NHL Hot Seat: NHL Coaches on the Hot Seat in 2024-25

The calendar has turned to 2025, but even though the weather is colder, the seats are still hot for some NHL coaches.

There have already been four coaches fired this season, with the latest being the Detroit Red Wings’ axing of Derek Lalonde on Dec. 27. Though all eyes are moving toward the trade deadline, and coaches are less likely to be let go between now and the end of the year, here are four more candidates whose seats are the warmest at the season’s halfway point.

Andrew Brunette – Predators 

The Predators’ huge offseason swing has been a colossal whiff, since they are sitting with the NHL’s third-fewest points. Nashville was hoping to rejuvenate its offense with Brunette by bringing in Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei, yet it is averaging the fewest goals per game (2.44) in hockey and ranks 20th in the NHL in power-play percentage (19.5).

Barry Trotz has been patient, since there have been calls for Brunette’s head for months now. But with the Predators on pace for just 66 points and to miss the playoffs for the second time in three seasons, it may be time to make a change behind the bench.

Potential Replacement: Joel Quenneville is something of a wild card on the free-agent coaching front, and he has coached three other Central Division teams – the Blues, Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks, with whom he won the Stanley Cup three times. 

If Quenneville is available – he was reinstated from an NHL suspension in July but has not sniffed a new-coaching role since – he will probably be Trotz’s first call.

John Tortorella – Flyers

The Flyers are continuing to muddle in no-man’s land, which is a dangerous place to be in today’s NHL. Philadelphia sits in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, just two points up on the last-place New York Islanders, with the NHL’s worst goaltending hampering their ability to compete.

Yet, Tortorella continues to soldier on, largely unchecked, despite his proclivity for stirring the pot – he has benched rookie sensation Matvei Michkov and famously healthy-scratched captain Sean Couturier last season.

Plus, he is one of the highest-paid coaches in the sport – he makes more than Paul Maurice of the Panthers, Toronto’s Craig Berube and Carolina’s Rod Brind’Amour – even though he and the Flyers are on pace for just 78 points.

Potential Replacement: There was talk of the 66-year-old moving up into a management role after last season to pave the way for Brad Shaw to take the reins as Flyers head coach. 

Shaw seems like the next man up for Philadelphia, since the 60-year-old former NHL defenseman is an associate head coach, not an assistant, and did coach a 40-game stint for the New York Islanders in 2005-06.  

Peter Laviolette – Rangers 

New York has been reeling for more than a month, and about the only thing the Rangers haven’t done is fire the coach yet. Laviolette’s fiery style famously has a shelf life, and the win-now club is closer to the Eastern Conference basement than even a playoff spot right now. 

New York GM Chris Drury is loathe to let go of another head coach – Laviolette is already the Rangers’ fourth head coach in the past eight seasons. But ownership may take the decision out of his hands if both Drury and Laviolette are fired – though a full house cleaning feels more like an after-season move.

Potential Replacement: It is no secret Mike Sullivan has been high on Drury’s coaching wish list, so if the Penguins decide to make their own coaching decision, the GM will likely trip over himself to get the two-time Stanley Cup winner onto Broadway. Otherwise, keep an eye out for Bruce Boudreau, who is affable and could endear himself in the pressure cooker of New York. 

Patrick Roy – Islanders

The Islanders are dead last in the Metropolitan Division despite making the playoffs in each of the past two seasons. Even though Roy has been coaching on Long Island for about a year, he already seems to be testing Lou Lamoriello. 

Sure, Lamoriello has put together this dreadful roster, highlighted by the seven-year albatross contract for Pierre Engvall, but he also has a notoriously itchy firing finger, proven by his sudden, shocking replacement of Roy for previous coach Lane Lambert. 

Roy couldn’t have endeared himself by pulling his goalie for a defensive-zone faceoff in Toronto on New Year’s Eve, and he may continue with the irksome decisions if he decides he’s had his fill of this roster and coaching under his 82-year-old boss.

Potential Replacement: Lamoriello always seems to have a high-profile, under-the-radar candidate at the ready. Boudreau would be a fit, since he always has regular-season success too.

But our pick is John MacLean, who like Shaw in Philadelphia, is already on the Islanders’ bench. MacLean played for Lamoriello in New Jersey from 1987-95, and he hired MacLean as his head coach with the Devils in 2010. Lamoriello is notorious for going back to “his people,” and tabbing MacLean as head coach would be an easy move if he fired Roy – or if Roy suddenly quit.