Derek Mackenzie joins Andrew Brunette’s Predators staff as assistant coach

New Nashville Predators’ coach Andrew Brunette took a big step towards rounding out his staff on Thursday by hiring former Florida Panthers colleague Derek MacKenzie as an assistant.

“I’ve been fortunate enough to see [MacKenzie’s] leadership qualities firsthand and know he will develop strong connections and relationships with our players and staff,” Brunette said.

MacKenzie had previously worked with Brunette on Joel Quenneville’s staff in Florida before assisting the former when he took over as interim coach early on in the Panthers’ President’s Trophy-winning 2021-2022 campaign.

After Florida brought in Paul Maurice last offseason, Brunette took a position as an assistant with the New Jersey Devils, who drastically improved. MacKenzie, meanwhile, became a head coach for the first time with the OHL Sudbury Wolves.

Sudbury went 23-20-7 under MacKenzie before losing to the eventual OHL-champion Peterborough Petes in the postseason. On accepting the job in Nashville, MacKenzie wished the Wolves well, promising to “[keep] a close eye on what [he] really believes will be an outstanding season.”

Like Brunette, MacKenzie made his living as a forward with a hard-nosed, defensive game; he ended his 613-game NHL career as Florida’s captain.

With Brunette, who boasts a 51-18-6 career record, and now MacKenzie on the bench, Nashville expects improvements in 2023-2024.

The Preds only missed the playoffs by a whisker last season despite selling off assets like Mattias Ekholm, Tanner Jeannot, and Nino Neiderreiter at the trade deadline.

With a treasure trove of draft capital at their disposal and superstars Roman Josi and Juuse Saros still in place, first-year GM Barry Trotz, who served as the team’s coach from 1998 until 2014, has every opportunity to restore Nashville to contention.

Trotz replaced the retiring David Poile as General Manager this offseason and will hope Brunette and MacKenzie can help get his tenure as an executive off to a strong start.