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Tampa Bay Lightning Hire Jeff Blashill

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In what has basically become a coaching trade, Jeff Blashill will join the Tampa Bay Lightning as an assistant for next season. He takes the spot of Derek Lalonde, who was hired to replace him with the Detroit Red Wings this summer.

It will be something of a surprise to see Blashill back as an assistant, given how long he’s been the head man in one place or another. You have to go back to 2011-12 to find the last time he wasn’t running a bench, his first year in the NHL. Since then, he took over the head coaching duties with the Grand Rapids Griffins for three years (where he won a championship) and then was the head coach of the Red Wings for the last seven seasons.

Even before he came to the NHL he was the head coach at the USHL and NCAA levels, meaning assisting isn’t something Blashill is very familiar with.

As Joe Smith of The Athletic has profiled in the past, Blashill and Lightning head coach Jon Cooper have a strong relationship, so this move doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Still, it will be interesting to see what kind of effect it has on the Lightning, and how long Blashill is on the sidelines before pursuing another head coaching opportunity.

Hiring Notes: Craig Johnson, Jim Johnson, Weight, Stars

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The Anaheim Ducks announced that they have hired former NHLer and recent member of the Los Angeles Kings organization Craig Johnson as an assistant coach on Dallas Eakins’ staff. Though Johnson doesn’t bring with him any previous NHL coaching experience, he does bring a wealth of hockey knowledge and experience between his 10 year playing career, coaching experience at various other levels, as well as other roles in scouting and directing. Johnson has spent the previous four seasons in the Kings organization, serving as a development coach, a professional scout, and an assistant coach on the staff of the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ AHL affiliate.

One of the more intriguing aspects of this hire is Johnson’s ties to the southern California hockey scene. Johnson came to the Kings in February of 1996 as part of the deal that sent Wayne Gretzky to the St. Louis Blues. The forward would spend eight seasons in a Kings uniform before spending part of the 2003-04 seasons with the Ducks. Shortly after retiring from his playing career, Johnson became the head coach of Santa Margarita Catholic High School’s hockey team, which plays in the Anaheim Ducks High School Hockey League (ADHSHL), leading the team to three national titles during his tenure before joining the Kings organization. Craig’s son Ryan Johnson was a first round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in 2019, becoming the second first-round pick in that draft to come out of the ADHSHL, along with the Philadelphia Flyers’ Cam York.

  • Craig Johnson was not the only Johnson the Ducks hired today, with the team also announcing the hire of Jim Johnson as Director of Player Development. Jim Johnson has held numerous roles in coaching between USA in the USNTDP and at several World Junior Championships, as well as in the NHL, spending time as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, San Jose Sharks, Edmonton Oilers, and most recently, the St. Louis Blues. In addition to his time behind the bench, he spent parts of thirteen seasons in the NHL, getting into 829 games as a defenseman.
  • Earlier today, news broke that Doug Wilson Jr. was no longer with the Sharks as their Scouting Director (link). It does appear the organization has added a new name to its front office, however, with former NHL star Doug Weight joining the organization as a senior advisor to the hockey ops department, says The Athletic’s Corey Masisak (link). Masisak points out that Weight had played several seasons alongside new Sharks GM Mike Grier while the two were with the Edmonton Oilers. Weight also spent time as an advisor and assistant GM with the New York Islanders before becoming the team’s Head Coach after Jack Capuano was fired during the 2016-17 season.
  • The Dallas Stars also announced two front office hires to the organization’s Hockey Analytics Department. Matt Rodell has been hired as the team’s Director of Hockey Analytics and Brad Behan has been hired as Coordinator of Hockey Analytics. Rodell has spent the previous five seasons in the Stars organizations in various capacities while Behan spent the 2021-22 season as an intern for the department.

Chicago Blackhawks Hire Derek King, Kevin Dean

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The Chicago Blackhawks won’t be going into next season with an entirely new coaching staff after all. Derek King, who served as the team’s interim head coach last season, will be back as an assistant under Luke Richardson for 2022-23. Kevin Dean has also been hired as an assistant, providing plenty of experience for Richardson to lean on as he takes over a bench for the first time.

Goaltending coach Jimmy Waite and video coach Matt Meacham have been retained in their previous roles.

King, who had been the head coach of the Rockford IceHogs when he took over from the fired Jeremy Colliton, will still receive something of a promotion by joining the NHL bench. In 70 games as head coach, he stabilized the reeling Blackhawks and led them to a respectable 27-33-10 record. While that isn’t nearly good enough to put them in playoff contention, it’s a much better finish than many expected after the team’s 1-9-2 start, earning King some respect and an interview for the full-time job this summer.

Dean, meanwhile, comes over from the Boston Bruins, where he had served on Bruce Cassidy’s staff since 2017. With experience as a head coach at both the AHL and ECHL levels and a knack for helping young defensemen, he’ll add another quality coach to Richardson’s staff.

With the Blackhawks going through a complete rebuild, the coaching staff they have put together seems geared toward development more than anything else. That’s going to be important moving forward, though they may need to suffer through at least a few years of poor on-ice results.

Detroit Red Wings Hire Bob Boughner, Alex Westlund

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The Detroit Red Wings have brought in some experience to help Derek Lalonde’s transition to head coach, hiring the recently-dismissed Bob Boughner as an associate coach. The team has also brought in Alex Westlund as goaltending coach for the upcoming season.

Boughner, 51, was fired by the San Jose Sharks when they decided to allow the incoming general manager to choose his own coaching staff. That ended a run that spanned parts of three seasons, in which he went 67-85-23. While you certainly can’t blame Boughner for all of the Sharks’ struggles, moving back to an assistant role seemed likely given how late he was released into the open market.

In fact, he’ll get an associate role in Detroit, giving him even more responsibility and sway with the organization as they transition away from Jeff Blashill and into a new coaching era. Lalonde has head coaching experience at the USHL, ECHL, and AHL levels but not in the NHL, where he has only served as an assistant. Having a veteran like Boughner, who also played more than 600 games in the NHL, should only aid his move to head coach.

Westlund, meanwhile, is coming over from the Hershey Bears, where he has served as goaltending coach for the last five years. The former minor league goaltender last played in 2013-14 with the Wheeling Nailers and actually carved out quite a professional career despite standing just 5’9″, a height that is usually dismissed by most scouts. He’ll now get a chance to work with Alex Nedeljkovic and Ville Husso at the NHL level, while helping the development of top prospect Sebastian Cossa, the Red Wings’ goalie of the future.

Morning Notes: DeBrincat, Staios, Bowness

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As the 2022 NHL Draft approaches, many eyes are on the Chicago Blackhawks with speculation running rampant over the future of young sniper Alex DeBrincat. It’s not often that a player has two 40-goal seasons under his belt by the time he’s 24, even rarer for that player to be available in trade. With the Blackhawks starting a scorched earth rebuild in Chicago though, DeBrincat could find his way out the door.

Scott Powers and Mark Lazerus of The Athletic believe that the Blackhawks would pull the trigger on a DeBrincat deal if they received the right offer, and suggest that could be a top-10 pick and a quality prospect. That may seem like a disappointing return to fans who are hoping for a franchise-altering haul for their young star.

  • Sixty-six points in 59 regular season games, an OHL championship, and a Memorial Cup final. It was a pretty nice season for undrafted defenseman Nathan Staios even before the personal awards. He was named both OHL Most Outstanding Defenseman and CHL Defenseman of the Year, giving him a nice platform to negotiate from as he tries to turn pro. Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet notes that the Florida Panthers have shown some interest in the 21-year-old, who is the son of former NHL defenseman Steve Staios.
  • Not only does Rick Bowness have a two-year deal as the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets, it includes a third-year option as well. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports that it is a club option worth close to $3MM. Bowness, 67, is coming up on 40 years since he first stepped behind the bench with the Jets, joining the organization as an assistant in 1984 after his playing days ended there.

Winnipeg Jets Hire Rick Bowness

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July 3: The Winnipeg Jets have made it official via a release and Twitter announcement, naming Rick Bowness the eighth coach in Winnipeg Jets history and third since the team relocated from Atlanta. According to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the contract is for two seasons at $2.5MM per season (link).

July 1: While one coaching vacancy was suddenly created today when San Jose parted ways with Bob Boughner, it appears another is about to close.  TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that the Jets are in the process of finalizing an agreement with Rick Bowness to become their next head coach.

It will be a return to where it all began for the 67-year-old as his first NHL coaching job actually came with the original Jets franchise (now the Coyotes) all the way back in 1988-89 when he took over midseason.  Since then, Bowness has a long track record of coaching, both as a head coach and an assistant and Dreger notes that his experience was a big factor in Winnipeg’s choice.  Of course, they were previously linked to Barry Trotz, an experienced bench boss who ultimately declined their offer to take over so GM Kevin Cheveldayoff was clearly looking for someone that has run an NHL bench in the past.

Bowness most recently was head coach of Dallas where he spent parts of three seasons at the helm.  This past season, the Stars posted a 46-30-6 record, good for a points percentage of .598, their best since the 2015-16 campaign.  That was enough to get them into the playoffs as the top Wild Card seed in the Western Conference where they made it to the seventh game against Calgary in the opening round.  Despite that, the team saw fit to make a change behind the bench, ultimately installing Peter DeBoer as their new head coach after Bowness and the team mutually agreed to part ways.

Over his career, Bowness has a 212-351-76 record as an NHL head coach with stints with the Jets, Bruins, Senators, Islanders, Coyotes, and Stars.  It’s worth noting that his four seasons with the then-expansion Sens played a considerable role in making that mark as poor as it looks as Ottawa only won 39 of 235 games under his tutelage.

Assuming the contract does get finalized, Bowness will be taking over a Winnipeg team that was among the biggest underachievers in the league last season.  There is a strong forward core in place but Blake Wheeler, Mark Scheifele, and Pierre-Luc Dubois have all been in trade speculation in recent weeks with the expectation that Cheveldayoff is looking to shake up his core.  Meanwhile, Connor Hellebuyck is coming off a tough year but is still only two years removed from winning the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s top goalie.  By going for an experienced head coach, it’s clear that there will be win-now expectations for Bowness and the Jets, no matter what winds up happening with their roster over the coming months.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Boston Bruins Hire Jim Montgomery

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The Bruins have found their next head coach as they officially announced on Friday that they have hired Jim Montgomery as their new head coach.  He takes over for Bruce Cassidy who was fired earlier this offseason.  GM Don Sweeney released the following statement about the hire:

Jim has a winning history, and throughout the interview process he conveyed his ability to connect with all types of players while also demanding that his teams play with structure. We are excited for Jim to begin to make his imprint on our team.

This hire is a bit of a surprising one, as the Bruins had been interviewing candidates such as David Quinn and Jay Leach, coaches with deep ties to either Boston hockey or the Bruins organization. Montgomery does not have such deep ties to the Bruins, and the Montreal native did not play in the Boston area during his 122-game NHL career. He did have an extremely successful career at the University of Maine, which is technically within New England, but still, his ties to the area are dwarfed by the other reported finalists.

Montgomery is an intriguing candidate in part because of why he’s in this position in the first place. After an extremely successful tenure at the helm of the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, winning two championships in three years, he left to coach the NCAA’s University of Denver. There, Montgomery won the 2017 NCAA National Championship.

That success at Denver led Montgomery to his first NHL head coaching job, taking the reins of a Dallas Stars franchise that had missed the playoffs the year before. Montgomery’s player-focused, upbeat coaching style immediately connected with the Stars players, and he went 43-32-7 and won a playoff series. The next year, though, Montgomery was fired early in the season for what the team called “unprofessional conduct.” After his firing, Montgomery made his struggles with alcohol abuse public, and began the process of rehabilitation.

His recovery was successful enough for him to earn another chance to coach in the NHL, this time as an assistant on Craig Berube’s St. Louis Blues staff. There, Montgomery coached a powerplay that rocketed to among the league’s best, and it’s on the back of that success that he gets his second chance at being an NHL head coach, now in Boston, where ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports that he has received a three-year deal worth around $2MM annually.

For the Bruins, the hire of Montgomery represents a significant departure from Cassidy’s style of management. Cassidy’s more demanding style reportedly wore on the Bruins’ players and played a role in his firing despite all the success he had. Montgomery’s style is a departure from Cassidy’s, as he is by all reports a highly approachable, player-first bench boss. It remains to be seen if the team’s swap of Cassidy for Montgomery, and the stylistic changes that result from that swap, is ultimately successful. But what we do know now is that this move, at the very least, gives a coach who was once viewed as a rising star the second chance at coaching that he’s worked so hard to earn.

Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic was the first to report that Montgomery was set to become Boston’s head coach.

Canucks Hire Mike Yeo And Jeremy Colliton, Flyers Hire Brad Shaw

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The Canucks have filled out their coaching staff for next season.  The team announced that they have hired Mike Yeo as an assistant coach.  He takes over for Brad Shaw who is leaving Vancouver to become an associate coach with the Flyers.  Meanwhile, Vancouver has hired Jeremy Colliton as their new head coach with AHL Abbotsford, replacing Trent Cull who has been promoted to an assistant coach in Vancouver.  GM Patrik Allvin released the following statement about the moves:

We’re pleased to have solidified our Coaching staff for next season with the promotion of Trent Cull and the additions of Mike Yeo and Jeremy Colliton. These individuals bring a lot of hockey experience and knowledge to the group. We would like to thank Brad Shaw for his contributions to the club and wish him the best of luck in Philadelphia.

Yeo most recently served as the interim head coach of the Flyers after taking over 22 games into this past season when he took over for Alain Vigneault.  The 48-year-old also has head coaching experience with Minnesota for parts of five seasons and also spent four years with St. Louis, three of those as head coach so he will give head coach Bruce Boudreau some experience behind the bench.  Over Yeo’s head coaching career, his teams have compiled a 263-217-62 record.

Yeo replaces Shaw in what basically amounts to a coaching trade with Shaw taking Yeo’s old spot on Philadelphia’s bench alongside their new head coach John Tortorella.  The 58-year-old has no shortage of coaching experience with 17 seasons under his belt, five of those coming with Columbus where he worked with Tortorella so it’s not surprising that Shaw has decided to work with him again.

Colliton was Chicago’s head coach for parts of four seasons but was let go early in 2021-22.  He then joined Hockey Canada for some of their international tournaments and briefly served as Canada’s head coach at the Olympics when Claude Julien was injured.  This will be the 37-year-old’s second stint running an AHL bench having been in charge of Chicago’s farm team in Rockford for parts of two seasons before getting the job with the Blackhawks.  He takes the place of Trent Cull who will get his first NHL coaching opportunity after spending 18 years between the OHL and AHL.  He had been with Vancouver’s farm team for each of the last five seasons.

Stars Hire Steve Spott And Alain Nasreddine As Assistant Coaches

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Peter DeBoer’s coaching staff in Dallas is starting to take shape.  The Stars announced that they’ve hired Steve Spott and Alain Nasreddine as assistant coaches, joining goalie coach Jeff Reese and video coach Kelly Forbes behind the bench.

Spott is no stranger to DeBoer as the two have worked together many times in the past.  That includes their days back in the OHL in the late 1990s when Spott was DeBoer’s assistant first with Plymouth and then with Kitchener several years later.  Once DeBoer took over behind the bench in San Jose back in 2015, he quickly brought Spott over and the two have been joined at the hip since then through five seasons with the Sharks and the last two with Vegas before the pair were let go earlier this offseason.

As for Nasreddine, he spent the last eight seasons with the Devils, most of the time as an assistant with the exception of 2019-20 when he took over as a midseason replacement for John Hynes.  He remained on New Jersey’s staff when Lindy Ruff took over the following season although it was revealed back in May that they would not be renewing his contract.

Between Spott and Nasreddine, Dallas has added 16 seasons of assistant coaching experience to their bench with DeBoer himself having parts of 14 seasons of NHL head coaching experience.  The Stars have a veteran-laden roster and will enter 2022-23 with a veteran-laden coaching staff as well.

Sharks Fire Bob Boughner

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There is a late entrant to the coaching shuffle around the NHL as the Sharks have announced that head coach Bob Boughner along with assistant coaches John Madden and John MacLean plus video coach Dan Darrow have all been relieved of their duties.  Interim GM Joe Will released the following statement:

As we progress through our search for the next general manager of the Sharks following 19 seasons under Doug Wilson’s leadership, it has become apparent that the organization is in the process of an evolution. The bottom line is we have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons, which isn’t acceptable to our owner, our organization, or to our fans. As part of this evolution and evaluation, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to allow the next Sharks general manager to have full autonomy related to the make-up of the on-ice coaching staff moving ahead.

Boughner took over as San Jose’s head coach back in December of 2019 on an interim basis when he took over for Peter DeBoer with the team removing the interim tag at the end of the season, handing him a three-year deal in the process.  That contract, worth $1.5MM per season, had one year remaining, and with so few head coaching openings out there, it’s unlikely he’ll be running an NHL bench when training camp comes around.

As Will noted in his statement, the Sharks missed the playoffs in each of the three seasons that Boughner was behind the bench with the team ultimately compiling a 67-85-23 record during his tenure.  Their points percentage improved in each of the last two seasons but San Jose finished sixth in the Pacific Division this past season with a points percentage of just .470.  For his head coaching career which included a two-year stint in Florida, Boughner’s record is 147-147-35.

What’s particularly noteworthy here is that the Sharks haven’t completed their search for a new general manager yet, at least officially.  Will is the one that wound up making the change but there is an expectation that a new GM will be in place soon.  TSN’s Darren Dreger notes (Twitter link) that former Canadiens assistant GM Scott Mellanby is a name that has surfaced this week as one to watch on that front while ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski suggests Mike Grier and Ray Whitney are in the mix as well.  With the draft now less than a week away and free agency beginning less than a week later, their new GM was already going to have plenty on his plate in terms of roster building to try to get this team back into the postseason and draft planning.  Now, there will be a coaching search to complete as well.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Boughner had been let go.  Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic was the first to add that Madden, MacLean, and Darrow were also out.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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