The choice for the new Bruins head coach, after an extensive search that included roughly 15 candidates interviewed in the first round, might arrive as quickly as the next couple of days, while the NHL scouting combine is also taking place in Buffalo.
As of late last week, it sounded as if Bruins assistant coach Jay Leach, Washington Capitals assistant coach Mitch Love and AHL head coach Marco Sturm were amongst the finalists getting a second interview, and the Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun is reporting on Monday morning that the B’s are down to two names.
Expect the Bruins to announce their coaching hire early this week. My understanding is that they’re down to 2 candidates.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 2, 2025
They did in-person, final interviews with candidates last week.
Interestingly enough, the Pittsburgh Penguins are also still circling their last couple of finalists and at least one of Boston’s final few names also seems to be in the mix for the Pittsburgh bench boss job as well.
“I've had the good fortune of working with three, and counting Joe [Sacco], four different coaches [while taking things] from what they value. I do believe the League needs to, you need to, continue to evolve. That's why I referenced evolving offensively, especially with younger players and integrating them. But if you don't defend in the National Hockey League, you don't have sustained success,” said Don Sweeney during the end-of-season press conference. “Whether that's zone [defense], man-to-man, whether it's a hybrid, whether that's neutral zone [trapping]…look at L.A.’s situation this year, going from 1-3-1 to a little bit more of a pressure situation that they're doing, but they still do a really good job. They led the league in goals against. That's part of winning hockey, it just has to be and it's going to be part of our fabric. We're going to get back to that. Now, we have to continue to evolve offensively, as I referenced, the scoring deficiencies that we had this year in our power play in particular put a lot of pressure on our team that you have to be perfect. Our goaltenders previously have been really, really good. This year, they weren't as good as what they had been. That's fact, and our team in front of them didn't defend with the same level of conviction. So the structure has to be there. It has to be part of the fabric of what a coach believes in.”
With that need for structure inherent in the coaching search, a bit about each of the last few final names:
• Marco Sturm, in this humble hockey writer’s opinion, is the favorite to be the next coach of the Black and Gold for a couple of different reasons. He’s a guy that obviously understands the landscape in Boston and is a memorable figure in Boston Bruins history whether it’s his part in the seismic Jumbo Joe Thornton trade, or the goals he scored in the playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens or the overtime game-winner in Boston’s first Winter Classic at Fenway Park.
The German-born player has international, NHL and AHL head coaching experience and more importantly has connections with people at many different levels in the Bruins organization, which would go a long way toward making sure everybody stays on the same page. The one drawback with Sturm is that his won-loss record as an AHL head coach hasn’t been mind-blowing, but that actually might not be a bad thing given the retooling expected to take place over the next couple of years in Boston.
It's also interesting to note that Sweeney referenced the Kings in his thoughts about tightening things up defensively as that’s the exact organization that Sturm would be coming from if he’s “the guy.”
• Love is a defense-based assistant coach who enjoyed good success in the Calgary organization and obviously was part of a great retooling job with the Washington Capitals over the last few years. That kind of resume has to be attractive for a Bruins management group that wants to get structure back in Boston’s game after they strayed far away from that under former head coach Jim Montgomery.
There is quite a bit to like about this candidate, and it’s another feather in his cap that other NHL teams are said to be interested in him as a head coach. That could also be the downside, as it would seem that he might be one of the finalists for the Penguins' bench boss job as well as two traditionally strong Eastern Conference teams are both looking to push back into the playoff picture next season.
• Leach was a candidate for the head job when Montgomery was hired by Boston three years ago and was viewed as the heir apparent in Boston when he returned to the Black and Gold after a stint in Seattle on Dave Hakstol’s staff. Leach is another coach with a defensive background who successfully developed quite a few young players during his time in Providence, and he’s been a presence around the hockey club during the AHL playoffs and other offseason events, indicating a probable place in Boston’s organization regardless of what happens in this hiring process.
The real sticking point with Leach is his placement on the coaching staff of a Boston team that severely underwhelmed and underperformed this season. Leach was one of the defensemen coaches in a season where Mason Lohrei really struggled with the NHL’s worst plus/minus when it was all over, and the Bruins D-men, in general, had a rough go with injuries sidelining Hampus Lindholm and Charlie McAvoy for long stretches.
Brandon Carlo was another player who struggled mightily on the back end last season prior to getting traded. So there would be legitimate questions about the timing of the move if Leach turned out to be the choice, regardless of his perceived fitness for the head job headed into last season.
ONE TIMERS
• Congrats to Zdeno Chara, who was honored at the end of the IIHF World Championships with an induction into the IIHF Hall of Fame after a legendary run as a defensive stalwart for Slovakian teams over a 20-year period. Chara won two silver medals at the World Championships for Team Slovakia, and his obvious NHL Hall of Fame resume includes a Norris Trophy, a Stanley Cup title in 2011 and the all-time leader in games played for a defenseman while also simply being an iconic 6-foot-9 defensive stopper and intimidator amongst his generational peers.
Chara played in three Olympics and seven world championships overall, and was the second European captain to lead a team to a Stanley Cup title after Niklas Lidstrom.
“The Hall of Fame is something you don’t win. It’s something you earn,” said Chara in an excellent six-minute induction speech. “You have to earn it the really hard way and you cannot do it alone. This induction is not just mine, but a testament to all who stood beside me, pushed me and believed in me. Hockey is a sport that’s much more than just a game. It’s a way of life, community and culture.”
The Class of 2025 also included Frans Nielsen and Henrik Lundqvist amongst a star-studded cast that was on hand in Sweden to watch Team USA capture their first gold medal in over 90 years at the international competition.
• Bummer to see good guy Joe Sacco not returning to the Bruins staff, as he was reportedly informed that he wouldn’t be with the Black and Gold next season. The Medford native had a B’s assistant coaching career that spanned from Claude Julien all the way to Jim Montgomery, and he wasn’t given much of a chance of succeeding when he stepped in for Monty after the first 20 games of the season.
Sacco deserves a lot of credit for getting the Bruins back on track defensively after a turbulent opening month, and many openly wondered if there might be a chance he could return to his associate head coaching post after stepping into the breach last season. Clearly that wasn’t meant to be in Boston, so good luck to Sacco at his next landing spot around the hockey world. Good hockey men like Sacco don’t stay out of work very long.
