While the second round of the playoffs is in full flight, the biggest news came off the ice in a week filled with plenty of coaching headlines which dominate the key stories.
Dallas Cleans House: While the Stars made the playoffs and gave Calgary all they could handle in the first round, there will be plenty of changes behind the bench. Rick Bowness decided to step down while the team also dismissed assistant coaches Derek Laxdal, John Stevens, and Todd Nelson. Bowness had been the head coach in Dallas since taking over partway through the 2019-20 season, his first NHL head coaching role in more than 15 years. The Stars did relatively well under his watch with an 89-62-25 record while they reached the Stanley Cup Final in the bubble. Although he’s 67, it’s expected that Bowness will be looking into other coaching opportunities around the league.
Lambert Promoted: Part of the rationale for the Islanders firing Barry Trotz was that GM Lou Lamoriello wanted a new voice guiding the team. He didn’t need to go outside the organization to find that new voice as he instead promoted associate coach Lane Lambert to serve as their new bench boss. It will be Lambert’s first opportunity as an NHL head coach and his first time as a head coach at any level since 2011 when he was last in charge with AHL Milwaukee. Lambert had worked with Trotz since 2011 but will now get the opportunity to implement his own systems and will be tasked with getting New York back into the playoff picture.
Six Years For Rust: The Penguins have several prominent pending unrestricted free agents and they were able to get a deal worked out with one of them as they inked winger Bryan Rust to a six-year, $30.75MM contract. The 30-year-old has become a key part of Pittsburgh’s attack over the past three seasons, scoring at least 22 goals per year in that stretch. In 2021-22, he had the best output of his eight-year career, recording 58 points in just 60 games during the regular season while averaging over a point per game (eight in seven contests) during the playoffs. The $5.125MM AAV is certainly a team-friendly one although Rust still nearly doubles his career earnings to date with this deal. GM Ron Hextall still has some work to do with Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Rickard Rakell among their remaining pending UFAs.
DeBoer Out: If there are two things we’ve learned about Vegas in their brief tenure in the NHL, it’s that they’re not particularly patient nor are they afraid to take big swings. In that spirit, they opted to make a coaching change, firing head coach Peter DeBoer along with assistants Steve Spott and Ryan McGill. DeBoer was with the team for 160 regular season games with the Golden Knights going 98-50-12 in that span while reaching the final four twice. However, they missed the playoffs this season which was enough of a reason for GM Kelly McCrimmon to pull the trigger on a change. They’ve now gone through two veteran head coaches in their first five years of existence with inaugural bench boss Gerard Gallant getting let go in his third season.
Sticking Around: The Maple Leafs have done well in recent years to get some veterans to sign for deals that are well below their market value to allow them to build as strong a roster as possible. They were able to accomplish that once again, inking defenseman Mark Giordano to a two-year contract worth just $800K per season. The 38-year-old came over from Seattle just before the trade deadline and helped to stabilize Toronto’s back end. While he was unlikely to command the $6.75MM AAV he made on his soon-to-expire deal, it’s certainly quite clear that he left a lot of money on the table to try to win with his hometown team.
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