Latest news with #JoelQuenneville
Forbes
3 days ago
- Sport
- Forbes
Joel Quenneville, Mike Sullivan Headline 9 Off-Season NHL Coach Changes
A three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks, Joel Quenneville is now tasked with ... More getting the Anaheim Ducks back into the playoffs. (Photo by Robin Alam/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) The rising salary cap may be ushering in a new era of roster stability among players but so far, NHL coach changes are happening even more quickly than ever. Since the 2024-25 regular season wrapped on Apr. 17, nine of the NHL's 32 franchises have installed new head coaches — more than a quarter of the teams in the league. That's the most since 10 new coaches were hired during the summer of 2022. Out of that group, only two are still in their positions, and they're the winners of the last three Stanley Cups: Bruce Cassidy with the Vegas Golden Knights and Paul Maurice with the Florida Panthers. This year's crop of new bench bosses ranges from seasoned winners to first-timers, along with everything in between. Here's the breakdown: Proven Winners: Mike Sullivan and Joel Quenneville After winning two Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins and being handed the reins of Team USA for the 4 Nations Face-Off and the upcoming Winter Olympics, Mike Sullivan is at the top of his coaching game. His new challenge of returning the New York Rangers to respectability was built off the foundation of a longstanding relationship with GM Chris Drury. Sullivan is nine years older, but the two are both alumni of Boston University and played together for Team USA at the 1997 world championship, which Drury was still in school. A Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Sullivan is the new coach of the New York ... More Rangers. (Photo by) Later, Sullivan would serve as an assistant coach of the Rangers under John Tortorella for four seasons. That overlapped with the last two years of Drury's playing career, when he served as Rangers captain. New York will be Sulllivan's third NHL head job. He also coached the Boston Bruins for two seasons from 2003-06 and worked as an assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vancouver Canucks. Down in Southern California, Joel Quenneville takes over as the team's fourth new coach since their last playoff appearance in 2018, under Randy Carlyle. It's a return to the league for the 66-year-old, who starts his new job as the league's oldest active head coach. As coach of the Chicago Blackhawks, Quenneville won three Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013 and 2015. He also won as an assistant to Marc Crawford with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996. But Quenneville has been away from the NHL since resigning as head coach of the Florida Panthers in October of 2021, in the wake of the revelations surrounding the mishandling of sexual assault allegations within the Blackhawks organization while he was coach. He became eligible to coach again in the NHL on July 1, 2024. In Anaheim, Quenneville is inheriting a team on the rise, rich with young talent including newly re-signed goaltender Lukas Dostal. In 2024-25, the Ducks improved by 21 points, but still finished 16 points out of a playoff spot. The Returnees: Glen Gulutzan, Rick Tocchet, Jeff Blashill, Lane Lambert This group of four will be bringing past NHL head-coaching experience to new clubs — or, in the case of Glen Gulutzan, back to where it began for him. Glen Gulutzan returns to where his NHL coaching career began this fall as head coach of the Dallas ... More Stars. (Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) Gulutzan has spent the last seven seasons as an assistant coach for the Edmonton Oilers. But before that, he had two years as the head man for the Calgary Flames and even earlier, he spent two years as head coach of the Dallas Stars. That's where he'll be back at work this fall, trying to push the perenially contenting Stars even closer to their second Stanley Cup in franchise history. His return came after Peter DeBoer's surprise ouster following the Stars' loss to the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final for the second-straight year. Rick Tocchet's hiring in Philadelphia is also a homecoming. As a rugged power forward, Tocchet started and ended his playing career in the City of Brotherly Love and was inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame in 2021. The Flyers have now gone five seasons without a playoff appearance and took a step back last year, falling by nine points in the standings. Tocchet won the Jack Adams award as coach of the year with the Vancouver Canucks in 2023-24, and also previously coached the Arizona Coyotes and the Tampa Bay Lightning. Tocchet won the Stanley Cup as a player with the Penguins in 1992, then as an assistant to Sullivan in 2016 and 2017. In Chicago, Jeff Blashill returns to a head-coaching role after serving as an assistant to Jon Cooper in Tampa for the last three seasons. Prior to that, the 51-year-old spent seven seasons as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. He also served as head coach of Team USA three times at the world championship, winning bronze in 2018. The Blackhawks have missed the playoffs for the last five seasons. And in Seattle, Lane Lambert is back for his second stint as an NHL head man. The longtime assistant of Barry Trotz won the Stanley Cup as part of the Washington Capitals' staff in 2018, then earned his first head job with the New York Islanders in 2022. He was replaced by Patrick Roy after two-and-a-half seasons, then spent 2024-25 as an associate coach under Craig Berube with the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Kraken have made the playoffs just once in their four-year history, reaching Round 2 in 2022-23. The New Faces: Adam Foote, Marco Sturm, Dan Muse The NHL has a reputation for recycling its coaches, and the six names above do fit that mold. But after first-timer Ryan Warsofsky delivered a strong rookie campaign with the San Jose Sharks last season, three more new faces will get to try their hand in 2025-26. That being said, two of those names are very familiar to hockey fans. Adam Foote was a hard-nosed blueliner who won two Stanley Cups with the Colorado Avalanche during his 19-year NHL career, and was a mainstay with Team Canada. After spending the last two-and-a-half seasons as Tocchet's assistant with the Canucks, he takes over the head job this fall. Marco Sturm's new job in Boston is also a homecoming. A reliable center who played 938 NHL games over 14 seasons for six teams, that included 302 games with the Bruins, where he was a key part of the return in the notorious 2005 trade that sent Joe Thornton to the San Jose Sharks. After retiring in 2012, Sturm got into the coaching game back in his native Germany, and was behind the bench for the Germans' silver-medal win at the 2018 Winter Olympics. That fall, he joined the Los Angeles Kings organization, first as an NHL assistant for four seasons, then as head coach of the AHL Ontario Reign for three years. Dan Muse didn't play in the NHL, but brings five years of experience as an NHL assistant to his new ... More job as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins. (Photo by) Not as well known: new Pittsburgh Penguins coach Dan Muse. At 43, he'll be second-youngest in the league this fall, behind only 37-year-old Warsofsky. His career path also mirrors Warsofsky's to some degree: after playing at Stonehill College, Muse started his coaching career in the NCAA ranks before moving to the USHL, where he won a Clark Cup with the Chicago Steel in 2017. That opened the door to the NHL, where he spent three years as an assistant coach with the Nashville Predators and two years with the New York Rangers before being tapped to succeed Sullivan in Pittsburgh. While the coaching carousel has stopped spinning for now, be on the lookout for more NHL coach changes in 2025-26. Last year, five teams changed coaches in-season. Jim Montgomery (St. Louis) and Todd McLellan (Detroit) both signed multi-year deals and will be back this fall while the three interim bosses were all replaced.
Vancouver Sun
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Vancouver Sun
Canucks: Why massive Mason McTavish hype is about future playoff potential
When Joel Quenneville guided the Chicago Blackhawks to their third Stanley Cup championship in a six-year span in 2015, his centre of attention was Jonathan Toews. At age 26, his 'Captain Serious' moniker fit like a glove because of drive, desire and delivery. Toews was 21 when the Blackhawks claimed their first crown in 2010, nearly the same age as another pivot who has become talk of the league this summer. Mason McTavish, 22, is a proud, productive and stubborn restricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks, whose heavy and direct game at junior and international levels projects well for the NHL postseason. He led the Ducks last season with 22 goals, and his 52 points with the 24th-ranked club, and 30th-rated offence, were as credible as his team leading 50.7 per cent face-off efficiency. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. McTavish has potential to become a reliable 30-goal producer and tough to play against. However, he has yet to reach contract-extension terms and that has sent suitors into a summer tizzy of what it would take to pry him away — everything from offer sheets to multiple players and draft picks. Good luck with all that. He could stay put. The Vancouver Canucks would salivate at potential of adding the 6-foot-1, 219-pound McTavish to help solve their riddle in the middle. But at what cost? Probably a roster player, prime prospect, and pair of high draft picks. AFP Analytics has McTavish receiving a six-year, $40.6-million US deal that would carry a $6.67 million in annual average value. Of course, his camp is pushing for more, somewhere between $7 million to $8 million, and hence the impasse. McTavish's competitiveness was evident in advance of the 2021 NHL Draft. After 42 points in (29-13) in 57 OHL games with Peterborough Petes in 2019-20 — followed by COVID suspension of OHL games the next season — he was loaned to Olten EHC of the second division Swiss pro league. He responded with 11 points (9-2) in 13 outings. 'I love to get to the dirty areas to score goals,' he told this reporter prior to the 2021 draft, where he was selected third overall behind defenceman Owen Power and centre Matty Beniers. 'I'm not one to shy away from playoff-style hockey. Just watching the NHL playoffs, those big-bodied guys really pay off. 'I love to compete against anybody and I don't really back down from anyone. I just want to be hard to play against and you don't want them to say: 'Oh, he was easy to play against.' Or, 'He was fun to play against.' I don't like to make it easy on guys.' Kind of sounds like what former Canucks captain Bo Horvat brought on a nightly basis. He has surpassed the 30-goal plateau in three of the last four seasons. '(Horvat) works really hard and takes pride in his two-way ability,' McTavish said in 2021. 'A terrific player and I have a lot of work to do, but hopefully I can have a similar career to that. Definitely somebody to look up to.' Quenneville could have McTavish centre a second line with Cutter Gauthier and Frank Vatrano, while Leo Carlsson works the first alignment with Chris Kreider and Troy Terry. That leaves Mikael Granlund between Alex Killorn and Ryan Strome. Not bad. Maybe a playoff contender. That wood resonate with McTavish, who excelled in international competitions that were like a postseason pressure-cooker. He piled up 17 points (8-9) in seven games to lead Canada to the 2022 world junior championship crown and was named the event's most valuable player. He also helped his country claim gold at the 2021 U-18 world championship with 11 points (5-6) in seven outings. McTavish, a Zurich native who moved to Canada at age eight, also played in the 2022 Olympics. In his OHL career finale, McTavish led the Hamilton Bulldogs to the league title in 2022 by scoring twice in Game 7 of the championship series. He then got creative when COVID struck and he needed a place to play. 'It was obviously a crazy year, but it was a very cool experience for me to go back to where I was born in Switzerland and play professional hockey at such a young age,' recalled McTavish. 'It really helped me get prepared for the U-18s. I would do that again.' But maybe not with all the travel hassles. 'I was in the Montreal airport in mid-November and was supposed to get over there (Switzerland), but they wouldn't let me into the country with COVID-related stuff,' said McTavish. 'We went back home and I also needed a work visa to get over there, and I had to be 18 to get that. 'So, right on my Jan. 30 birthday, I got my visa, and the next day I way on a plane. In the next couple of days, I was playing a game. It was pretty competitive. They're older men and they don't take days off, and take it way more seriously. 'I learned a lot from those guys.' bkuzma@
Edmonton Journal
22-07-2025
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Canucks: Why massive Mason McTavish hype is about future playoff potential
Article content When Joel Quenneville guided the Chicago Blackhawks to their third Stanley Cup championship in a six-year span in 2015, his centre of attention was Jonathan Toews. Article content At age 26, his 'Captain Serious' moniker fit like a glove because of drive, desire and delivery. Toews was 21 when the Blackhawks claimed their first crown in 2010, nearly the same age as another pivot who has become talk of the league this summer. Article content Article content Article content Mason McTavish, 22, is a proud, productive and stubborn restricted free agent with the Anaheim Ducks, whose heavy and direct game at junior and international levels projects well for the NHL postseason. He led the Ducks last season with 22 goals, and his 52 points with the 24th-ranked club, and 30th-rated offence, were as credible as his team leading 50.7 per cent face-off efficiency. Article content Article content McTavish has potential to become a reliable 30-goal producer and tough to play against. However, he has yet to reach contract-extension terms and that has sent suitors into a summer tizzy of what it would take to pry him away — everything from offer sheets to multiple players and draft picks. Article content The Vancouver Canucks would salivate at potential of adding the 6-foot-1, 219-pound McTavish to help solve their riddle in the middle. But at what cost? Probably a roster player, prime prospect, and pair of high draft picks. AFP Analytics has McTavish receiving a six-year, $40.6-million US deal that would carry a $6.67 million in annual average value. Article content Article content Article content Article content McTavish's competitiveness was evident in advance of the 2021 NHL Draft. After 42 points in (29-13) in 57 OHL games with Peterborough Petes in 2019-20 — followed by COVID suspension of OHL games the next season — he was loaned to Olten EHC of the second division Swiss pro league. He responded with 11 points (9-2) in 13 outings. Article content 'I love to get to the dirty areas to score goals,' he told this reporter prior to the 2021 draft, where he was selected third overall behind defenceman Owen Power and centre Matty Beniers. 'I'm not one to shy away from playoff-style hockey. Just watching the NHL playoffs, those big-bodied guys really pay off. Article content 'I love to compete against anybody and I don't really back down from anyone. I just want to be hard to play against and you don't want them to say: 'Oh, he was easy to play against.' Or, 'He was fun to play against.' I don't like to make it easy on guys.'
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Anaheim Ducks hire Jay Woodcroft, Ryan McGill, Andrew Brewer as assistant coaches for Quenneville
FILE - Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft checks the scoreboard during their game against the Minnesota Wild in the first period of an NHL hockey game, Monday, Dec. 12, 2022, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Craig Lassig,File) ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Anaheim Ducks have hired former Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft as an assistant coach to Joel Quenneville for the upcoming season. Anaheim also hired Ryan McGill and Andrew Brewer as assistant coaches Tuesday to fill out the first staff for Quenneville, who was hired by the Ducks in May. The Ducks also added Dave Manson and Michael Babcock to the staff of their AHL affiliate in San Diego. Advertisement Woodcroft went 79-41-13 across three seasons as the Oilers' head coach from 2022-24, leading them to two playoff berths, three series victories and the Western Conference finals. He previously spent seven years as an assistant to Todd McLellan in San Jose. McGill was an assistant in New Jersey and Vegas over the past eight seasons, while Brewer is a former AHL assistant who served as Florida's video coach during Quenneville's last full season with the Panthers in 2020-21. Assistant coach Tim Army and goaltending coach Peter Budaj are returning in Anaheim after coaching under Greg Cronin last season. All three new assistants have ample experience with outstanding special teams units, and Quenneville has declared his determination to fix what was the NHL's worst power play last season. Advertisement Anaheim has missed the playoffs in a franchise-record seven consecutive seasons. General manager Pat Verbeek fired Cronin after the Ducks finished 35-37-10, making a 21-point improvement over last season while still finishing well out of playoff contention. Manson is the father of longtime Ducks defenseman Josh Manson and a former assistant to Woodcroft in Edmonton. Babcock is the 30-year-old son of former Ducks head coach Mike Babcock, who led Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Final in 2003. ___ AP NHL:
Associated Press
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Associated Press
Anaheim Ducks hire Jay Woodcroft, Ryan McGill, Andrew Brewer as assistant coaches for Quenneville
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — The Anaheim Ducks have hired former Edmonton head coach Jay Woodcroft as an assistant coach to Joel Quenneville for the upcoming season. Anaheim also hired Ryan McGill and Andrew Brewer as assistant coaches Tuesday to fill out the first staff for Quenneville, who was hired by the Ducks in May. The Ducks also added Dave Manson and Michael Babcock to the staff of their AHL affiliate in San Diego. Woodcroft went 79-41-13 across three seasons as the Oilers' head coach from 2022-24, leading them to two playoff berths, three series victories and the Western Conference finals. He previously spent seven years as an assistant to Todd McLellan in San Jose. McGill was an assistant in New Jersey and Vegas over the past eight seasons, while Brewer is a former AHL assistant who served as Florida's video coach during Quenneville's last full season with the Panthers in 2020-21. Assistant coach Tim Army and goaltending coach Peter Budaj are returning in Anaheim after coaching under Greg Cronin last season. All three new assistants have ample experience with outstanding special teams units, and Quenneville has declared his determination to fix what was the NHL's worst power play last season. Anaheim has missed the playoffs in a franchise-record seven consecutive seasons. General manager Pat Verbeek fired Cronin after the Ducks finished 35-37-10, making a 21-point improvement over last season while still finishing well out of playoff contention. Manson is the father of longtime Ducks defenseman Josh Manson and a former assistant to Woodcroft in Edmonton. Babcock is the 30-year-old son of former Ducks head coach Mike Babcock, who led Anaheim to the Stanley Cup Final in 2003. ___ AP NHL:
