NHL coaching hot seat: Who's under the most pressure entering 2023-24?
The difference a year can make as an NHL head coach is incredible. In 2022, Darryl Sutter won the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year after leading the Calgary Flames to a 111-point campaign. A year later, he was fired after his club missed the postseason.
Leashes are short and turnover is inevitable. A staggering 19 of the 32 NHL bench bosses have yet to coach their teams for two full seasons.
No coach should feel safe, but the following six should feel more heat than the rest.
Coaches were ordered by their hiring date. Our hot-seat-o-meter is on a scale of one π₯ to five π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯.
Mike Sullivan, Penguins
Hired: Dec. 12, 2015
There's evidence to suggest Sullivan's job is safe. He led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016-17 and is regarded as one of the best bench bosses in the league. He still has two years left on his contract and assisted in ownership's search for a new hockey operations architect. That doesn't sound like someone who's on thin ice, does it?
But Sullivan is the second-longest tenured coach in the league, and the Penguins haven't won a playoff series since 2018. The club even missed the postseason last year. That's not to say it's Sullivan's fault - the roster is aging and always seems to be littered with injuries at the wrong time.
It's a results-driven business, though, and the Penguins' sole goal is to make one last run while Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang are still effective. It's why new president of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas made a win-now move to acquire another veteran star in Erik Karlsson.
As much as Dubas praises his inherited coach, Sullivan is not his guy. If the Penguins get off to a bad start, Dubas might believe the team needs a fresh voice. And if Pittsburgh misses the playoffs again, that'll surely be the last straw for Sullivan.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯π₯
Craig Berube, Blues
Hired: Nov. 19, 2018
Berube is in a similar situation as Sullivan. He guided the Blues to a Stanley Cup in his first season on the job which, in theory, should give him a longer leash. But he's only led the club past the first round of the playoffs one time since, and St. Louis missed the postseason altogether in 2022-23.
Replacing Mike Yeo with Berube in 2018 helped catapult the Blues to a spectacular second half and a Stanley Cup victory. So would it really be shocking if GM Doug Armstrong believes a new bench boss could yield similar results this season if his team gets off to a poor start? We don't think so.
The Blues' roster has undergone plenty of changes since winning the Cup in 2019. There's more speed and skill, and less size and physicality. Berube's north-south coaching style is a better fit for the latter, so replacing him with a more open-minded, creative offensive coach would be logical if things go awry.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯π₯
Todd McLellan, Kings
Hired: April 26, 2019
It's highly unlikely the Kings make a midseason coaching change. They're one of the most well-rounded teams in the league and should cruise to a playoff spot.
However, GM Rob Blake has aggressively added to his roster lately. First, it was Kevin Fiala in the 2022 offseason, then it was Vladislav Gavrikov at the 2023 trade deadline, and finally Pierre-Luc Dubois this summer. Between those additions and the unknown of how much longer Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty will remain highly effective players, there's ample expectation on the Kings to deliver in the playoffs - stat.
McLellan is a good coach but, under his watch, the Kings bowed out in the opening round of the playoffs two years in a row. He's also the longest-tenured coach in the league to not win a Stanley Cup or Jack Adams Award. Considering the Kings' talent, another first-round exit will likely cost him his job.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯
D.J. Smith, Senators
Hired: May 23, 2019
It's a make-or-break year for Smith, who's under more pressure than any head coach in the NHL this season. He's the longest-tenured coach without a playoff series victory and is in the last guaranteed year of his contract. (His deal has a club option for 2024-25.)
Ottawa's failures early in Smith's tenure were excusable since the team was rebuilding. But GM Pierre Dorion built a roster that's now more than talented enough to make the playoffs.
Poor starts have plagued the Senators in the past: They began the 2022-23 campaign with a 6-12-1 record and were never able to dig themselves out of that hole.
Smith's job security last year was likely due, at least in part, to uncertainty surrounding the team's ownership. But with Michael Andlauer assuming full control in September, there's no reason Smith should survive another poor start. If Ottawa misses the playoffs for a seventh straight season - and fifth under Smith - a coaching change will be a guarantee.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯π₯π₯
Sheldon Keefe, Maple Leafs
Hired: Nov. 20, 2019
Keefe's chances of getting fired during the season are slim. The Leafs have been a regular season juggernaut under his guidance, and he owns the third-highest points percentage of all time among coaches with at least 100 games. The Leafs are also the heavy favorite to win the Atlantic Division this year since the Lightning are without Andrei Vasilevskiy to start the campaign and the Bruins lost so many key pieces.
The postseason will determine Keefe's fate. Sure, he led Toronto to its first playoff series win since 2004 last season, but losing to the Panthers in five games in Round 2 was an extremely underwhelming finish.
Keefe also has a new boss above him in GM Brad Treliving. If Toronto's postseason ends in disappointing fashion yet again, it'd be understandable for Treliving to want to hire his own coach - despite giving Keefe a two-year extension in August.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯
John Tortorella, Flyers
Hired: June 17, 2022
Tortorella's first season as the Flyers head coach was a rocky one. We'll excuse him for the poor on-ice results. A 14th-place finish in the conference may not be pretty, but it's hard to imagine anyone could've done much better with a flawed roster that was hit hard by injuries. But he seemed to clash with several players, which is not a distraction this organization needs.
The hard-nosed, old-school bench boss just doesn't seem to be a fit for a rebuilding team like the Flyers. Tortorella can be an effective motivator for a veteran, win-now club, but overseeing the development of a young roster isn't the 65-year-old's forte at this point in his career.
When former GM Chuck Fletcher hired Tortorella, he thought his team was good enough to compete for a playoff spot. But things have changed and, even though expectations are low, it wouldn't be surprising if new GM Daniel Briere made a coaching change if he doesn't see his young players developing as hoped.
Hot-seat-o-meter: π₯π₯π₯