San Jose Sharks fire head coach Peter DeBoer

Peter DeBoer has been the head coach of the San Jose Sharks since he took over the team in May 2015.

The San Jose Sharks have fired head coach Peter DeBoer on Wednesday night after the team’s poor start to the 2019-20 NHL season. In 33 games this season, the Sharks are 15-16-2 with 32 points on the season and sit in sixth place in the Pacific Division.

In DeBoer’s place, the Sharks will go with Bob Boughner as interim head coach. Assistant coaches Steve Spott and Johan Hedberg have also been let go by San Jose. DeBoer had one more year after this one on his $6 million contract that he signed earlier in 2019 with the Sharks.

General manager Doug Wilson released a statement to the media on DeBoer’s firing alongside the announcement:

"When you have had a level of past success, change is never easy, but we feel this team is capable of much more than we have shown thus far and that a new voice is needed. As a team and as individuals, our play has not met expectations this year and our level of consistency has not been where it needs to be."

In the 2019-20 NHL season, the Sharks have come out of the gate sloppy and unpolished. San Jose lost nine of their first 13 games of the season, putting them squarely in the basement of the Pacific. The Sharks had a better November, where they won nine of 10 games and put themselves back in playoff position after a tough October.

December, however, hasn’t been kind to the team as they’ve lost their last five games by a combined score of 23-7 and have plummeted to the bottom of their division once more.

A major reason for the Sharks’ poor start has been the team’s goaltending duo of Martin Jones and Aaron Dell, who have a combined .891 save percentage on the season.

DeBoer has been the Sharks’ head coach since replacing Todd McLellan at the end of the 2014-15 season. In that timeframe, the Sharks made the playoffs all four times in the full seasons DeBoer has been head coach in San Jose, famously taking them all the way to a Stanley Cup Final berth in his first season with the team. The Sharks that year lost in the Stanley Cup Final to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

During DeBoer’s time with the Sharks, the team never finished below third place in the Pacific Division, getting to the playoffs in four consecutive seasons under his tenure in San Jose. With this firing, DeBoer’s record with the Sharks sits at 198-129-34 across four-plus seasons of work.