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Latest On Boston Bruins Coaching Search

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The NHL’s head coaching market is now moving quickly. The Philadelphia Flyers introduced their next head coach today, and the Vegas Golden Knights did the same yesterday. Next on the list could be the Boston Bruins. After firing Bruce Cassidy earlier this month, the Bruins have a major decision to make with who will be behind their bench next year. With Brad Marchand out for potentially the first two months of the 2022-23 season and team captain and franchise face Patrice Bergeron’s status on returning for next year unknown, there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding a team that hasn’t missed the playoffs in over a half-decade.

Because of that reality, it’s likely that the Bruins’ next coach, whoever that person may be, will be expected to maintain the organization’s winning standard and continue the playoff streak. Given the challenges the Bruins look to be facing early next year, one might assume that GM Don Sweeney, who is running the coaching search, would opt to pick from the top of the coaching market and hire a veteran coach with a long, proven record of success at the NHL level.

That assumption seems to be wrong, though. According to The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, former New York Rangers head coach David Quinn has “emerged as a top candidate” in the Bruins’ search, and will be interviewing with the team next week. (subscription link) Shinzawa also names Jay Leach, an assistant coach on Dave Hakstol’s staff in Seattle as another “leading candidate.” Both coaches have deep ties to either the Bruins organization or the Boston area but aren’t the sort of big-name, big-ticket head coaching options that some fans may prefer.

Quinn, 55, was most recently the head coach of the United States’ men’s hockey team at the Beijing Winter Olympics, and his most recent NHL experience came as head coach of the New York Rangers. From 2018-19 to 2020-21, Quinn led a rebuilding Rangers club that was struggling in the aftermath of a near decade-long cup-or-bust competitive window. The furthest Quinn took the Rangers in his three years of coaching there was the qualifying round of the 2020-21 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the Rangers were swept out of the bubble by the Carolina Hurricanes. Quinn’s record over those three years is 96-87-25. Perhaps best known for his upbeat, encouraging style, the height of Quinn’s coaching career came when he led Matt Grzelcyk and the Boston University Terriers to the NCAA National Championship in 2014-15, before losing to Providence College.

The other candidate to be named as a leader in the Bruins’ search by Shinzawa’s sources is Leach, an assistant coach with the Kraken. Before joining Seattle, Leach was the head coach of the Providence Bruins for four seasons. Leach went a combined 136-77-26 in Providence, helping introduce current Bruins such as Jeremy Swayman and Trent Frederic to professional hockey. Leach is a candidate who the current Bruins front office is undoubtedly highly familiar with, and that familiarity could help him in the hiring process. Like Quinn, Leach is also expected to have an interview with Boston in the near future.

While it’s definitely possible that the Bruins hire someone other than one of these two names as their next coach, these two being named as “leading candidates” in the Bruins’ search does shed some light on the team’s priorities in the process. Through these reports, we’re learning about what the Bruins want to see in their next coach. Both Quinn and Leach have vast experience coaching young players specifically, and their shared experiences indicate that skill in player development is something the Bruins are targeting in their next skipper. Both coaches are also known quantities in the world of New England hockey, meaning familiarity with the overall market the Bruins serve could also be a desired trait in this search. Regardless of who specifically they choose, it would be somewhat surprising if the Bruins’ next head coach does not possess at least one of those two qualities.

 

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Poll: Who Wins The 2022 Stanley Cup Final?

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With the only multi-day break in the 2022 Stanley Cup Final occurring between Games 1 and 2, both the Colorado Avalanche and Tampa Bay Lightning have plenty of time to process the events of a tight first game and adjust for the rest of the series. The Colorado Avalanche took a crucial overtime win at home to kick off the series, but both teams had their own flashes of brilliance to open the series.

As the Lightning have shown so far in these playoffs, though, no series lead against them is safe. One thing they can count on is the improvement of two important players: Brayden Point and Andrei Vasilevskiy. Point had an assist in 17:59 of ice time in Game 1, his first game in over a month and first game since the First Round. As he gets back to game speed, his ice time and compete level will only go up throughout the series, making the matchups tougher for the Avalanche and Jared Bednar. Vasilevskiy was also noticeably off his game at points on Wednesday, having issues tracking some pucks early in the game. He settled in, though, and as he has throughout these playoffs, will only get better as the series goes on.

The Avalanche are still waiting on Nazem Kadri to return to the lineup, who continues to practice and improve as he battles a thumb injury. Even if/when Kadri returns, he won’t be at 100%, and with how well the unit of Valeri Nichushkin, J.T. Compher, and Andre Burakovsky performed in Game 1, it might be better to try Kadri in a more limited role regardless. That would surely help the matchup game for Bednar, who would suddenly have a huge weapon to throw out with his depth forwards. Andrew Cogliano was also a full participant in today’s practice and could return for Game 2 on Saturday.

The question remains: will the Avalanche be able to hold onto their series lead and end the Tampa Bay run of championships despite their injuries and disadvantage in the crease? We ask you, PHR readers, to give us your take. Vote who you think will win the 2022 Stanley Cup Final in the poll below.

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Philadelphia Flyers Officially Name John Tortorella Head Coach

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9:02 AM: The Flyers have officially announced the hiring of Tortorella, but did not confirm the financial terms. The Athletic’s Arthur Staple reports that the finalists for the job were Peter DeBoer and former New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano.

4:25 PM: ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports that Tortorella’s deal with the Flyers is a four-year, $4MM per year contract.

3:21 PM: After days of it seeming like an eventuality, John Tortorella is expected to officially be named the next head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor reported this morning that final negotiations were underway and that an official announcement could come tomorrow, but The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco now reports that an official announcement could come as soon as tonight and that the organization is “moving forward” with Tortorella as their new head coach.

We’ve gotten an unusually extensive amount of reporting on the Tortorella hiring process. It’s been known for a few days now that the team had zeroed in on Tortorella as a candidate and that the hiring was likely, but negotiations between the two sides had not been completed. Now, it seems like that process is done, although it’s unclear whether the terms of the deal will be made public.

Tortorella joins his fifth NHL team as a head coach and his fourth Eastern Conference team, with his one season spent in Vancouver as his lone Western Conference head coaching experience (2013-14). He ranks 13th all-time in games coached (1,383), 14th in wins (673), and has a 2004 Stanley Cup ring with the Tampa Bay Lightning to show for his illustrious career.

After his second gap year in the past decade, Tortorella returns to the NHL with the goal of quickly restoring a competitive team in Philadelphia. Whether that happens is a different story entirely. Of note, in his first entire season as coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2016-17, he took a team that had finished below the .500 mark the previous year to their only 100-point season in franchise history. However, that was a team spearheaded by a list of quality young players, most notably Zach Werenski and Seth Jones on defense, that the Flyers simply don’t have to offer. Nor do they have a goalie with the track record that Sergei Bobrovsky had at that point, who earned his second Vezina trophy that season with a .931 save percentage and 41-17-5 record.

While a healthy Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis should give the Flyers a large boost next season, Tortorella will be tasked with the job of helping the team navigate their post-Claude Giroux era. He’ll be charged with restoring the ceilings of players like Travis Konecny and Oskar Lindblom up front and continuing the positive development of Joel Farabee. He’ll also need to institute a system that can help Ivan Provorov and Rasmus Ristolainen on the back end after some rough defensive seasons.

None of it will be an easy job in the Metropolitan Division. With the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes poised to dominate again next season, they’ll also have the Blue Jackets and New Jersey Devils as on-the-rise teams to battle with.

Snapshots: Tortorella, Panthers, Avalanche

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When ESPN’s Kevin Weekes broke the news late Tuesday night that the Philadelphia Flyers had offered their head coaching vacancy to John Tortorella, there were plenty of mixed reactions surrounding the team’s potential hire of the controversial coach. Those in opposition likely hoped that the final set of negotiations required to complete the deal would fall through, and the Flyers would go in another direction.

According to The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor, those hopes are all but gone. O’Connor notes that the negotiations between the Flyers and Tortorella are indeed “in the final stages,” and that an official announcement on the hire is expected to come tomorrow. It will be extremely interesting to learn what the terms of Tortorella’s contract are (if they’re released), considering the Flyers are still on the hook for $5MM to Alain Vigneault through 2024.

  • Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman notes on today’s 32 Thoughts podcast he believes that the Florida Panthers have been “talking to people” over the phone regarding their head coaching vacancy, and gauging their interest in the role. While it’s not a sure thing that they’ll move on from interim head coach Andrew Brunette, it shows that the team is at least interested in examining other options. It’s a bit surprising the team isn’t more committed to keeping Brunette around, especially considering how locked in the Edmonton Oilers are on extending Jay Woodcroft, who’s in a very similar situation to Brunette.
  • During a radio appearance this morning, Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar noted that both Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano have “gotten better,” saying that it’s a possibility at least one of them will return during the Stanley Cup Final. It’s a positive assessment, and while they are both still labeled as day-to-day, Kadri has yet to even practice while holding a stick after his thumb injury. Colorado will be watching their health closely, as they’re two incredibly important pieces to their forward depth that could help swing the series in their favor.

East Notes: Point, Penguins Front Office, Popugayev

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Jun 15: Point is officially playing in tonight’s Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, per Cooper.

Jun 14: There’s finally confirmation that Brayden Point will be back within the Tampa Bay Lightning lineup this season. Point took practice today with the team, practicing on the first power-play unit. Head coach Jon Cooper said after practice that “there’s a chance” Point will play in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final tomorrow night, and that he “really anticipates” Point being available for Game 2.

Point’s return certainly begins to stack the cards more in favor of the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions. Historically a point-per-game player in the playoffs, a healthy Point gives Tampa Bay two elite centers to counteract the strong Colorado Avalanche offense. With Nazem Kadri potentially still injured for Colorado, it swings the center matchup massively in Tampa’s favor.

West Notes: Woodcroft, Nill, Preseason

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A few months ago, many would have identified the Edmonton Oilers as a team with coaching uncertainty heading into the offseason after they fired Dave Tippett mid-season. However, after their run to the Western Conference Final this year, Jay Woodcroft would appear to have earned the confidence of the team and fanbase to continue in his role. TSN’s Darren Dreger is reporting today that Woodcroft and the Oilers continue to have ongoing discussions about a new contract this week, although there’s still more to be done.

With the Oilers yet to be linked publicly to any other coaching free agents, it’s becoming clear that the team prefers to retain Woodcroft as their head coach. It’s important to note that Woodcroft was fully named the head coach when he took over for Tippett; he was not given the interim title. Woodcroft led the Oilers on a 26-9-3 run to end the regular season in addition to their playoff run.

  • One team that isn’t having such a smooth time with their coaching hiring process is the Dallas Stars. TSN’s Pierre LeBrun is reporting that potential candidates are hesitant to commit to the Stars given the fact that general manager Jim Nill only has one year left on his deal. It’s understandable that when a coach commits long-term, they’d like to have a solid idea of the team’s vision for the future. With Nill’s future uncertain, Dallas’ new coach won’t have that guarantee.
  • The Stars will be playing in two neutral-site preseason games come September and October. On October 1, they’ll be facing off against the St. Louis Blues at Cable Dahmer Arena in Kansas City, home of the ECHL’s Kansas City Mavericks. Before that, though, they’ll be playing the Arizona Coyotes in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on September 27, as previously announced. It marks a return to normalcy for the NHL’s regular-season preparations.

Latest on John Tortorella

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After John Tortorella and the Columbus Blue Jackets mutually parted ways after the 2020-21 season, it was unclear whether Tortorella would return to coaching in the NHL. The now 63-year-old coach had been in NHL roles for what seems like forever, getting his start as an assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres in 1989. When he made the move to broadcasting, joining ESPN’s NHL coverage for the 2021-22 campaign, some had thought that signaled the end of his lengthy coaching career.

It now seems that Tortorella will be back in the fold next season. Tortorella reportedly interviewed with the Philadelphia Flyers for their head coaching vacancy in late May, and the fit between the coach’s infamous personality and the team’s historically aggressive identity seemed just too perfect. After a few weeks, the Flyers have zeroed in on Tortorella as their top finalist, with ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reporting late last night that the team had offered the position to Tortorella. He also noted that there were “more negotiations required for the deal to be completed,” which TSN’s Pierre LeBrun says will take place Thursday.

There’s some fair criticism of the Flyers for choosing an option with such an old-school approach in a league that’s evolving more every season. Tortorella went viral for some of his quips on ESPN this past season, including chastising Anaheim Ducks forward Trevor Zegras for his lacrosse pass to Sonny Milano for a goal early in the season and saying that Connor McDavid would have to change his game for the Edmonton Oilers to win in the playoffs, which didn’t age well. It’s fair to wonder if that’s the right voice in the room for the Flyers, who, as their core continues to age past its prime, need to focus on the development of their existing prospects in order to be competitive.

However, Tortorella does have a track record of success that’s impossible to ignore. His time with the Columbus Blue Jackets gives the most accurate picture of the coach the Flyers might get, and there are definitely some good takeaways there. Aside from guiding the team to their first playoff series win in franchise history (against a historically great Tampa Bay Lightning squad), he showed an ability to cool his temper and adapt that he hasn’t shown in past jobs. However, he did have some pretty notable rifts with younger players, especially Pierre-Luc Dubois. The Flyers can ill-afford to botch prospect development at this point.

If Tortorella does complete negotiations with the Flyers and takes the job, he’ll be one of the most interesting stories to watch in the NHL for the 2022-23 season.

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.

Morning Notes: Nichushkin, Montgomery, Memorial Cup

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One of the most under-the-radar redemption stories over the past few seasons in the NHL has been Valeri Nichushkin. A top-10 choice of the Dallas Stars in 2013, Nichushkin struggled with consistency in his early years in Dallas, leading him to return to his native Russia for two seasons after the expiry of his entry-level contract. The Stars then signed him to a two-year, $5.9MM contract prior to the 2018-19 season to bring him back to the NHL. However, after scoring no goals and just 10 assists in 57 games in 2018-19, the Stars bought out the second year of his contract, making him an unrestricted free agent. The Avalanche took a chance on him in free agency, inking him to a one-year deal worth $850,000. His offensive production rebounded but, perhaps most importantly, he started growing his reputation as one of the best defensive wingers in the NHL among the analytics community. It earned him a contract extension which paid off in a big way for Colorado this year, with Nichushkin providing 25 goals and 52 points in 62 games with just a $2.5MM cap hit.

That type of production along with his defensive reputation is sure to earn Nichushkin a solid chunk of change this summer. However, Bally Sports Midwest’s Andy Strickland reports that Nichushkin and the Avalanche discussed a contract extension earlier in the season, but the two sides weren’t close to an agreement. Now 27 and an unrestricted free agent off a strong contract year, this is the best chance Nichushkin will have to capitalize financially. It would surprise few if the Avalanche can’t afford to retain him, especially as the team needs to prioritize their goaltending uncertainty and a contract extension for Nathan MacKinnon.

Metro Notes: Strome, Flyers, Hanus

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It was obvious to anyone watching the Eastern Conference Final that New York Rangers forward Ryan Strome wasn’t playing fully healthy. During his end-of-season availability today, Strome revealed that he had suffered a pelvic injury midway through the regular season and managed it all the way through the rest of the season and playoffs.

What’s unclear at this point is whether surgery will be required or not. It’s bad timing for Strome, who could hit unrestricted free agency on July 13 if he’s not re-signed by the Rangers. Strome did express his interest in re-signing today, but it’s anyone’s guess whether or not that will come to fruition. With the bevy of Rangers prospects finally starting to emerge through the cracks, the team will have to make space for those kids somewhere. It seems logical from an organizational perspective that Strome wouldn’t be retained, especially with the acquisition of Andrew Copp.

  • The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco refutes the reports that the Philadelphia Flyers have narrowed down their coaching search. He does go so far as to say that the three rumored finalists of Barry Trotz, John Tortorella, and Peter DeBoer are still under consideration, but he makes the distinction that the Flyers have just two or three names remaining on their coaching search list. Whether or not an outsider to those three ends up with the job remains to be seen.
  • The ’Baby Penguins’ made some news today, as AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton announced the signing of defenseman Clay Hanus from the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks for 2022-23. The Pittsburgh Penguins affiliate will add some solid defensive depth, as Hanus exploded for 74 points in 68 games this year. He’ll look to continue his development as an undrafted free agent with WBS and hopefully receive an NHL deal from Pittsburgh at some point down the road.

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