Bruins Coaching Search: Who Will Be Boston’s Next Head Coach?

Bruins fans are certainly not accustomed to watching the NHL playoffs without their team being in it, whether as a real contender or a by-default entrant. 

However, the 2024-25 season was obviously a different story for Boston as their 33-39-10 record landed them at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

General manager Don Sweeney and team president Cam Neely have supposedly been hard at work this offseason trying to find a new head coach for the team that fired its Jack Adams winner in mid-November and spent the rest of the year with an interim coach. 

But some of the biggest and most prized names have either been hired by other teams or retained by their previous ones.

The Philadelphia Flyers snatched up former Canucks coach Rick Tocchet, and the New York Rangers grabbed former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan. Additionally, the Anaheim Ducks made a hire, and the University of Minnesota announced that white whale college coach David Carle would be staying on as coach of the Gophers. 

That leaves a much smaller pool for the Bruins to choose from. 

Here are some remaining contenders who could be tapped to be Boston’s next head coach. 

Bruins Coaching Search: Who Will Be Boston’s Next Head Coach?

Peter Laviolette 

This hiring would be a rough look for the Bruins franchise. 

Mike Sullivan was one of the team’s most favored candidates to be their next head coach before New York hired him. He played college hockey in Boston and is a native of Marshfield, MA. Laviolette is also a Bay Stater, but the Rangers fired him at the end of last season. 

It’s like if your buddy started dating your crush and you decided to date his ex-girlfriend — it’s kind of a loser move. 

Laviolette has the most head coaching experience of anyone still available for the Bruins. 

He has more than two decades of head coaching experience. He won the Stanley Cup in 2006 with the Carolina Hurricanes and made a Cup Final appearance twice with the Flyers and Predators. 

At his most recent stop with New York, he was only the coach for two seasons, with an overall record of 94-59-11. 

According to The Athletic’s Fluto Shinzawa, the Bruins may not have the most interest in hiring Laviolette, given they didn’t aggressively pursue other high-profile coaching free agents. But, as Shinzawa said, Laviolette “has a history of rapid turnarounds upon landing a new gig.”

Jay Woodcroft

The Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli identified Woodcroft as “a leading candidate” for the job in Boston.

Woodcroft had limited head coaching experience with the Oilers for two years. He was fired 13 games into his third year with the team. Overall, he had a 79-41-13 record in Edmonton. 

He led the team to a Conference Finals appearance, eventually losing to the Colorado Avalanche. The following year, the Oilers lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round. 

In the 2023-24 season, Edmonton had a 3-9-1 record through the first 13 games, which led them to decide to move on from Woodcroft. 

In the years since his dismissal from the Oilers, he’s been traveling the world. 

No, seriously, he said it in an interview. 

Joe Sacco

If the Bruins decided to hire their interim head coach, it would be kind of like George Costanza’s move in Seinfeld, where he quit his job and then came in the next day to work as if he never quit. 

Except, in this case, Sweeney and Neely made a big show about an extensive coaching search only to then go with the coach they already had. 

Sacco makes sense as a potential coaching hire for the Bruins simply because of his knowledge of the organization. He spent a year as an interim coach last season and a decade as an assistant in Boston. 

From the start of the Bruins’ coaching search, management has been upfront about the idea that Sacco could be promoted from interim coach to full-time head coach. 

“[Sacco]’s aware that he’ll be part of the final group of coaches that we get down to, because I think he’s earned and deserves that,” Sweeney said. 

I don’t know how popular this decision would be with fans, but given the limited remaining candidates, it may be Boston’s best option.