8 NHL Coaches on the Hot Seat for the Rest of 2023
It's the reality of the business: Coaches are hired to be fired.
It happens to people who've barely had time to order a nameplate for their office door. And it happens to people who have made playoffs and won Stanley Cups.
It'll happen again this year, too.
Ex-Vancouver boss Bruce Boudreau was the latest victim of the coaching ax in January, losing his gig with the Canucks after 46 games this season. He was fired just a year after he'd coached the final 57 games of 2021-22 when Travis Green and GM Jim Benning were let go.
Given that most teams are in the final 15 games of their regular seasons, the next transaction may not come until after the schedule is complete, but there are surely a handful who feel their seats growing warmer by the day.
The B/R hockey team took a look at the places where near-term transitions are most likely and compiled a list of coaches who'll be on the hot seat for the balance of 2023. Take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought or two of your own in the comments.
Craig Berube, St. Louis Blues
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It's hard to have more tumult in a season than Craig Berube has had.
The former player won a Stanley Cup in his first season in St. Louis after taking over the Blues when Mike Yeo was fired just weeks into the 2018-19 season.
They have been postseason fixtures in the three seasons since but were 13 points off the Western Conference playoff pace entering Friday night and had already endured separate streaks of four, five, six and eight losses with 15 games remaining.
Cup winners Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O'Reilly were dealt away at the trade deadline as the team leaned into a retooling phase, but given their presence at the beginning of the season and the lack of success as a whole, it wouldn't be a shock to see Berube take the fall.
Recent comments questioning the commitment of holdover star players like Robert Thomas haven't helped his locker-room standing either.
Perhaps the Cup buys one more year to right the ship, but if GM Doug Armstrong's number comes up on his phone in early April, it might be wise for the coach to let it go to voicemail.
Dallas Eakins, Anaheim Ducks
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Perhaps Dallas Eakins is best left to the AHL.
The 56-year-old has gotten a pair of NHL coaching gigs following extended stints of success in the sport's top North American minor league.
He had two first-place finishes and 16 postseason wins across four seasons with the Toronto Marlies before getting the head coaching job in Edmonton for 2013-14. And he made three playoffs in four seasons with the San Diego Gulls before landing in Anaheim for 2019-20.
As for the results with the Oilers and Ducks, well...meh.
Eakins won 36 of 113 games with Edmonton before he was canned by the Oilers just 31 games into his second season, and he's about to finish a fourth straight season with no playoff berths for the Ducks, who entered Friday just five points out of the NHL's basement.
Their minus-102 goal differential is worst in the league by a mile, and though letting Eakins go wouldn't magically turn the team into a contender, it'd certainly provide a page turn for the holdovers and perhaps be a good start to the Connor Bedard era if he lands in the pond.
Gerard Gallant, New York Rangers
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Call this one a product of the all-in approach.
Gerard Gallant is among the most successful of the current generation of NHL coaches, having reached a Cup final with the fledgling Vegas Golden Knights in 2017-18 and a conference final with the upstart New York Rangers last season.
He's in position for another deep run this spring with a Rangers team that steered headfirst into the title chase at the trade deadline, bringing Cup winner Vladimir Tarasenko in from St. Louis and three-time champ Patrick Kane from Chicago.
Neither acquisition is signed for next season or beyond, so the two players and three draft picks sent away in the separate deals to get them will be for naught without a parade.
And given the volatility of the New York market, it wouldn't be hyperbolic to suggest Gallant's future could be on the line if the Rangers don't at least get a step past where they were last season without Tarasenko and Kane—which translates to Cup final or bust.
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Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs
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Did someone say something about being all-in?
Few franchises could claim it more these days than the Toronto Maple Leafs, who will once again try to end a Cup drought that stretches to before the moon landing.
Not to mention a lapse between playoff series wins that goes back to 2004.
Conn Smythe winner Ryan O'Reilly was brought in among others at the trade deadline this season, and the 40-18-9 record with which the Maple Leafs entered Friday's games surely suggests they're going to be in the discussion about legitimate contenders this time.
For Sheldon Keefe's sake, they'd better be.
Though the 42-year-old former player has made three postseason appearances and lost only 68 (in regulation) of his first 252 regular-season games behind the bench, it's not hard to imagine the calls for his job if the team falls in the first round this spring for the seventh straight year.
Anything less than a near-miss run, with a roster that includes three players making at least $10.9 million annually, is almost a guaranteed deal-breaker in a hockey-wild city.
Lane Lambert, New York Islanders
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Sometimes, whether a professional failure is your fault or not, there will be consequences.
That may be where Lane Lambert winds up with the New York Islanders.
It seems unlikely at the moment, with the first-year coach leading a team that entered Friday with a three-point hold on the final Eastern playoff slot. But if things go awry down the stretch and the Islanders manage to miss out on the eighth (or better) seed, who knows?
Veteran program-jolter Bruce Boudreau is a coaching free agent after he was let go by Vancouver earlier this season, and multiple Cup winner Joel Quenneville is out there, too, if GM Lou Lamoriello wants to make a move that'll generate new energy.
Does Lambert deserve another year with a team that's not exactly an offensive juggernaut? Probably. But a lot more might ride on the stretch run than just a playoff series.
Paul Maurice, Florida Panthers
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It's been a pretty steep drop for the Florida Panthers.
The metropolitan Miami residents were the Presidents' Trophy winners last season and advanced to the second round—winning the franchise's first playoff series of the century—before a four-game sweep at the hands of their in-state rivals from Tampa Bay.
The powers-that-be decided interim coach Andrew Brunette, who took over in 2021 after Joel Quenneville resigned amid an investigation into the Chicago Blackhawks' handling of a 2010 sexual assault allegation, wasn't ready for a full-time gig based on the 4-6 record the team put up in the postseason.
So they brought in a veteran, Paul Maurice, who arrived with 24 seasons' worth of experience and 775 career victories with three franchises.
But it hasn't amounted to much.
The Panthers have gone from the penthouse playoff spot to simply pining for a ticket, as evidenced by their position three points below the cutline heading into Friday's games.
Which puts the target squarely on Maurice's back, considering his stay with Winnipeg ended abruptly last season when he resigned, suggesting the players needed a new voice.
If things end with Florida on the outside looking in, the choice might not be his this time.
Mike Sullivan, Pittsburgh Penguins
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Mike Sullivan won the Stanley Cup in his first two seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins and has been a playoff fixture ever since, reaching the postseason five straight years.
Ownership invested in the team this offseason when it gave contracts to veteran holdovers Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang, keeping the band together for another run with Sidney Crosby.
But if that group doesn't manage to win what'd be its fourth title this spring, perhaps it'd be time for a new maestro.
As of Friday, the Penguins were in a tie with the New York Islanders for the East's top wild-card spot, but they're only three points clear of Florida and five up on Washington, meaning even a slight hiccup down the stretch could end the season with nary an encore.
Should that be the case, the focus will surely be on the occasionally iffy decisions Sullivan made with his lineup—albeit often due to a roster constructed under someone else's control—and his seeming unwillingness to limit ice time for older, less productive players.
Don't bet the ranch on it. But if Pittsburgh skids to the finish and sees its playoff streak end, Sullivan might wind up being the one booed off the stage.
Darryl Sutter, Calgary Flames
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Darryl Sutter knows all about success.
The 64-year-old Albertan reached the precipice of a championship three times and had his named engraved on the Cup twice following the 2011-12 and 2013-14 seasons with the Los Angeles Kings. But he also knows success is fleeting.
His Calgary Flames finished first in the Pacific Division last season and seemed primed for a deep playoff run as stars Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau approached free agency, but it all crashed down in the second round with a five-game loss to the Edmonton Oilers.
Gaudreau left in the summer, and Tkachuk was traded. Their mojo hasn't been quite the same, as the Flames have lurched through the 2022-23 season and found themselves three points off the Western playoff pace entering Friday night's games.
It's a stunning plummet for a franchise many felt won the offseason by getting Jonathan Huberdeau and MacKenzie Weegar from Florida in the deal for Tkachuk. The concerns apparently reached Sutter's level in February when The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta suggested whispering over the coach's future had begun.
If the Flames miss the postseason, he seems a likely fall guy.
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