Bruins, Flyers, Blackhawks among teams to watch as coaching market heats up
The NHL coaching carousel continues to go around following Thursday’s news that Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella had been relieved of his duties.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk chatted about what teams could be looking for a new bench boss this summer.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s keep the coaching talk going. It’s going to be an interesting market heading into the summer. We’re at a point where teams are seemingly willing to cut bait and make changes quicker than they ever have been. When you look at who the longest tenured coaches are in the NHL, it’s guys who have been hired in the last five years, and then Jon Cooper and Mike Sullivan pretty much. But there are a couple of teams who still have guys sitting with interim tags right now. So let’s start there: Boston with Joe Sacco and Chicago with Anders Sorensen. Do you get the sense that those two teams will stick with the guy they have or could they be looking for a new coach this summer?
Frank Seravalli: No, I think they’re going to be looking. You watch the Bruins’ effort and it’s right to be highly critical of that. Then you look at Sorensen in Chicago, and I know that some people were all over him yesterday like, ‘Why wasn’t he more vocal on the bench?’ and critical of the referees. I thought his quote after the game was actually perfect. Like, ‘What’s the point of me freaking out? The call has been made. I’m not going to change the call. Isn’t it better to just try to establish a relationship with these guys and just hope that the next time it comes around that it helps you?’ For him to voice that publically – you almost never hear that – but nonetheless I do think the Blackhawks are going to be moving on. So where are the other potential openings? I think the list is longer, aside from the Flyers, than what you or I may have imagined given some of these tenures. I think the Seattle Kraken are in a position even after just one year of Dan Bylsma that they might have to make a tough decision and move on. I think the Nashville Predators, who are swirling at the bottom of the league, after two years of Andrew Brunette, and an undeniably great first season, they might have to make a coaching change. What about the Anaheim Ducks? They’ve had some positive progress in the last little while, but is Greg Cronin their guy for a long-term fit? I’ll be very surprised if Peter Laviolette is the coach of the New York Rangers on May 1. That leaves some other teams. With the Pittsburgh Penguins, there are question marks about Sullivan. We talked about Danny Briere inheriting Tortorella. What about Kyle Dubas inheriting Sullivan? Sullivan is undeniably a great coach, and we saw that again at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Will the Penguins make a change? Those are some of the more high-profile looks, and then you have Rick Tocchet who doesn’t have a contract next year. And because of all of those other openings, does one of those other teams jump up and say, ‘Hey, if [Tocchet] is a free agent, we want him and we’re going to pay for him.’ I think there is a very strong likelihood that that is the case.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: