Ranking the Boston Bruins' Best Potential Replacements for Claude Julien

The Boston Bruins announced Tuesday that they were firing head coach Claude Julien and replacing him on an interim basis with assistant coach Bruce Cassidy.

The question now is whether Cassidy can help the team to be better than it was under Julien. The numbers are in his favour; as Sportsnet's Chris Johnston noted in the aftermath, Boston's PDO (shooting percentage plus save percentage) ranks 30th in the NHL. Those numbers will almost certainly improve and the team with them.

Whatever happens, Boston will have a decision to make this summer—to either give Cassidy the job on a permanent basis or bring in somebody else. It's difficult at this point to predict which options will be available to the Bruins at that point, but we can look around the league and come up with a list of potential candidates for the full-time gig.

That's precisely what we decided to do here. Read on to see who we like as potential coaches in Boston.

9. Bruce Cassidy

Michael Dwyer/Associated Press

Current job: Interim head coach, Boston Bruins

Past experience: Cassidy was a bright young coaching star when he got his first NHL shot at the age of 37, the result of hard work in the ECHL, IHL and AHL. It ended badly, with the Washington Capitals drafting Alex Ovechkin first overall after just a year-and-a-half of Cassidy coaching. He’s bounced around since, eventually taking a job as an AHL assistant before working his way back into a minor league head coaching position. He’s spent the last five years running a good Providence Bruins team.  

Why he’s here: He has to prove himself as an NHL head coach. Things were bad in Washington—when Jason La Canfora wrote Cassidy's obituary as coach in the Washington Post, he had no trouble getting details of how Cassidy alienated that team—but it must be said that was more than a decade ago. He’s coming off a strong half-decade in the AHL and deserves an honest tryout in the interim role.

8. Dallas Eakins

Lenny Ignelzi/Associated Press

Current job: Head coach, San Diego Gulls (Anaheim’s AHL affiliate)

Past experience: Dallas Eakins’ time in Toronto established him as a top young hockey coach. After a few years in various roles, he took over the Toronto Marlies, guiding them from near the bottom of the AHL all the way to the Calder Cup Finals. That led to a job with the Edmonton Oilers and a first year that went about as badly as an NHL coaching debut can go. The goaltending fell apart in Year 2, and despite some improvements elsewhere, that was that. Now he’s back in the AHL and winning again.

Why he’s here: The work Eakins has done since leaving Edmonton is a strong argument that he deserves a second chance in the majors. In San Diego, he has guided the Gulls to a 63-25-10 record over parts of two seasons. It’s the second AHL team to post great results on his watch, and with the Oilers as bad as they were, it’s hard to condemn him for failing to turn them into a winner.

7. Paul MacLean

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Current job: Assistant coach, Anaheim Ducks

Past experience: Paul MacLean is probably best known as the longtime collaborator of Mike Babcock, first in Anaheim and then in Detroit.  Prior to that, though, he spent nearly a decade as a successful minor league coach. He also spent most of four seasons as the head coach in Ottawa, winning the Jack Adams Award before taking up his current post with the Ducks.

Why he’s here: MacLean has a formidable resume and did about as well as anyone has in Ottawa lately. He’d be a respectable coaching hire just about anywhere and should get another shot at some point.

6. Kirk Muller

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Current job: Associate coach, Montreal Canadiens

Past experience: Kirk Muller’s experience as a head coach comes exclusively at the NHL level. The longtime two-way forward played 1,349 games in the majors and joined the staff of former teammate Guy Carbonneau in Montreal a few years after retiring. He ultimately was named head coach in Carolina, an experience that lasted three seasons and was bookended by his stint as an assistant in Montreal and some time in the same role in St. Louis. He returned to the Habs this past summer.

Why he’s here: Muller wasn’t overly successful in Carolina, but the team struggled both before his arrival and after his departure, so that isn’t surprising. He’s well-regarded for his work as an assistant, and as Sportsnet’s Eric Engels wrote, he has done a lot to revitalize Montreal’s power play.

5. Kevin Dineen

J. David Ake/Associated Press

Current job: Assistant coach, Chicago Blackhawks

Past experience: After a nearly 1,200-game NHL career, Kevin Dineen took a management position with the Columbus Blue Jackets. After three seasons, he got an AHL head coaching job, and for six years, he ran a good Portland Pirates team. That led to the top job in Florida, where, like Peter DeBoer and Jacques Martin before him, he failed to turn the Panthers into a consistently successful team. He followed that up with an Olympic gold medal coaching Canada's women's team. He’s spent the past three seasons in Chicago, winning a Stanley Cup ring as an assistant in 2015.

Why he’s here: There’s a lot to like here. Dineen has been the head coach of a good AHL team and an assistant coach of a good NHL team. His time in Florida was no less successful than some other strong coaches, and three years with Joel Quenneville since will only have helped him.

4. Gerard Gallant

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Current job: Most recently head coach of the Florida Panthers

Past experience: Gerard Gallant has had a weird coaching career. He had a thin resume when the Blue Jackets made him head coach, but he’s worked diligently to expand it in the decade since he was dismissed from that position. He won two championships in the QMJHL, spent four years as an NHL assistant and most recently did a creditable job with Florida before being fired earlier this season, a move many in hockey felt was undeserved.

Why he’s here: Gallant had a decent run with the Panthers, and his work there suggests he’s a quality NHL head coach. Understandably, that puts him pretty high up on any list of NHL coaching candidates.

3. Todd Nelson

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Current job: Head coach, Grand Rapids Griffins (Detroit’s AHL affiliate)

Past experience: Todd Nelson has been coaching since his playing career ended in 2002. He won two championships at the UHL level and has never had a losing record as a head coach in seven full and partial AHL seasons. He had two seasons as an NHL assistant to John Anderson in Atlanta and did a creditable job over a half-season as an interim head coach with the Oilers.

Why he’s here: Nelson has excelled at every level as a coach. The 47-year-old has been behind the bench for nearly two decades now and has seen AHL and NHL success as an assistant and a head coach. He took over an Edmonton team near the bottom of the standings and minus its best player (Taylor Hall) and kept it competitive over a half-season. There’s nothing else for him to prove at other levels.

2. John Stevens

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

Current job: Associate coach, Los Angeles Kings

Past experience: John Stevens moved behind the bench immediately when his playing career ended, going from AHL journeyman to AHL assistant coach in 1998-99. After two years, he moved into the top job at the minor league level, eventually guiding his team to a Calder Cup in 2005. He had parts of four seasons as a head coach with the Philadelphia Flyers, coaching the club to a 120-109-34 record. He’s been part of Darryl Sutter’s staff for nearly a decade now, collecting two Stanley Cup rings in that role.

Why he’s here: Stevens won it all in the AHL. His firing by the Flyers was debatable at the time; he largely did a good job with the team. As the top lieutenant to Sutter, he’s been part of one of the most successful teams in the league in the seven years since.

1. Ken Hitchcock

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Current job: Most recently head coach of the St. Louis Blues

Past experience: It’s impossible to fairly summarize Ken Hitchcock’s 30-year coaching career in a space as short as this. He has coached 1,454 NHL games, with his teams posting a 781-474-88-111 record. He’s won the Stanley Cup, multiple gold medals internationally and the Jack Adams Award, and he’s one win shy of Al Arbour for third on the all-time list. He’s a lock for immortalization in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Why he’s here: There’s no question of Hitchcock’s quality. Given Boston’s struggles making the playoffs the last few years, putting a sure thing behind the bench would have real value. The Bruins have an older core without many prime years left, so a shorter-term fix like Hitchcock makes some sense.