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Bruins Will Retain Current Assistants, Hire Additional One

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The Bruins won’t see any additional coaching departures this offseason after appointing Marco Sturm as their new head coach last week, general manager Don Sweeney tells Jim McBride of the Boston Globe. Assistants Chris Kelly and Jay Leach, as well as goalie coach Bob Essensa, will comprise the majority of Sturm’s first support staff in Boston.

They will, however, look to hire a third assistant to replace Joe Sacco, Sweeney said. Sacco was promoted to interim head coach early this season following Jim Montgomery’s firing. However, after being informed he wouldn’t stay on, he departed the organization to join Mike Sullivan’s staff with the Rangers.

Still, confirming the retention of their assistants is a notable news item, particularly as it pertains to Leach. He was a candidate to gain promotion to the head coach job, and it isn’t unusual to see assistants depart an organization after not being promoted to head coach after going through the interview process.

The Bruins’ pending hire will presumably be tasked with managing their penalty kill. That’s the role Sacco held for his 11 seasons on Boston’s bench. He did quite a job with it. Only the Hurricanes (84.2%) have been a better club shorthanded than the Bruins (82.8%) over that span. Last season, though, Boston had just a 76.3% success rate on the PK, 24th in the NHL.

That leaves some big shoes to fill for whoever Sweeney and Sturm decide should complement their existing staff. The opening could be a fit for former Ducks head coach Greg Cronin, who took a more involved approach in the club’s special teams than a head coach usually does. He expressed interest in Boston’s vacancy soon after being let go by Anaheim. While he wasn’t identified as a candidate for the top job, there could be a fit for him as a specialist on staff.

Penalty-kill-oriented assistants looking for new homes this summer include Dave Lowry and Brent Thompson, previously of the Kraken and Ducks. Their list is almost certainly more expansive than that, of course.

Atlantic Notes: Senators Coaching Search, Murray, Maroon

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The search for Ottawa’s next coach is well underway with D.J. Smith being let go back in mid-December and Jacques Martin serving in the interim role until the end of the season.  Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch suggests that long-time Senators center Chris Kelly is someone they may want to speak to.  Kelly, who spent parts of eight seasons in Ottawa and also served as a development coach with them, is currently an assistant in Boston.  Among the names speculated to also be under consideration are AHL Toronto’s Jon Gruden, recently-fired veteran bench bosses Todd McLellan, Dean Evason, and Craig Berube, along with Philadelphia associate coach Brad Shaw.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Sens wait until deeper into the offseason to see who else might also become available so it may take a while yet for them to find their next head coach.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Maple Leafs goaltender Matt Murray faced shots briefly before practice today as he continues to work his way back from hip surgery, notes TSN’s Mark Masters (Twitter link). The veteran has missed the entire season and when he had the procedure done in October, it came with a recovery timeline of six to eight months.  We’re five months into that timeline so Murray still has a long way to go before being cleared to play.  With Toronto’s cap situation, they wouldn’t be able to afford to activate him until the playoffs anyway.
  • Bruins winger Pat Maroon skated for the first time yesterday as he continues his rehab from back surgery, relays Steve Conroy of The Boston Globe. He underwent the procedure six weeks ago but is still a ways from returning; head coach Jim Montgomery termed Maroon as still being week-to-week.  Boston picked up the 35-year-old at the trade deadline from Minnesota after Maroon put up 16 points and 71 hits in 49 games before the surgery.

Boston Bruins Announce Front Office, Coaching Updates

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The Boston Bruins have announced several changes in their front office and coaching staff, starting with Chris Kelly who has been named an assistant coach. Kelly previously served as the player development coordinator for the Bruins the past two seasons. Taking his place will be former teammate Adam McQuaid, who will serve in that coordinator role. The team also announced that Ryan Mougenel has been named the head coach of the Providence Bruins.

Kelly, who Boston fans best remember as an important deadline addition during the team’s 2011 Stanley Cup championship, returned to the Bruins in 2019 after spending a year as a development coach with the Ottawa Senators. He will now move from the development team to the coaching staff in Boston, joining Bruce Cassidy’s group. Kelly suited up for 288 regular season games for the Bruins during his playing career, recording 101 points.

McQuaid meanwhile was also on that 2011 team, offering his brand of physical play on the blueline. The 6’4″ defenseman was actually drafted by the Columbus Blue Jackets, but found his way to the Bruins in time for his NHL debut in the 2009-10 season. Over a ten-year NHL career, McQuaid played 462 of his 512 games in a Bruins uniform, racking up 652 penalty minutes along the way.

Mougenel has been with Providence for three seasons, serving as an assistant for former head coach Jay Leach. With Leach off to join the Seattle Kraken, there was an opening behind the bench for the AHL Bruins. That spot will be quickly filled by an internal candidate, and one that has plenty of head coaching experience already. Mougenel served as the head coach for the Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL for four seasons, the same league where he spent most of his playing career.

Seattle Kraken To Hire Jay Leach As Assistant Coach

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Seattle Kraken head coach Dave Hakstol is not wasting any time with filling out his staff. Less than two weeks since he was named the expansion team’s first ever head coach, Hakstol has reportedly decided on who will become Seattle’s first assistant coach. Mark Divver of the New England Hockey Journal reports that Jay Leach has accepted the assistant position with the Kraken, leaving behind his post as head coach of the AHL’s Providence Bruins.

Although this will be Leach’s first experience at the NHL level, he is far from an outside-the-box hire. Leach, 41, is in fact considered one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the pro game and just recently was a finalist for the Arizona Coyotes’ head coach vacancy. The head coach for Providence for the past four seasons and an assistant with the AHL Bruins and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins prior, Leach has learned under the likes of Mike Sullivan, Bruce Cassidy, and Kevin Dean. A former pro defensemen with 70 NHL games played over 12 seasons, Leach also brings that playing experience and a deft knowledge of the defensive aspects of the game to his coaching resume.

In his time leading Providence, Leach has helped to develop current Bruins such as Matt Grzelcyk, Jeremy Lauzon, Jakub Zboril, Connor Clifton, Trent Frederic, Karson Kuhlman, Jack Studnicka, Jeremy Swayman and more, as well as other NHLers like Jordan Binnington, Anders Bjork, Danton Heinen, Ryan Donato, and Gemel Smith. With the upcoming Expansion Draft likely to yield a number of young, fringe NHLers among those exposed, Seattle could very well end up selecting more than a few players with high potential but room to grow. Having a coach experienced in winning with young players while improving those individuals could prove to be invaluable. Leach’s connection to Lauzon, Zboril, Clifton, and Kuhlman, all of whom are expected to exposed by the Bruins, makes it even more likely that Seattle selects a young player off the Boston roster.

As for the Bruins, this is their second major coaching loss in less than a week. Assistant coach Jay Pandolfo was announced as the new Associate Head Coach at Boston University on Friday and now Leach is gone just a few days later. Leach had been an ideal candidate to replace Pandolfo on Boston’s bench alongside mentors Cassidy and Dean, but the organization will have to look elsewhere. Even though former players-turned-staffers Trent Whitfield, Chris Kelly, and P.J. Axelsson are also internal candidates for one job or the other, the Bruins now seem very likely to go outside of the organization to address at least one of their two key vacancies.

Boston University Hires Jay Pandolfo, Brian Daccord

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July 2: BU has officially announced Pandolfo as the Terriers’ associate coach. The team will also be adding Brian Daccord as a goaltending coach after he resigned from the Arizona Coyotes earlier this year. Daccord, whose son is a goaltender in the Ottawa Senators organization, left the Coyotes after just one season.

July 1: Boston Bruins assistant coach Jay Pandolfo is making a move, but he won’t be going far. According to the New England Hockey Journal, Pandolfo is set to join Boston University as an associate head coach under Albie O’Connell. He will replace outgoing assistant Paul Peart, who recently accepted the head coach position at prep powerhouse Cushing Academy. Pandolfo’s hockey career took off as a standout at BU in the 90’s and led to a long, successful NHL career that wrapped up back in Boston with the Bruins in 2012-13. He now returns to his alma mater as a seasoned coach, looking to win an NCAA Championship as he did as a player in 1995.

The move, while understandable given the history, is still unorthodox. Pandolfo is leaving an NHL assistant position on one of the better and more consistent franchises in the league to take a similar role at the college level. Pandolfo has been on the Bruins’ staff since 2016-17, the year in which current head coach Bruce Cassidy first took over. While there hasn’t been much noise surrounding Pandolfo this year or last, he was once considered an up-and-coming coach, with at least one confirmed head coach interview with the New York Islanders in 2018. Now, he moves away from that possibility and into the college game. If he can help right the ship at BU, where the Terriers have struggled to find great success in recent years despite some of the best talent in college hockey, Pandolfo could quickly grab an NCAA head coaching job.

As for the Bruins, the team is not without a number of suitable internal candidates. Development coach Chris Kelly and scouting coordinator P.J. Axelsson are both former players who would be good for the role, as would highly-regarded AHL head coach Jay Leach, who interviewed for the Arizona Coyotes’ vacancy recently. It is also worth noting that Rick Tocchet, now out of head coach options despite considerable interest, was briefly a Bruin during his playing days and skated alongside Team President Cam Neeley and GM Don Sweeney. 

Morning Notes: Kelly, Rantanen, Penguins

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The Boston Bruins have hired former NHL forward Chris Kelly as a player development coordinator. The 38-year old was with the Ottawa Senators last season as a development coach, and is only just removed from a professional playing career that spanned 17 years, including an appearance at the 2018 Olympics for Team Canada. Kelly suited up 288 times in the regular season for the Bruins, and was part of the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2011. The team has also hired long-time pro scout Andrew Dickson, who was most recently with the Detroit Red Wings.

More notes from around the league…

  • The KHL rights for Mikko Rantanen have been traded, as the league prepares for the possibility of a potential NHL work stoppage. Even though Rantanen still doesn’t have a contract with the Colorado Avalanche, the acquisition by Ak Bars Kazan should not be considered an indication that he is heading overseas. Rantanen has developed into one of the premiere offensive wingers in the entire world, and should a work stoppage actually occur in the coming years teams all over the world will be scrambling for his (temporary) services.
  • Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription required) still believes that the Pittsburgh Penguins will make another trade before the end of the offseason, and has updated his look at the likelihood of that for each roster player. Yohe continues to list Nick Bjugstad, Bryan Rust and Tristan Jarry in the “favorite” category, though examines everyone else thoroughly (okay, Sidney Crosby’s blurb is anything but thorough). The Penguins re-signed Teddy Blueger recently and are now have less than $1MM in cap space remaining with Zach Aston-Reese and Marcus Pettersson still sitting as restricted free agents. While there is certainly some ways to wiggle around the cap issue, the team would still be pushed right to the ceiling all season and limited to what they can do to improve the club. A trade to free up some more cash does seem likely, though how long it will take for that to happen is unclear.

Snapshots: Blues, Bieksa, Bakos

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For fans of the Blues, hoping that the team can turn the season around, as well as fans of other teams hoping for a chance at acquiring their top players, today’s news comes as a welcome change to the status quo in St. Louis. The Blues announced that three players were back at practice today and looking healthy and ready for game action. Alex Pietrangelo, Carl Gunnarsson, and Robby Fabbri all took the ice today and are expected to return to the lineup as early as tonight, when St. Louis takes on the Edmonton Oilers on the road. “Obviously we missed those guys tremendously”, said teammate Patrick Maroon, one of a number of Blues players who spoke about their excitement to have three difference-makers back at practice. Pietrangelo is clearly the greatest addition to the lineup, but Gunnarsson is also a regular on the Blues blue line and Fabbri has struggled with constant injurie issues for parts of three seasons and St. Louis would like to see him stay healthy for the rest of the campaign. At full strength, the Blues do have plenty of talent on paper and could put together a comeback of sorts this season. However, if that doesn’t happen, the team will continue to take calls on nearly anyone on the roster. GM Doug Armstrong won’t trade anyone whose value has dipped, so getting Pietrangelo and company back to health also improves his asking price should he decide to make some moves down the stretch.

  • On a recent appearance on the “31 Thoughts” podcast with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Jeff Marek, veteran defenseman Kevin Bieksa made it clear that he is not retired. In fact, Bieksa has already committed to play with Team Canada at the Spengler Cup in Switzerland later this month. A strong performance from the 37-year-old could earn him a contract from a contender for the second half of the NHL season. Brian Gionta and Chris Kelly accomplished similar feats after the Olympics last year and Bieksa has the experience and claims to still have the physical conditioning to follow suit. The long-time Vancouver Canuck and Anaheim Duck was unwilling to sign long-term with any team far from his family in California this off-season, but on a half-season deal he will likely be more open to taking the offer that gives him the best chance at an elusive Stanley Cup title.
  • After his time with the Boston Bruins didn’t go according to plan due to an early-season injury and a lack of opportunity, Martin Bakos had his contract terminated last week after clearing unconditional waivers. He’s now on to a new opportunity, as HK Sochi of the KHL announced that they have inked Bakos to a contract for the remainder of the season. Bakos has several seasons of KHL experience on his resume, but this is first time playing for one of the league’s many Russian squads after previous stints with HC Bratislava in his native country of Slovakia, as well as a year in China with the Kunlun Red Star. Bakos only managed to record four points in 16 games with the AHL’s Providence Bruins, a skilled minor league squad, so it will be interesting to see how he performs on a Sochi roster that lacks much talent up front. Bakos joins recent NHLers Jyrki Jokipakka and Yohann Auvitu in Sochi, hoping to push for a playoff spot with the team this season.

Chris Kelly Hired By Ottawa Senators

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Chris Kelly’s playing career has come to an end after playing in the Olympics and then suiting up 12 times with the Anaheim Ducks last season, and he will re-join the Ottawa Senators organization as a development coach. Kelly started his career and played several years with the Senators between 2005-2010.

Kelly, 37, served as captain of the 2018 Canadian Olympic hockey team after the NHL banned their players from attending. The long-time professional player ended up with three points in six games en route to a bronze medal, but will always be able to say he competed at the very highest level of international competition. After also competing in the Spengler Cup, Kelly signed on with the Ducks in late February and registered two points down the stretch. Always a defensively responsible player, it was clear that his days of contributing much offense at the NHL level were long gone.

In Ottawa, a coach like Kelly who has been seen as a model professional and leader throughout his playing career can help to try and turn the tides. The Senators locker room has been divided for the last while if reports are to be true, and now have huge decisions to make with pending free agents. Mark Stone, Matt Duchene and captain Erik Karlsson are all heading into the final year of their contracts and need to be shown that the ship is heading in the right direction. Kelly will be a good influence on the young players hoping to help take over the team in the coming seasons.

Free Agent Focus: Anaheim Ducks

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Free agency is now less than a month away from opening up and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. Here is a breakdown of Anaheim’s free agent situation.

Key Restricted Free Agents: F Ondrej Kase — After just a 15-point season a year ago, Kase came on strong this year and proved to be invaluable for the Ducks in a season in which not much went right. The playmaking forward came out and put up 20 goals in his second season and that was despite playing in just 66 games. That’s not the best timing in terms of salary cap issues for the Ducks as Kase, who made $670K last season on the final year of his entry-level deal, could be due for a significant raise as he will likely fight for a spot on the team’s second line next season. The only real issue that Kase has is the injuries he’s dealt with over the years. He hasn’t played a full season yet for Anaheim as he just played 53 games the previous season and combined to play just 39 games over two seasons with the San Diego Gulls of the AHL between 2015-17.

D Brandon Montour — After a breakout season a year ago in which Montour came up to Anaheim to replace an injured Clayton Stoner, the young blueliner established himself quickly as a top young defenseman. The 24-year-old proved to management that they could part with Shea Theodore last season in an expansion draft deal and survive with Montour amongst their top four. The defenseman took that step and has been a reliable anchor to the Ducks’ defense, averaging 20:28 of ATOI this season. And now after making $925K last season in the final year of his entry-level deal, Montour should also get quite a pay raise and could walk away with a long-term deal.

Other RFA’s: G Kevin Boyle, F Nicolas Kerdiles, F Kalle Kossila, F Nick Ritchie, F Kevin Roy, D Andy Welinski.

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: D Kevin Bieksa — At 37 years of age, Bieksa doesn’t have as much to offer the Ducks than he did in his prime. Now with his $4MM cap hit gone, however, there may still be quite a bit of interest for both parties to remain together as a depth option, albeit at a significantly lower cost. Bieksa did miss some time this season after undergoing hand surgery in March and while he did return by the end of the season, he wasn’t the same as he played in just one of the team’s four playoff games. Regardless, with some of the depth issues the team dealt with last year after trading away Theodore and Sami Vatanen, the team wouldn’t mind bringing the physical veteran back.

F Derek Grant — After years of bouncing around the NHL as a spare forward for many years, Grant has finally found a team that has brought the best out of him. The 28 year old managed to appear in a career-high 66 games where 40 was his previous best and put up 12 goals and 12 assists for Anaheim in a bottom-line role, averaging a career-high 11:06 in ATOI. After signing last year with the Ducks for $605K, he is in line to get a better deal. Throw in the possibility that top center Ryan Kesler might miss all of next season and the team may want Grant around even more.

Other UFA’s: F Jared Boll, F J.T. Brown, F Jason Chimera, F Chris Kelly, F Michael Liambas,  F Scott Sabourin, F Corey Tropp, F Antoine Vermette.

Projected Cap Space: The Ducks don’t have as much wiggle room as they would like as they have just over $9MM of projected cap space available to them. While they don’t have any significant unrestricted free agents they need to sign, some of the cap space will have to be devoted to their restricted free agent group, including Kase, Montour and Ritchie, which leaves them with little room to go out and add a high-profile free agent to bolster their veteran roster. With much of their money going towards their veteran core, the team may have to try to find some players in the bargain bin to bolster their roster for next season.

 

Off-Season Retirement Watch List

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Although the Stanley Cup playoffs are in full swing with four excellent match-ups in the second round, as teams have been eliminated – and continue to be eliminated – from contention, players begin to make decisions about their futures. Knowing that they were not playoff-bound, Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin announced their departure from the Vancouver Canucks and pro hockey before the end of the season. Former teammate Radim Vrbata made the same decision days later. The Blackhawks’ Patrick Sharp announced that he was moving on, after a return to Chicago didn’t go as planned. Then, Anaheim Ducks defenseman Francois Beauchemin then got the off-season retirement party started last week, officially calling it a career. Meanwhile, for the third straight summer, Matt Cullen will be contemplating his hockey mortality. Who could be next?

Jaromir Jagr and Jarome Iginla: Let’s start with the easy ones – a Calgary Flames legend and a legend whose career likely ended with the Calgary Flames. Jagr and Iginla were both pushing hard for a final chance at the NHL last summer and both players continued their searches into the regular season. Jagr finally landed a deal with the Flames in October, but health issues and a lack of productions made for a poor tenure in Calgary. Jagr recorded just seven points in 22 games before heading back to his native Czech Republic in January. Iginla opted to undergo surgery in the fall, but was back skating in February and hoping to sign on with a team for the stretch run and postseason. However, no such offer came. These two have been a couple of the biggest names in hockey since the 1990’s and are surefire Hall of Famers, but there is little doubt that their NHL playing days are behind them. Expect official announcements this summer.

Brian Gionta: Gionta is in a similar spot. Unable to find a contract last off-season, Gionta worked out and skated with the AHL’s Rochester Americans ahead of his appearance with Team USA at Winter Olympics. It was a less-than-spectacular showing by the veteran, but he still managed to turn it into a late-season contract with the Boston Bruins. Gionta posted seven points in 20 games with the Bruins in the final months of the regular season, but has yet to see any playoff action, despite ample opportunity given injuries to multiple Boston players heading into and during Round One. Gionta’s play with the Bruins has not exactly harked back to his prime, but nevertheless has shown effort and intelligence. He may have earned another look next season, but it’s more likely than not that this current run with Boston will be the curtain call for Gionta.

Chris Kelly: Kelly also played at the Winter Games and signed on late like Gionta. However, both he and his team have not had similar success. Kelly saw just 12 games with the Anaheim Ducks after signing in February and only contributed two points to show for it. The Ducks were then swept out of the playoffs without Kelly having any say in the matter as a healthy scratch all season. Kelly surprised a lot of people when he played in all 82 games with the Ottawa Senators last season, but this short campaign has shown that the years of dependable play have caught up with him.

Mike Fisher: Will Fisher re-retire? Almost surely. No one can blame Fisher for not wanting to miss out on a possible Cup run by the Nashville Predators one season after coming so close, but Fisher’s presence on the team thus far has been more about leadership and morale than on-ice impact. Fisher had just four points in 16 games down the stretch while averaging just over twelve minutes of ice time and thus far in the postseason has been held scoreless in seven games while seeing barely eleven minutes of time. Fisher’s days as a legitimate player seem to clearly be over, but he could still make a difference for Nashville in these playoffs with the right opportunity.

Dominic Moore: There may be no other player in the game today who has thrived by being a hired gun like Moore. Throughout his career, the veteran center has been able to join a new team, adjust, and play a critical support role. So, when that pattern fell apart this year with the Toronto Maple Leafs, it signaled the coming end to Moore’s career. Moore was common scratch for the Leafs and averaged only about ten minutes of ice time per night, but with twelve points in 50 games, he also didn’t make the most of his opportunities. If any player in the league can adapt to being 38-years-old and coming off a down season by finding the perfect fit for another go-round, it’s Moore, but don’t be surprised if he calls it quits instead.

Joel Ward: There’s no doubt that Ward would like to keep playing. A hard-nosed player and a consummate pro, Ward has been a reliable piece to every team he has been on. However, there is no looking past what by all accounts was the worst season of his career in 2017-18. Just twelve points in 52 games and less than twelve minutes of ice time per game shows just how small a role he played for the San Jose Sharks this year and that’s not even including the fact that the Sharks tried to trade him at the deadline and have yet to play him in the postseason. Ward’s time in San Jose is undeniably over, but that doesn’t mean another team can’t take a one-year flier on him. At this point, it seems unlikely though.

Dennis Seidenberg and Johnny Oduya: What else do these two 36-year-old, left-shot, physical defenders have in common? Their time has come. Seidenberg’s resurgence with the New York Islander was a great story last season, but he came back to earth in this campaign and was limited by injuries and inability to just 28 games and five points. Oduya has had back-to-back disappointing seasons like that, recording only 17 points in 104 games with four different teams across the past two seasons. Dealt to the Philadelphia Flyers at the deadline, Oduya did nothing, skating in just one regular season game and zero postseason games. Both of these men have been admirable NHLers, but it’s hard to see either continuing to play.

On the bubble: Jason Chimera, Antoine Vermette, and Kevin Bieksa, Anaheim Ducks; Josh Gorges, Buffalo Sabres; Matt Stajan, Calgary Flames; Lee Stempniak, Carolina Hurricanes; Ales Hemsky, Montreal Canadiens; Scottie Upshall, St. Louis Blues; Jussi Jokinen, Vancouver Canucks.

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