6:07 pm: Per the Golden Knights, assistant coaches Ryan Craig and Misha Donskov will remain on the team’s staff for next season. Goaltending Coach Mike Rosati has not been let go, but will interview with the new coaching staff once they are hired (link).
2:33 PM: As reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, two Golden Knights assistant coaches, Steve Spott and Ryan McGill, have also been let go by the team.
11:02 AM: The Vegas Golden Knights announced Monday morning that the team has fired head coach Peter DeBoer.
General manager Kelly McCrimmon will meet with the media at 3:00 p.m. CT to address the firing. He said the following in a statement today:
After lengthy discussions over the last two weeks, we believe that a new coach will put us in the best position to succeed next season.
DeBoer was appointed as the Golden Knights’ head coach midway through 2019-20 after the team fired Gerard Gallant due to a sluggish start. Through his two-and-a-half seasons in Vegas, DeBoer guided the team to a 98-50-12 record in 160 games (.650 points percentage). DeBoer had one year remaining on his contract, paying him $3.25MM.
His firing comes after the Golden Knights missed the playoffs this season for the first time in franchise history, dropping a series of key games down the stretch with a 4-2-4 record in their final 10 games. Some will be quick to defend DeBoer as the team suffered a laundry list of injuries to star players throughout the season, including captain Mark Stone, sniper Max Pacioretty, defenseman Alec Martinez, and starting netminder Robin Lehner.
However, while the Golden Knights still managed to generate chances offensively despite the injuries to key scorers, defense and special teams were where the team struggled the most this season. The team finished below league average on both the power play and penalty kill, and stellar play at the end of the season from youngster Logan Thompson in goal helped cover up some of the defensive shortcomings the team had developed throughout the year.
Vegas will need to do more than to just find a new bench boss for next season, though. The team is already in the red in terms of salary cap space, boasting a projected cap hit of $83.1MM for 2022-3. The team won’t be able to re-sign any pending UFAs to NHL deals (which include Reilly Smith and Mattias Janmark) and will likely need to shed another contract in order to become cap-compliant and reallocate a small amount of money in free agency. Moving forward, the team will need to count on a healthy and productive trio of Jack Eichel, Pacioretty, and Stone to avoid another disappointing season.
TSN’s Darren Dreger was the first to report.
Too late
Surprise!!! Barry needs to stay clear of this mess unless he gets Mike Babcock or Joel Quenneville money! My money is on Touchet! Ha ha
Calling Barry Trotz.
Surprised it took this long.
Would Stevie hire another lawyer to coach his team??? I hope not!
Vegas should have kept its first coach, who’s doing great with the Rangers. One thing Team NHL doesn’t have to worry about is the salary cap for the coaching staff.
@Jplane – That’s not quite true, as each team owner can impose a salary limits on the coaching staff, and even micro-manage the players’ cap structure, if they’re so inclined.
Wrong scapegoat. McCrimmon sunk this ship. Deboer did the best anyone possibly could with the hand he was dealt.
So the golden boy is gone way to go Kelly MCCrimmon… You should have gone to …
First intelligent decision VGK has made since the expansion draft
The 2 Mickeys (as in Mouse) are the ones that should have went! Mickey Crimmon and Mickey Phee!
Not a DeBoer fan, but the front office is more to blame than DeBoer is. How the GM still has a job after the salary cap mess that he created is beyond me. It was the front office’s fault that DeBoer had to field a lineup with 10 or 11 forwards for several games. Yes, DeBoer made mistakes, but he was also dealt a tough hand. If he is gone, the GM should be too
Not suprised by this. Interesting to see who they replace him with. Not really a Trotz type roster.
mccrimmon every thing since they made him gm has gone wrong. I forget who said but they have more talent but are a worse team today. It is only getting worse if the great great great jack eichel starts sharing great great great leadership abilities.
This golden team …
Hmmmmmm
This team is a mess. They don’t know what they want at this point. With all the success they are on their 3rd head coach.
Bout time that dude is let go. Defiantly late though after he ruined team chemistry for the past 2+ seasons. Where do I apply?
I was wondering when the cap was going to bite VGK. Vegas was good when they expanded because they picked well in the expansion draft. They had 4 lines of 2nd line people. They also had chemistry. Its a fact that you can have a ton of great players that just dont gel together. Its going to be interesting to see how this coaching change is going to affect them. I agree with some of the comments that this isnt a Trotz type of team.
Jack Eichel strikes again???