From Paul Maurice and Joel Quenneville to Lindy Ruff and John Tortorella, the NHL has its fair share of all-time great coaches. But all of them are chasing the accomplishments of Scotty Bowman.
The Montreal native won a record nine Stanley Cups in 30 seasons behind the bench, five with the Montreal Canadiens, three with the Detroit Red Wings and one with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Bowman twice won the Jack Adams Award, the honor presented annually to the NHL’s top coach.
In 2002, at 68 years old, Bowman retired after leading Detroit to its 10th Stanley Cup in franchise history. He left the game with 1,244 career regular-season victories, the most in NHL history.
In February 2026, Quenneville joined Bowman as the only NHL head coaches with 1,000 career wins. Check out the NHL head coaches with the most career victories below:
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Scotty Bowman, 1,244
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Joel Quenneville*, 1,011
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Paul Maurice*, 954
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Lindy Ruff*, 949
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Barry Trotz, 914
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Ken Hitchcock, 849
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Peter Laviolette, 846
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Al Arbour, 782
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John Tortorella*, 775
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Darryl Sutter, 737
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Alain Vigneault, 722
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Mike Babcock, 700
*Active
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