Which NHL coaches are on the hot seat?

Halloween may be behind us, but for coaches of struggling NHL teams, spooky season is impending. It took until January for the first coach to be fired last season (Dean Evason by the Columbus Blue Jackets), but the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery on November 19 the season prior. As we creep deeper into November, certain disappointing teams could decide a new bench boss is needed to turn their season around.

There is no shortage of disappointing teams this season, either. It’s still early, but of last season’s 16 postseason teams, five currently find themselves outside of the playoff picture. Then, there are the teams that were counting on making a jump but haven’t, and could be running out of patience.

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton discussed which current NHL coaches could find themselves out of a job sooner rather than later.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’m going to give you a couple of coaches, and you’re going to tell me how hot their seat is on a scale of one to 10. One is not hot at all, 10 is piping hot and they might be fired. The first one I’ve got is for you is another rebuilding team, and it’s Jeff Blashill in Chicago, as the Blackhawks lose again and they’re 4-10-1 to begin their season. They seem to be stuck in the mud. One through 10, how hot do you think Jeff Blashill’s seat is?

Carter Hutton: I’m going to say seven. I just think looking at player development as much as the standings there, I just think he’s got to keep evidence of these guys getting better from a player standpoint. As long as we can see some growth from (Connor) Bedard and (Anton) Frondell and some of those players, I think he survives, but it’s starting to get hot because it’s a market that has expectations. They’re not far away from being the Stanley Cup champions. This team needs to start climbing up the standings or he’s in the mix here.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’m going to go a little bit lower. You bring up a good point about the expectations and the market. The last time they made the Stanley Cup playoffs in a full, normal NHL season was 10 years ago, 2016-17. That market is clamoring for the ‘Hawks to take a step forward which is why I’m going to go not quite down at the very bottom of this list, but I’ll say it’s 4.75. I’m not going to go to five, but four seems to low. I’m going to go 4.75 for Jeff Blashill. It’s only his second year, I don’t think they’re going to make the playoffs this season, so I could see a scenario where they give him the whole year and then at the end of year two he’s ousted. But a year and a half behind the bench feels like it would be a little bit premature.

Next name I’ve got for you, Rick Bowness in Columbus. They are sitting dead at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, although if you sort by points percentage they are ahead of the Flyers. There was some noise around Bones earlier in the season, that maybe seems to have quieted off a little bit, but one through 10, how hot do you think Rick Bowness’ seat is?

Carter Hutton: I’m going to put him a little bit lower than I would put Blashill. I’m going to say four. It’s warm, but it’s just kind of medium. It’s kind of like when you’re cooking an egg. Nothing too crazy, you don’t want to rush it, you kind of just have to let it simmer a bit. Because I look at this lineup and I just don’t know if a coaching change really solves the situation of the way the team is structured and where they’re at. That’s my take with Rick Bowness. I think he drew a lot more eyes when he was coming out to the media and talking about the team and everything. I think that public accountability has put him more in the spotlight, but I don’t think he’s at a risk because of the situation he’s in. And his age, I just don’t think there’s a worry if it’s more grooming the assistant to come in and take over in Don Granato.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I’ll go low, too. I’ll say 3.5 out of 10 for Bowness, just because, for some of these teams, like if Dallas were to sputter, and there’s someone who I kind of threw out there at the beginning of the year, that’s a spot that is ripe for John Tortorella to slide in. You could look at some other contenders and go like “Alright, if they start to slip ans sputter, who is that big-name coach who could come in and give them a kick in the ass for the rest of the season. In Columbus, they’re obviously not going to do the Torts thing, but they’re not going to bring in that guy. It’s probably going to be a more forward thinking coach who they think can grow with them and be there for the next three to five seasons. For that reason, I would bet that Bones finds a way to survive the year.

You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Tuesday’s episode here…