The Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins filled their coaching vacancies this week, meaning that 31 NHL teams now have their coaching situation settled for next season – the Dallas Stars fired Peter DeBoer on Friday and have yet to replace him.
There are eight coaches in new markets, and we’re going to cover them below and take a stab at predicting which new coaches will guide their teams into a Stanley Cup playoff spot next year.
To do so, we’re going to use a sliding scale from 1-to-4. The scale breaks down as follows:
1 = Next To No Chance Of Making The Playoffs
2 = Outside Chance Of Making The Playoffs
3 = Solid Shot Of Making The Playoffs
4 = Virtual Lock To Make The Playoffs
That’s clear as day, right? With that said, let’s look at the teams below, in alphabetical order:
Anaheim Ducks
New Coach: Joel Quenneville
Rating: 2
Breakdown: Quenneville inherits a Ducks team that finished sixth in the Pacific Division this season. Anaheim is a team slowly on the rise, and this off-season will likely see GM Pat Verbeek make extensive roster changes. But you have to ask yourself – what Pacific playoff team this year is going to fall out of the playoffs and open up a spot for the Ducks? Vegas, Edmonton and Los Angeles are all playoff locks, so Anaheim won’t have it easy getting back into the post-season.
It’s not a confidence-building situation for Anaheim fans, but it is the reality. They just don’t have the experience or depth to make a major jump in the standings. Quenneville’s on-ice reputation is that of a winner, but he probably will have to live without a post-season appearance for his Ducks next year.
Boston Bruins
New Coach: Marco Sturm
Rating: 3
Breakdown: Sturm got the final coaching job opening this week, but he’s going to be under intense pressure to get the Bruins back into the post-season right away. Boston needs to start developing a new generation of long-term Bruins, and Sturm’s task is all about balancing the short-term needs of stars like David Pastrnak and Elias Lindholm with the future of youngsters like Fabian Lysell and Fraser Minten.
Sturm was a capable NHLer in his playing days, but he’s got a different animal to wrestle now that he’s running the Bruins. And while the Atlantic Division will be at least as competitive as it was this year, Boston has enough experienced horses – and a new approach from Sturm – to get at least close to a post-season berth next season.
Chicago Blackhawks
New Coach: Jeff Blashill
Rating: 1
Breakdown: The Blackhawks do have some clear building blocks for the future – most notably, young star forwards Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar, 2024 first-round pick Artyom Levshunov and fellow defenseman Kevin Korchinski. But make no mistake – Chicago has a very long way to go before they’re a playoff team once again.
Not only do the Hawks play in the most competitive division in the league, but their NHL roster is a dog’s breakfast of veterans near the end of their careers (Nick Foligno and T.J. Brodie) and mid-tier veterans who aren’t needle-movers (Tyler Bertuzzi and Teuvo Teravainen). As such, the Blackhawks aren’t a serious danger to make the playoffs next year. They need more elite young players and more patience, and Blashill will be charged with taking his lumps and building Chicago’s core into a consistent threat to win. But that threat won’t materialize next season.
New York Rangers
New Coach: Mike Sullivan
Rating: 3
Breakdown: Sullivan brings his championship pedigree to Manhattan, and he’s going to face immediate and prolonged pressure to make Rangers fans forget about their catastrophic play this past season. But even with some presumed alterations to their roster, the Blueshirts have the talent to rebound under Sullivan and once again be a playoff team in the Metropolitan Division.
Sullivan’s biggest challenge will be to revitalize the Rangers’ defense and hope their offensive-minded players will show that last year was an aberration. Some of that falls at the feet of star goalie Igor Shesterkin, but Sullivan has to install greater structure in the Rangers’ own zone to make Shesterkin’s life easier. Two straight seasons with no post-season appearance would be abominable for the Blueshirts, but Sullivan’s know-how and high demands should get the Rangers back where they’ve been accustomed to.
Philadelphia Flyers
New Coach: Rick Tocchet
Rating: 2
Breakdown: Tocchet comes into Philadelphia with the reputation of instilling confidence in his players, but even the best confidence-builder can’t put an NHL-caliber goalie in the Flyers’ net, and netminding probably will still be Philly’s biggest issue for the short term. So we’re envisioning the Flyers being slightly better in 2025-26, but still not close to being a playoff team next year.
Tocchet is going to need to be a teacher with a high panic threshold for his team, but the Flyers are still very much a group in transition from frustrating also-rans to legitimate post-season contenders. Philadelphia has some great youngsters its fans can be excited about – Matvei Michkov and Jamie Drysdale, among others – but it will be difficult indeed for Tocchet to deliver playoff games to the organization next year. You can make progress as a team without making the playoffs, and that’s how we see things shaking out for the Flyers in 2025-26.
Pittsburgh Penguins
New Coach: Dan Muse
Rating: 2
Breakdown: Muse is an unknown quantity for most hockey fans, but Penguins GM Kyle Dubas hired him to make Pittsburgh a much tougher team to play against. The Pens still have the cornerstone components of their glory years, but there’s a clear mandate to start giving opportunities to the next wave of Penguins youngsters. And given that there are no future Sidney Crosbys or Evgeni Malkins in Pittsburgh’s pipeline, the Pens could yet again struggle in the standings.
Muse also needs a lot of help in the goaltending department if the Penguins are to get anywhere close to the playoffs in 2025-26. And we’re envisioning Dubas making further roster changes this summer, so the lineup Muse is looking at now will be far different than the one he begins next season with. The Pens weren’t good enough to be a playoff team this year, and it’s not at all likely that will change anytime soon, regardless of bringing in a new coach.
Seattle Kraken
New Coach: Lane Lambert
Rating: 2
Breakdown: In their infancy as a team, the Kraken tried to emulate the success of the fellow recent expansion team, the Golden Knights, but in recent years, their trajectory has looked more like that of a team still developing its identity. They fired veteran Dan Bylsma and hired Lambert, who worked wonders running the Toronto Maple Leafs’ penalty kill this year. But Seattle’s distinct lack of depth, particularly on defense, is probably going to be the reason they fail to make the playoffs next season.
The Kraken have their starting goalie in Joey Daccord, and they do have some solid building blocks for the long term. But the Pacific won’t be easy to make up ground in, and Lambert has to do his best to be a patient bench boss as his youngsters try to take the next competitive step in their careers. Seattle may not be a lock to miss the playoffs, but they certainly are no shoo-in to end their playoff-less streak at two seasons.
Vancouver Canucks
New Coach: Adam Foote
Rating: 4
Breakdown: Yes, we know the Canucks looked disinterested in doing the hard work to become a playoff team in 2024-25. And yes, we know Vancouver GM Patrik Allvin likely has extensive renovations coming for his lineup this summer. But so long as star goalie Thatcher Demko and superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes are healthy, the Canucks have an excellent chance of getting back into the post-season.
Foote’s familiarity with his roster after serving as Canucks assistant coach is likely to work in his favor. And Vancouver has no interest in tearing things down for a full rebuild, so we anticipate the Canucks will only be adding talent in the off-season. If they can shake off the malaise that hampered them this year and Foote can squeeze more pop out of their offense, the Canucks should almost certainly be a playoff team once again.
Get the
latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by
subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below
the article on THN.com.
