Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n1. Colorado Avalanche (13-1-5)\u00a0Jared Bednar is the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL, having been tabbed to guide the Avs \u2014 his first head coaching gig in the NHL \u2014 in the summer of 2016. Bednar, of course, is the first coach to win an ECHL, AHL and NHL championship. He\u2019s a huge character in the current iteration of the Avs. That said, Colorado has hit that point where another early playoff exit could put anything on the table.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2. Carolina Hurricanes (13-5-2)\u00a0Just like in our power rankings, Rod Brind\u2019Amour is right behind Bednar as the third-longest tenured bench boss in the league. As much as any coach in the NHL, Brind\u2019Amour is the face of his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3. Dallas Stars (12-5-3)\u00a0Glen Gulutzan is getting his third crack (and second with the Stars) behind an NHL bench. His previous two stops as head coach ended after two seasons, so he\u2019s obviously hoping for more in Big D this time around as the Stars try to get over the championship hump.<\/p>\n
4. New Jersey Devils (13-5-1)\u00a0Sheldon Keefe got the Devils back in the playoffs during his first year behind the bench in Jersey last season and the expectation is for a deep playoff run soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n
5. Anaheim Ducks (13-6-1)\u00a0Joel Quenneville returned to the NHL in the summer after nearly four years away from the league. The hiatus, of course, stemmed from his inaction when Kyle Beach \u2014 a member of the Chicago Blackhawks team Quenneville coached \u2014 came forward with sexual assault allegations against Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010. Quenneville is second all-time in NHL wins (982) behind Scotty Bowman (1,244) and has the Ducks off to a great start this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
6. Winnipeg Jets (12-7-0)\u00a0Scott Arniel has a .693 points percentage in a season-and-a-quarter as Jets coach. A few factors play into that number, but Arniel surely deserves his share of the credit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
7. Los Angeles Kings (10-6-4)\u00a0Jim Hiller took over the Kings in-season in February 2024 and while L.A. remains a strong club, Hiller is 0-2 versus the Edmonton Oilers in the first round of the playoffs, just like his predecessor Todd McLellan was.\u00a0<\/p>\n
8. Detroit Red Wings (12-7-1)\u00a0McLellan was out of work less than a year after being axed in L.A. He\u2019s been a staple behind Western Conference benches this century, guiding the Kings, Sharks and Oilers. He\u2019s still in search of a ring and hoping to guide the Wings to their first playoff appearance since 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n
9. Vegas Golden Knights (9-4-6)\u00a0Bruce Cassidy has 119 Stanley Cup Playoff games on his resume, fifth-most among active coaches. He\u2019s already in his fourth season behind the bench in Vegas. While Cassidy won the Cup during his first year in the desert, another deep run is required soon to satisfy management\u2019s high expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
10. Chicago Blackhawks (10-5-4)\u00a0Jeff Blashill missed the playoffs in six of the seven years he coached the Red Wings. Wouldn\u2019t it be something if he made them during his first year in Chicago?<\/p>\n
11. Pittsburgh Penguins (10-5-4)\u00a0When Dan Muse was tabbed to coach the Pens last spring, it marked as big a surprise hiring as we\u2019ve seen in a minute. Even more surprising is how well Muse has Pittsburgh \u2014 pegged for the bottom of the standings in most circles \u2014 playing through a quarter of the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
12. Seattle Kraken (9-5-5)\u00a0Lane Lambert is getting his second crack as an NHL head coach after spending two years guiding the Islanders. Lambert was a big branch on the Barry Trotz coaching tree and that means his teams always aim to play with pristine structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
13. New York Islanders (11-7-2)\u00a0The league is more fun when Patrick Roy is in it, full stop. Let\u2019s see if he and the Isles can keep the good results coming all year in his second full season at the helm on Long Island.\u00a0<\/p>\n
14. Tampa Bay Lightning (10-7-2)\u00a0Can Canadian Jon Cooper add an Olympic gold medal to his incredible resume in February? That\u2019s about the only thing the NHL\u2019s longest-tenured coach has yet to accomplish behind a bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n
15. Montreal Canadiens (10-6-3)\u00a0Only one NHL coach was a Hart Trophy winner in his playing days and it\u2019s Martin St. Louis of the Canadiens. (Of course, Habs fans would also be happy to point out Isles coach Patrick Roy was a three-time Conn Smythe Trophy winner as playoff MVP). An out-of-the-box hiring early in the rebuild, St. Louis has shown he\u2019s the man for the job in Montreal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
16. Minnesota Wild (10-7-4)\u00a0John Hynes has coached three teams in the past 10 years and when he\u2019s been out of work, it hasn\u2019t been for long. Still, a Hynes-coached team has never finished as high as third in its division.<\/p>\n
17.\u00a0\u00a0Florida Panthers (10-8-1)\u00a0Jon Cooper is the longest-tenured NHL coach, but Paul Maurice had already coached 15 seasons in the league when Cooper made his debut with the Lighting in 2013. A handful of coaches are in their 60s and Maurice, at 58, still isn\u2019t one of them. Barring unforeseen events \u2014 and, hey, this is coaching we\u2019re talking about \u2014 Maurice will pass Scotty Bowman for the most contests coached in the NHL about halfway through 2027-28 and he\u2019ll still basically have his entire 60s ahead of him to keep piling up games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
18. Philadelphia Flyers (9-6-3)\u00a0Something about Rick Tocchet coaching his old team in Philly just feels right.\u00a0<\/p>\n
19. Ottawa Senators (9-6-4)\u00a0Travis Green got Ottawa back in the post-season during his first season with the club last year. Making the playoffs again will have a lot to do with the Sens\u2019 goaltending \u2014 currently posting the 25th-ranked 5-on-5 save percentage in the NHL \u2014 improving.\u00a0<\/p>\n
20. Washington Capitals (10-8-2)\u00a0Spencer Carbery won the Jack Adams Trophy during his second year with Washington last season. If the Caps want to defend their Metropolitan Division crown, Carbery and Co. will have to get the club\u2019s 30th-ranked power play clicking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
21. New York Rangers (10-9-2)\u00a0Mike Sullivan is one of the defining coaches of this century, having guided the Pittsburgh Penguins to a pair of championships. Year 1 in New York, though, has been defined by an inexplicable 1-7-1 record at Madison Square Garden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
22. Boston Bruins (12-10-0)\u00a0Marco Sturm became a Bruin 20 years ago in November 2005, when he was part of the return from San Jose in the trade that shipped Joe Thornton west. He returns to the organization as a freshman NHL coach trying to navigate the club through a retool on the fly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
23. Edmonton Oilers (9-9-4)\u00a0It\u2019s cold comfort because Edmonton has not been able to get over the hump, but Kris Knoblauch\u2019s .617 playoff winning percentage is the highest of any coach in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
24. Utah Mammoth (10-7-3)\u00a0Andre Tourigny is now in his fifth season guiding the Coyotes\/Club\/Mammoth. He\u2019s never had a better squad than the one he\u2019s got right now, but with increased spending from ownership comes higher expectations and pressure to perform.\u00a0<\/p>\n
25. Columbus Blue Jackets (10-8-2)\u00a0Dean Evason had a .639 points percentage in five seasons with the Wild and nearly got the Jackets into a playoff spot last year when nobody expected too much from the club. Year 2 in Ohio comes with the notion that Evason and the Jackets can snag a post-season spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
26. Toronto Maple Leafs (9-9-2)\u00a0Even the biggest pessimist likely never thought GM Brad Treliving would be fielding questions about coach Craig Berube\u2019s job security earlier this week at the former\u2019s quarter-season press conference. Treliving backed Berube, but obviously things need to improve fast in Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n
27. San Jose Sharks (9-8-3)\u00a038-year-old Ryan Warofsky was hired to oversee a long-term project in San Jose and the fact he\u2019s got the rebuilding Sharks over .500 this far into his second season behind the bench speaks well of his work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
28. Vancouver Canucks (9-10-2)\u00a0Adam Foote is one of three rookie head coaches in the league, along with Dan Muse and Marco Sturm. Right now, his team has the worst expected goals percentage (42.76 per cent) of any club in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
29. Buffalo Sabres (7-9-4)\u00a0Lindy Ruff will always be a legend in Buffalo, but having swords criss-cross his heart hasn\u2019t allowed Ruff to stop the bleeding during his second tour as the team\u2019s coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
30. St. Louis Blues (6-9-5)\u00a0Jim Montgomery is regarded as one of the finest coaches around, which makes the Blues\u2019 miserable start that much more perplexing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
31. Nashville Predators (6-10-4)\u00a0You don\u2019t want to see anybody lose their job, but if you were to put a nickel down on the first coach who might fall this year, Nashville\u2019s Andrew Brunette would be squarely in the mix.\u00a0<\/p>\n
32. Calgary Flames (6-13-3)\u00a0Ryan Huska just got a contract extension before the season. Whatever is next in Calgary, he figures to be a part of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One year and one day ago, the axe fell. The first coach fired last year was Jim Montgomery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-295797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"32](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/32-Thoughts-podcast-Elliotte-Friedman-Kyle-Bukauskas-640x360.jpg\")
32 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n