dethroning the defending champion Pittsburgh Penguins and reaching the Senators’ first cup final since 2007.

Sure, it must be noted that at each of Boucher’s NHL stops, the wheels fell off almost immediately after he went on his initial long playoff run. And given how much Boucher relied on his signature 1-3-1 defensive system, something he is highly unlikely to be able to deploy as Keefe’s assistant, one wonders if he’s going to be at his most valuable in this role. But seeing as Toronto is desperate to immediately go on the type of long playoff run Boucher has specialized in, it’s easy to see why they’ve targeted him.

As for Van Ryn, he’s also got the type of playoff experience behind the bench the Maple Leafs are hoping will translate to their own on-ice results. Van Ryn won a Stanley Cup with St. Louis in his very first season there, and does have prior experience coaching in Ontario as he spent three seasons with the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers, including one as head coach.

Per The Hockey News’ David Alter, Boucher will run the Maple Leafs’ power play while Van Ryn runs the team’s defense, with assistance from Dean Chynoweth, who will be in charge of the penalty kill.

The hiring of the two men completes Keefe’s coaching staff, which already boasts assistants Chynoweth and Manny Malhotra, goaltending coach Curtis Sanford, and video coaches Jordan Bean and Sam Kim.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Seattle Kraken Extend Head Coach Dave Hakstol

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The Seattle Kraken have announced that they’ve signed head coach Dave Hakstol to a contract extension that will keep him with the club through the 2025-26 season. No financial details have been released at this time but the two-year contract gives the 54-year-old some security coming on the heels of the first 100-point season in franchise history.

Hakstol led the franchise to a series of firsts in just their second season of existence. The Kraken made the playoffs for the first time and even knocked off the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the opening round for their first playoff series win.

Hakstol oversaw one of the most dramatic turnarounds in recent history as he took the Kraken from a 30th overall finish in 2021-22 to the second round of the playoffs. Seattle went from just 60 points in 2021-22 to 100 points this past season. The team’s point percentage nearly doubled going from .366 to .610. It was by far Hakstol’s most successful season as a head coach in the NHL with his previous best coming while he was overseeing the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017-18. That year he led the Flyers to a 98-point regular season before they were dumped in six games by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the playoffs.

Hakstol might not have big-name recognition, but he fits with what Seattle has built throughout their lineup. They don’t have many big names in their lineup, but the club showed incredible resiliency and grit throughout this past season. Something Hakstol himself showed after an initially disappointing first season in Seattle.

Vegas Golden Knights Hire Dominique Ducharme, Joel Ward

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The Vegas Golden Knights have hired two new assistant coaches to join head coach Bruce Cassidy’s staff for next season: former Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme, and Henderson Silver Knights assistant and 726-game NHL veteran Joel Ward.

Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon issued a statement on the hires:

We are extremely pleased with the additions of Dominique and Joel to our coaching staff here in Vegas. Dominique brings a wealth of coaching experience into our organization and has proven to be a successful leader at multiple levels. Joel has excelled in Henderson during the first three years of his promising career as a coach and we’re excited for him to be taking his next step with us.

The Golden Knights have two open spots to fill on Cassidy’s staff after Ryan Craig was named head coach of their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, and Misha Donskov departed the organization. Now, Ducharme and Ward will join John Stevens as Cassidy’s assistants for next season, a campaign where Vegas will look to defend its first-ever Stanley Cup championship.

In Ducharme, the Golden Knights are adding the head coach responsible for the team’s most recent playoff elimination. Ducharme’s 2020-21 Montreal Canadiens are the most recent team to win a playoff series against Vegas, having dispatched them in the 2021 Stanley Cup Semifinals.

Although Ducharme’s ability to coach his underdog Canadiens team in person was compromised by a COVID-19-related absence, he won the franchise a Clarence S. Campbell Bowl and led it to its first Stanley Cup Final since 1993.

Ducharme never got a full season coaching the Canadiens, though, as he took over for Claude Julien mid-season in 2020-21 and was fired in the middle of the following season after managing just eight wins in 45 games.

While it’s clear Ducharme was dealt an extremely poor hand after the Canadiens’ long playoff run, (franchise pillars Shea Weber and Carey Price each would see their playing careers almost certainly ended by injury) his Canadiens won just 15 of 38 games before their miraculous run.

Players such as Cole Caufield and Samuel Montembeault struggled immensely in 2021-22 under Ducharme but emerged as key Canadiens contributors since his departure, and Ducharme’s development of Caufield in particular drew him significant criticism in the Montreal market.

But even though Ducharme’s reputation took a significant hit in 2021-22, it’s worth noting that he was held in relatively high regard before that point. He was an extremely successful coach at the junior level, leading the Halifax Mooseheads to a Memorial Cup and Team Canada to a silver medal at the 2017 IIHF World Junior Championships and gold at the 2018 WJC.

Ward, on the other hand, doesn’t possess nearly as extensive of a coaching resume as Ducharme but has earned this promotion on the back of three seasons of hard work as an assistant coach for the Golden Knights’ AHL affiliate. Ward has been with the Silver Knights since their very first season and with his help they’ve delivered several NHLers to Vegas, including Logan Thompson, whose name is now on the Stanley Cup.

Should Ward manage to help Vegas to some successful seasons while he’s on Cassidy’s staff, or perhaps even another Stanley Cup title, the widely-respected longtime NHLer could see himself become a hot candidate for an NHL head coaching vacancy.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Arizona Coyotes Hire Blaine Forsythe

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The Arizona Coyotes have added longtime Washington Capitals assistant coach Blaine Forsythe to their staff, naming him as an assistant to head coach Andre Tourigny. It’s a multi-year deal for the veteran coach, per the team.

Forsythe, 47, brings quite the track record to the rebuilding Coyotes. He’s served as an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals, his only NHL coaching home, for the past 14 seasons, making significant contributions to the team’s power play success. His tenure with the Capitals began in the 2006-07 season when he joined as a video coach before taking on the role of amateur scout in 2008-09. However, Forsythe’s true calling was in coaching, and he rejoined the Capitals’ coaching staff in the 2009-10 season, helping the team capture multiple Presidents’ Trophies, division titles, and a Stanley Cup championship in the meantime.

During his time in Washington, the Capitals’ power play boasted a success rate of 21.8% over the years, leading all NHL teams since 2009. He was let go, along with most of Washington’s coaching staff, after the Capitals and former head coach Peter Laviolette agreed to part ways after the end of last season.

Forsythe also worked closely with Washington’s center corps, helping get the best out of players like Evgeny Kuznetsov while in their primes. Now, he’ll work closely with young Coyotes centers like Barrett Hayton and Jack McBain, trying to develop them into long-term top-nine threats.

Coyotes Have Held Preliminary Extension Talks With Andre Tourigny

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Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny is set to enter the final year of his contract.  Typically, teams don’t like having coaches in ‘lame duck’ years although we’ve seen that happen a few times in recent years.  The bench boss indicated to PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan that so far, talks about a new contract have strictly been preliminary with the term of an agreement and the fate of his staff being among the elements discussed.

The 49-year-old has been the bench boss for Arizona for the past two seasons and while his 53-90-21 record isn’t overly exciting on the surface, the Coyotes are squarely in the heart of a rebuild.  To that end, they’ve been a fairly competitive squad most nights in spite of the fact they haven’t iced the more talented team in most of their games.

Perhaps more importantly, there appears to have been a positive culture established, something both Nick Bjugstad and Troy Stecher acknowledged as a factor in their decisions to return to Arizona as free agents earlier this month.  It also likely played a role in them landing Jason Zucker and Alex Kerfoot, two capable forwards, on the open market.

Tourigny negotiated his first contract on his own but indicated that he wants to hire an agent to get this next one finalized.  That hasn’t happened yet which should further hammer home that the discussions so far have been more casual.  However, Tourigny has clearly indicated to GM Bill Armstrong that he wants to remain with Arizona beyond the 2023-24 campaign and with how they’ve performed under his watch despite the talent mismatch, it seems reasonable to think an extension will get done eventually.  Tourigny is comfortable going into the season without a new contract but it shouldn’t get to that point.

Evening Notes: Vladar, Avalanche, Desnoyers

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David Pagnotta of the NHL Network is reporting that the Calgary Flames will likely continue to hold onto goaltender Daniel Vladar until they get an offer that forces them to make a move. Pagnotta adds that the Flames have fielded offers from several teams but have yet to get an offer that they deem as suitable.

Vladar didn’t have a particularly strong season this past year by traditional statistics or analytics. He posted a 14-6-5 record with a .894 save percentage and a 2.87 goals against average. Taking a deep dive, he also posted -8.4 goals saved above expected in just 27 games putting him well below the average. However, Calgary is dangling Vladar at a time when the goaltending market is very thin and there are several teams who would love to add a young goaltender with size to their depth charts.

The 25-year-old is signed to a very affordable two-year deal with an average annual value of $2.2MM making him a solid bet as a backup with some upside for a team looking to take some pressure off their starting goaltender.

In other evening notes:

  • The Colorado Avalanche have announced that the head coach of their AHL affiliate the Colorado Eagles will be Aaron Schneekloth. The Calgary, Alberta native has been on the Eagles staff for a decade now and led the club to two ECHL titles in 2017 and 2018 prior to the team transitioning to the AHL. Schneekloth was retained by the Eagles after moving up a league and became an assistant coach to then-head coach Greg Cronin. With Cronin now the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks it was a natural transition for Schneekloth to take the reins of the Eagles, a club he’s coached with and played on for nearly two decades.
  • Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic is reporting that Philadelphia Flyers prospect Elliot Desnoyers was injured yesterday at development camp after crashing into the boards hard during a battle drill with a teammate. Desnoyers was unable to put weight on his right leg but appears to have avoided serious injury. The 21-year-old was a fifth-round selection of the Flyers in 2020 and is coming off his first professional season in the AHL where he posted 23 goals and 21 assists in 65 games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He dressed in four additional games with the Flyers but was held pointless. Desnoyers wasn’t drafted for his offense, but the Flyers have to be pleased with his development on the offensive side of the puck.

Alain Vigneault Announces Retirement From Coaching

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After a 19-season head coaching career spanning four teams, seasoned NHL bench boss Alain Vigneault has declared his retirement from coaching in an interview with the Journal de Québec, according to a report from French-Canadian outlet RDS.

Vigneault, still under contract with the Flyers after being fired in December of 2021, made it clear that his last contract would be his final one and that he has no intention of returning to coaching. Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported last summer that Philadelphia was likely Vigneault’s final stop as an NHL head coach.

The 62-year-old Canadian coach leaves behind a rather illustrious coaching career – Vigneault’s 1,363 games behind an NHL bench places him 15th in NHL history for most games coached. He accumulated over 700 wins throughout his coaching journey, a feat achieved by only nine other coaches in NHL history.

However, he didn’t quite reach hockey’s pinnacle, never getting his name engraved on the Stanley Cup. Although he made the playoffs in 12 of his 19 seasons, he advanced twice to the Stanley Cup Final, losing in both tries.

Vigneault’s coaching tenure in the NHL began in the 1997-98 season when he took the helm of the Montreal Canadiens. He then went on to coach the Vancouver Canucks, New York Rangers, and finally, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Vigneault’s primary piece of individual hardware came in 2006-07, winning the Jack Adams Award in his first season with the Canucks after guiding the team to a 49-26-7 record and Northwest Division title. Vancouver would bow out in the second round to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Anaheim Ducks, thanks to a relatively innocuous double-overtime winner in Game 5 from Ducks defender Scott Niedermayer (video link).

Vancouver was undoubtedly Vigneault’s most successful stop, as he would win back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies with the team in 2010-11 and 2011-12. The Canucks made their first Stanley Cup Final appearance in nearly two decades in 2011 but fell to the Boston Bruins in seven games after taking a 2-0 lead in the series.

Vigneault made it back to the Final three seasons later with the New York Rangers but lost all three overtime games in the series en route to a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Los Angeles Kings.

Before starting his coaching career, Vigneault had a brief playing stint as an NHLer. He played 42 games as a defenseman for the St. Louis Blues in the 1980s before transitioning to coaching at just 25 years old.

He does boast an all-time playoff record of 78-77, a rare mark above .500 for a coach without a Cup victory. With his longevity placing him in the upper echelon of all-time NHL coaches, as well as a Jack Adams and two conference championships, it wouldn’t surprise many to see a call from the Hockey Hall of Fame in his future.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Toronto Maple Leafs Hire John Gruden

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have added to their organizational coaching staff, naming John Gruden as the head coach of the AHL’s Toronto Marlies today.

Toronto cut ties with their entire AHL coaching staff a little over six weeks ago – in fact, it was on the same day they announced Kyle Dubas wouldn’t be returning as general manager. Head coach Greg Moore, as well as assistants A.J. MacLean and John Snowden, were let go after the team lost in the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs to the Rochester Americans.

Now Gruden, 53, comes in as an AHL rookie. He’s spent the last five seasons in NHL coaching roles, serving on the New York Islanders’ bench for four years from 2018 to 2022 before joining Jim Montgomery’s staff in Boston for 2022-23. Before that, he spent three seasons (2015 to 2018) as an OHL head coach with the Flint Firebirds and Hamilton Bulldogs, as well as four seasons as an assistant coach with the U.S. National Team Development Program (2011 to 2015). There, he was part of the 2012 and 2014 gold-medal-winning teams at the World Juniors, and he also guided Hamilton to an OHL championship in 2018, his final season.

A former NHL defenseman, Gruden amassed 92 games over six seasons with the Bruins, Ottawa Senators, and Washington Capitals. The father of current Pittsburgh Penguins forward Jonathan Gruden, he last played in 2004 in Washington.

Maple Leafs assistant general manager and director of minor league operations Ryan Hardy had this to say:

We’re very pleased to name John as the Head Coach of the Toronto Marlies. John has supported the development and performance of his players throughout his coaching career while delivering team success at every level. His resume from the U.S. National Team Development Program to the OHL and eventually the NHL has armed him with a wealth of knowledge and experience that will be invaluable to both players and staff.

He’ll head up a Marlies roster next season that’s expected to include prospects like 2019 fourth-round pick Nick Abruzzese, 2020 second-round pick Roni Hirvonen, and 2020 third-round pick Topi Niemela. The team has not yet announced his assistants.

Blue Jackets Officially Name Mike Babcock As Their Head Coach

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The final NHL head coaching vacancy has officially been filled.  Prior to the opening of free agency today, the Blue Jackets announced that they have named Mike Babcock as their new head coach, signing him to a two-year deal.  Earlier this week, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic reported (subscription link) that the contract will pay Babcock $4MM per season.  GM Jarmo Kekalainen released the following statement:

Our goal at the outset of this process was to find a coach to give our players the best chance to succeed through structure, discipline and experience as we continue to build a team that can compete for a Stanley Cup championship. After a very thorough and lengthy process we are pleased to welcome Mike Babcock as the next head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets.

It was reported last month that Babcock was set to take over as the new bench boss for Columbus.  However, since he was still under contract with Toronto until yesterday, the team waited until today to make the hire to ensure that the Maple Leafs alone were the only team paying out the remainder of his record-breaking eight-year, $50MM contract.

Babcock hasn’t been behind an NHL bench for a while as he last coached during the 2019-20 campaign before being let go by Toronto after an underwhelming 9-10-4 start to their season.  Since then, his coaching experience has been limited to one season as a volunteer coach at the University of Saskatchewan.  However, the Blue Jackets believe that he’s the right fit to turn things around after they finished dead last in the Eastern Conference last season.

Babcock has a 700-418-183 record over parts of 17 NHL seasons between Anaheim, Detroit, and Toronto.  Internationally, he is the only member of the ’Triple Gold’ club among coaches (Olympics, World Championships, and a Stanley Cup).  That experience comes in stark contrast to former head coach Brad Larsen who was a first-time NHL bench boss before being let go after the season.

Columbus has certainly been active this offseason already, looking to augment its roster.  On the back end, they’ve acquired Ivan Provorov and Damon Severson, giving them two proven top-four pieces to help take some of the pressure off Zach Werenski who should be ready to go after missing most of last season due to injury.  Up front, they picked up Adam Fantilli in the draft this week and are encouraging him to turn pro right away; TSN’s Darren Dreger suggests (Twitter link) that his signing could occur today.  With nearly $5MM in cap space, per CapFriendly, they could still try to add another piece or two in free agency or on the trade front.

Kekalainen clearly believes last year’s showing was an aberration with the hiring of Babcock, a win-now coach, and his defensive upgrades.  The Blue Jackets play in a tight Metropolitan Division that has only one team (Philadelphia) looking to bottom out so even with these moves, their work to get back to the playoffs is going to be cut out for them.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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