NHL Coaches Are On the Hot Seat Quicker Than Ever – The Hockey Writers – NHL Coaching

The longest-tenured coach in the NHL is Jon Cooper at 13 years with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Some of the longest-tenured head coaches in the league were hired in 2023, such as Spencer Carbery, the coach of the Washington Capitals, who comes in at the fifth-longest-tenured. Only four coaches had their current job four years ago.

Two playoff teams, the Vegas Golden Knights and New York Islanders, fired their head coaches within the span of a week. Both organizations had entirely different reasons for their firings, and it showed that the pressure to win in the NHL is at an all-time high and that no coach is truly safe.

John Tortorella and Pete DeBoer In 

With eight games remaining in the season, the Golden Knights fired their head coach, Bruce Cassidy, and hired John Tortorella. In a playoff spot, this move came as a surprise, as it was expected that the evaluation would come in the summer. The Pacific Division is the weakest in all of hockey, though; if the Golden Knights were in the Eastern Conference, they would not be in the playoffs. They don’t match up well against the top three teams in their conference, either. 

Related: Golden Knights Fire Cassidy, Turn to Tortorella in Stunning Late-Season Shakeup

It doesn’t help that William Karlsson got hurt and is most likely out for the rest of the season, barring a late comeback, but Cassidy’s lineup decisions were strange. Vegas paid Mitch Marner, one of, if not the best, right-wingers in the league, $96 million to be just that. Instead, he’s playing center and is struggling because he’s never played center before on a pro level up until now. Plus, Cassidy reportedly lost the locker room early on in the season. That brings in Tortorella, who was hired only until the end of the season (including the playoffs), who is a pure motivator and will kick you into shape. Since the hire, Vegas has gone 4-0 with four games remaining in their regular season.

With four games remaining in their respective campaign, the Islanders fired their coach Patrick Roy and hired Pete DeBoer. The Islanders found themselves in an unexpected playoff spot led by their first overall pick last year and star defender, Matthew Schaefer. However, since then, in their last ten games, they’ve gone 3-7-0 and have recently lost that spot after already buying at the trade deadline. 

Roy was fired due to his poor defensive systems that, most of the time, left goaltender Ilya Sorokin on an island, mixed in with the lost playoff spot. DeBoer is an interesting hire for the Islanders, as he’s known to break goalies down in the playoffs. Plus, this hire is not like Tortorella: DeBoer’s contract runs to the end of the 2029-30 season. New York better hope that this works out for them. 

Why Is the Shelf Life Shorter?

The NHL is pulling in more money than it ever has before, and the salary cap is going up. Franchises are getting richer, which puts more pressure on GMs to win. Head coaches have always been the main culprit for results; that aspect hasn’t changed. What’s changed is how much leash the coach gets. They get two, maybe three seasons to prove what they can do, no matter the roster their GM gives them. Coaches from other leagues are seeing this and staying put, as well. David Carle, the head coach at the University of Denver, turned down a generous offer to coach the Chicago Blackhawks.

It’s also becoming harder for new coaches to break into the league. DeBoer has coached in 19 consecutive seasons with six different teams, despite being fired five times. Teams aren’t starting fresh and are going back to an already tried before well due to the fear of starting fresh and failing. While it won’t be a bad move, Cassidy being hired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the offseason has been discussed a lot. 

Some coaches genuinely do a bad job, and unfortunately, it comes time for them to lose their place. But others aren’t given enough time, or are just cut under the recent results because the pressure to win has been put way too high by the respective organization, and that leads to everything else being disregarded. The hottest time to win in the NHL is within the next few years to a decade, and that’s being felt around the league.