The 2024-25 NHL regular season reached it's conclusion this past Thursday, and now the focus is on the Stanley Cup playoffs. For the 16 teams that qualified, they are set to compete in the always entertaining playoff tournament for the chance to hoist Lord Stanley's Cup at year's end. For the other 16 teams who missed out on the qualifying, they now have an early offseason to figure out what went wrong. One main talking point will be "do we have the right coach to lead us to success?"
Before the season ended, there was some coaching turnover. The Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery, who then quickly signed with the St. Louis Blues, who fired Drew Bannister to facilitate the move. The Chicago Blackhawks fired Luke Richardson as the team continued to struggle through another season of their rebuild. And in just a few weeks before the season ended, the Philadelphia Flyers fired John Tortorella.
We'll keep you posted with the latest news regarding the NHL coaching carousel, specifically regarding teams that move on from their coaches.
Ducks fire Greg Cronin after two seasons (Apr. 19)
On Saturday, the Anaheim Ducks announced they were moving on from head coach Greg Cronin, who just completed his second season leading the team.
Cronin was brought in to help the Ducks progress in their rebuild and return to playoffs for the first time since 2018. Instead, the Ducks finished 27-50-5 in Cronin's first year at the helm. This season, the Ducks went 35-37-10 and missed out on a playoff spot by 16 points.
Now, the Ducks have to figure out who is the right coach to lead the team back to success.
Rangers fire Peter Laviolette after disastrous season (Apr. 19)
After a disastrous season and a missed playoff berth, the New York Rangers announced they were firing coach Peter Laviolette, along with associate head coach Phil Housley. While Laviolette was fired, general manager Chris Drury appears to be safe.
The Rangers hired Laviolette after the 2022-23 season in hopes that he can lead the team to it's first Stanley Cup victory since 1994. He was awfully close in his first year at the helm, as he led the team to a President's Trophy and just two wins away from the Stanley Cup Final.
This year, the Rangers went 39-36-7 with 85 points, falling six points short of the final Wild Card berth. The season was highlighted by lackluster play and notably ugly departures of players (i.e. Jacob Trouba and Barclay Goodrow). Laviolette didn't do himself many favors, especially prioritizing playing veteran players over developing some of their young stars. With that, Laviolette is gone after going 94-59-11.
Drury says that they will conduct a wide search for its next coach, and even said that first-time coaches will be under consideration.