John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
Hockey fans like to bellyache about the NHL’s tendency to recycle their head coaches. But these days, they might be the only ones available.
The coaching carousel is spinning so fast that qualified up-and-comers are thinking twice before signing on.
When Martin St. Louis is the sixth longest-tenured coach after just two-and-a-half years in Montreal, an NHL job brings potential upheaval, which might not be ideal for young families.
Since the regular season ended in April, eight more NHL teams have made coaching changes — not counting Andre Tourigny, who is technically with a new team in Utah but dates back to 2021 with the Arizona Coyotes.
Of the eight coaches who took new jobs this summer, only Ryan Warsofsky is a new face. He moves up in San Jose after two years as David Quinn’s assistant. And as a fresh-faced 36-year-old, Warsofsky snags the title of youngest head coach away from Spencer Carbery, who’s 42.
He should get a reasonably long leash. There’s nowhere for the Sharks to go but up. But the situation differs for the seven re-treads.
Two are taking over good playoff teams and will make or break their reputations in the post-season.
The other five are being tasked with guiding their teams toward big moves up the standings: the kind that Jack Adams Award voters love.
In order of likelihood that these new bench bosses will deliver strong debuts in their new homes, let’s start in the Garden State.
Sheldon Keefe – New Jersey Devils
Once a young buck himself, Keefe now has four-and-a-half seasons of head-coaching experience under his belt. He’s still just 43, and his regular-season record of 212-97-40 for a .665 winning percentage in Toronto is solid.
Sheldon Keefe on his time in Toronto at his first press conference with the Devils. pic.twitter.com/IyPPf4xDx0
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) May 28, 2024
Keefe is also walking into an inviting new environment in New Jersey. He takes over a squad that underperformed last season due to shaky goaltending and key injuries but has now been dramatically upgraded.
In 2023-24, the Devils regressed from 112 points to 81, a 31-point difference, ultimately leading New Jersey to fall to seventh place in the Metropolitan Division.
Under Keefe’s steady hand, they could easily climb back into a playoff spot in his first year — and funnel some Jack Adams love in his direction.
Dan Bylsma – Seattle Kraken
The Kraken’s narrative was similar last season, but not as dramatic. Seattle slipped from 100 points down to 81, falling out of the playoff picture with a drop from fourth place to sixth in the Pacific.
Bylsma’s journey in Seattle should be fascinating.
He won the 2009 Stanley Cup as a mid-season replacement in Pittsburgh at age 38, and left the team with a .668 points percentage following the 2013-14 season. After an unsuccessful two years in Buffalo, he went seven seasons before getting another NHL opportunity — and created it for himself with great work on Seattle’s AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Bylsma jumped successfully to Pittsburgh midway through his first year of coaching their AHL squad. And he has a strong familiarity with the Kraken’s now-deepening prospect pool.
Look for Bylsma’s Kraken to climb the standings in a mostly weak Pacific Division.
Lindy Ruff – Buffalo Sabres
After the Sabres reached the playoff cusp in 2022-23, it feels like they backslid by more than seven points last season. Buffalo fell from 91 points to 84, dropping one spot in the Atlantic.
Ruff is a sentimental hire — a former Sabre as both player and coach, a Jack Adams winner with Buffalo in 2006 and the last coach to get the Sabres into the playoffs, back in 2011.
"We're all on board. We're all together. Let's get this done."
Take a behind-the-scenes look at head coach Lindy Ruff's first day back in Buffalo: https://t.co/mMY5ONrCVj pic.twitter.com/waEqiaKIXN
— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) April 25, 2024
Ruff coached 1,165 games for Buffalo before being fired early in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season. He then caught on for four years with Dallas and four with New Jersey, with a couple of years as an assistant with the Rangers in between.
The Devils’ strong season in 2022-23 earned him another Jack Adams nomination. So while Ruff is the oldest coach on this list at 64, he has done impressive work quite recently.
He may be better equipped than anyone to unlock the puzzle and make the Sabres respectable again.
Travis Green – Ottawa Senators
During a tumultuous inaugural season for new owner Michael Andlauer, Ottawa fell from 86 points to 78 and from the sixth spot to seventh in the Atlantic
Green enters the scene with a more reliable starting goaltender in Linus Ullmark and with Shane Pinto ready to contribute for a full season. And do we dare to hope that Josh Norris might finally be healthy after playing just 58 games over the last two seasons combined?
Ottawa is the third head-coaching destination for Green, who’s now 53. He’s coming off a brief interim stint in New Jersey, but his most notable achievement to date was taking the Vancouver Canucks to within one game of the Western Conference final in the 2020 bubble. In the regular season, Green recorded a humble .478 points percentage over 314 games in Vancouver.
Dean Evason – Columbus Blue Jackets
Like the Sharks, the Columbus Blue Jackets have plenty of room to grow. They improved from 59 points to 66 last season under Pascal Vincent, but that still left them 29th in the league standings.
The Blue Jackets desperately need stability in order to establish some positive forward momentum. Dean Evason is the team’s fifth head coach since Columbus last made the playoffs under John Tortorella in the 2020 bubble.
Evason is 59, but he didn’t get his first head-coaching opportunity until 2019 when he was 55. And while he didn’t have playoff success with the Wild, Evason’s .639 points percentage over 251 games is highly impressive, given the Wild’s salary-cap challenges during his tenure.
Head Coach Dean Evason on building a team-first mentality. pic.twitter.com/1K5Hz0qN78
— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) July 23, 2024
If he can deliver a steady hand in Ohio, he could start to push the Jackets in a more positive direction.
Craig Berube – Toronto Maple Leafs and Scott Arniel – Winnipeg Jets
The Maple Leafs and the Jets are the two teams that changed coaches after making the playoffs last year.
For Winnipeg, it was a necessity, following Rick Bowness’s retirement. After the Jets’ second-best season in franchise history with 110 points, Scott Arniel steps up from his associate’s role with big shoes to fill.
Now 61, Arniel had two tours of duty in Winnipeg as a player. His only other head-coaching experience was a year-and-a-half in Columbus starting in 2010. He put up a .439 points percentage over 123 games.
At 58, Berube has that 2019 Stanley Cup ring from St. Louis. Toronto will be his third head-coaching stop: he started with nearly two full years in Philadelphia beginning in 2013, then spent a year in the AHL before landing an associate’s job with the Blues. That, of course, led to him eventually taking the Blues from worst to first, and a championship.
All told, Berube logged a .597 points percentage over 382 games in St. Louis, but won just one playoff series after 2019. A fresh voice and a more no-nonsense approach may bring a new dimension out of the Maple Leafs’ players, but the jury will be out on Berube’s success as a coach until he delivers a meaningful playoff run in Toronto.
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