The NHL coaching carousel has been especially active over the last year, and it will continue to spin for the next few weeks. Starting with Mike Babcock resigning from the Columbus Blue Jackets last September, there have been 11 NHL coaching changes in 2023-24, and several of those teams still need to figure out who will be behind the bench for the 2024-25 season.
Three teams fired their head coaches in the middle of the season and immediately appointed a new full-time bench boss. The Edmonton Oilers made the switch from Jay Woodcroft to Kris Knoblauch, the Minnesota Wild replaced Dean Evason with John Hynes and the New York Islanders hired Patrick Roy on the heels of firing Lane Lambert.
Most recently, the Ottawa Senators and St. Louis Blues finalized their respective head coaching decisions. The Blues agreed to a two-year contract extension with Drew Bannister, who had been the interim head coach after previous head coach Craig Berube was fired. In addition, the Senators hired former New Jersey Devils interim head coach Travis Green as their next head coach.
The Buffalo Sabres also settled on its new coach after making an offseason change. Then again, “new” is used loosely there. They fired Don Granato after a disappointing regular season and brought back Lindy Ruff for his second stint with the franchise.
Outside of those changes, seven teams are still looking for their next full-time head coaches. It will be interesting to see how those searches play out especially as the first round of the playoffs comes to an end.
Keep track of every NHL coaching carousel hiring and firing below.
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