Grading 2025 NHL Head Coaching Hires

There are a fair share of head coaching vacancies at the end of any NHL season, but 2024-25 produced the most open slots we'd seen in a while. Eight teams went into the offseason looking for a new bench boss, and the spots are filling up relatively quickly, with five teams already making hires.

While we wait for the Bruins, Penguins, and Kraken to wrap up their coaching searches, let's take a minute to evaluate the hires that have already been snagged off the carousel in the past few weeks. Who will the remaining coach-less teams kick themselves for missing out on?

As we grade every recent NHL coaching hire, let's remember that the most coveted coaches are obviously among this group of early hires, so this is a solid report card.

Jeff Blashill, Chicago Blackhawks

Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images

Grade: B

In one of the least surprising moves so far, the Blackhawks hired former Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill on Thursday.

Blashill, who was fired by the Red Wings in April 2022 after seven seasons working on the rebuild, has a strong background in player development. He coached in the USHL, NCAA and AHL before replacing Mike Babcock in Detroit before the 2015-16 season. He spent the last three years under coaching legend Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay, shoring up his resume to jump back into an NHL coaching job.

The Blackhawks have gone through four different first-year NHL head coaches -- Jeremy Colliton, Derek King, Luke Richardson, and Anders Sorensen -- since 2018. Now they've landed on Blashill and his ample experience with both prospect development and NHL rebuilds to guide them through their rebuild.

There's not much pressure for success right now, as we're all aware the Blackhawks will take a few years to re-enter the playoff conversation. Chicago attempted its fair share of first-year projects recently, and management clearly wanted to go a different direction with this hire.

I'm a fan of trying a few different things and seeing what sticks, and the Blackhawks aren't desperate for the perfect coach to come in and immediately lead the team to the playoffs. Blashill is low risk; he just had a few years learning from Cooper, and he's got a lot of experience with this sort of thing. We'll see if it all clicks this time around.

Still, you can't help but consider that it hasn't yet clicked.

Mike Sullivan, New York Rangers

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Grade: A+

For a supposed-to-be-good team that found itself in all sorts of turmoil on and off the ice last season, hiring Mike Sullivan was the best step in the right direction management could've possibly taken. GM Chris Drury was able to use his connections for good, with many longtime ties to Sullivan, like Boston University and USA Hockey (Sullivan coached Team USA at the recent 4 Nations Face-Off while Drury served as assistant GM.)

Sullivan parted ways with the Penguins on a Monday and was snagged by the Rangers that Friday, inking a five-year contract with a $6.5 million AAV. That makes him the highest-paid coach in NHL history, a steep price the Rangers franchise needed to pay to start righting this ship.

The 57-year-old comes to the Rangers after 10 straight years with the Penguins, amounting to eight playoff seasons, back-to-back Stanley Cups, and a 409-255-89 record. 

The Penguins were on the downturn, having missed the playoffs for three straight seasons, and it was time for both parties to move on as GM Kyle Dubas seeks a quick-but-real re-tool while Sidney Crosby is still in the league.

Sullivan has shown great success working with established cores that are looking to win it all every year. Can he guide the Rangers back to form? If anyone can, it's probably him.

Rick Tocchet, Philadelphia Flyers

Grade: B

Rick Tocchet as a person, and probably soon as a coach, has an A+ in my heart -- and the hearts of TNT viewers around the world. He won the Jack Adams in his most successful year with the Canucks, players love playing for him, and he has a wide array of experience coaching teams of all calibers.

Tocchet is in the Flyers Hall of Fame as a player thanks to his 11 gritty seasons and two separate stints with the franchise in his 18-year career. He's endeared to the franchise for great reason, between ranking No. 12 on the all-time goals list and helping shape the tough reputation the team is trying to earn back. GM Danny Briere played with Tocchet as well.

You'd think all of this would only turn my grade for the hire into an A++, right?

Not so fast.

Best-case scenario, this is everything everyone hoped it would be. The Flyers turn this pesky corner they've been on the bad side of for years, they seek the correct assets to take a significant step in the on-ice rebuild, and franchise legend Tocchet is there to lead them to glory. The upside of this hire is A++.

But there's considerable risk, too. What if the Tocchet hype brings too much pressure to perform when the team is realistically a season or two away from real expectations? Putting a franchise legend in a situation that the previous coach publicly opted out of is a risk.

Then again, Rod Brind'Amour took his Hurricanes from a playoff drought to seven straight years of postseason play and no one thought he was the right hire at the time.

It can work, and I bet it will work for someone like Tocchet. I'd just hate to see what happens if it doesn't work.

Adam Foote, Vancouver Canucks

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Grade: B-

Look, for as much as we criticize the Canucks, and for as much as they deserve it after last season's implosion, we do so because they are supposed to be -- and have recently been -- a good hockey team.

For all of the drama leading up to the JT Miller trade, and for all of the pushover play that caused Vancouver to fall out of last season's playoff race, the team was dealing with an injured Thatcher Demko all season.

All of this is to say, there are things worth holding onto with the strides the Canucks made in the past few years. The defensive structure suited for Quinn Hughes and cultivated under Tocchet is one of those things.

Foote was Tocchet's assistant in Vancouver and got the promotion when Tocchet and the team parted ways. Assistant hires are often unpopular because it can look like a cop out, and with this franchise we are inclined to assume some level of copping out.

But I see the vision. The improvement on defense is a north star to guide these Canucks out of the dark ages, and Foote is acutely aware of the ins-and-outs with this team. There isn't going to be yet another shock to the team where a new face comes in and brings more change. This is the stability that the players likely need.

Foote was running the defense before this promotion to head coach, and it sounds like he and Hughes are tight.

Still, the Canucks' front office hasn't quite earned the benefit of the doubt these days, and there's speculation (emphasis on speculation) that Hughes' relationship with Foote was at least one motivation for the hire. If Hughes ends up shipping off to New Jersey regardless, we're looking at another potential miscalculation from Vancouver's brass.