3 Coaches Poised to Lose Jobs After Round One Losses
As the Conference Semifinals continue in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, several teams, players, and coaches have already started to turn their attention toward the offseason.
After five win-or-go-home games helped send eight teams packing in the opening weeks of the 2022 postseason, there are plenty of questions to be answered. For some, the question that is top of mind is coach-driven.
Winning the Stanley Cup requires an elite roster on the ice, but if it doesn’t include the right person behind the bench, no amount of talent will be enough to claim the ultimate prize. For that reason, coaching is always a hot topic in the offseason.
We have already seen a few teams relive their coaches of their duties. The Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, and New York Islanders wasted little time saying goodbye to Jeff Blashill, Mike Yeo, and Barry Trotz, respectively.
How many coaches could still lose their jobs?
The Vegas Golden Knights (for some reason) chose to wait a little longer but ultimately fired coach Peter DeBoer at the conclusion of the first round of the playoffs.
There are four clubs in total that do not currently have a head coach, though the Islanders are not one of them, as they promoted Lane Lambert following the release of Trotz. The Winnipeg Jets are the other franchise that is looking for a bench boss.
With that said, I don’t believe that that will be the extent of the list for long. Losing in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs typically leaves a sour taste in the mouths of NHL organizations, and sometimes the fix is a change behind the bench.
For a few of the first-round losers, I think that could be the case. Some need to make a change, while some will feel compelled to do so as a result of the team’s recent history.
Here are three coaches that lost in Round One and are in a position to lose their jobs as a result.
John Hynes, Nashville Predators
I don’t know if John Hynes will lose his job, but he should. The Nashville Predators bench boss just wrapped up his third season (second full season) with the Preds, and for as promising as the campaign looked at one time, he and his team have zero playoff victories to show for their efforts this year.
Hynes had a losing record in his five-year stint with the New Jersey Devils but has been able to put together a winning resume while in Nashville. In two and a half COVID-impacted seasons, Hynes is 92-64-10.
His postseason numbers are horrific, though, as he has only four wins to pair with 15 losses. With the Predators, he is 3-11 in the playoffs, including the sweep at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche this season.
Not every aspect of his tenure in Tennessee has been dismal, but I do feel as though his club has been constantly fighting an uphill battle. Players like Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen have largely struggled to get anything going under Hynes, which has been a major setback.
In terms of the playoffs, I don’t fault Hynes for this year’s loss, as the Avs are easily one of the best teams in hockey. However, when you lose a playoff series to the Arizona Coyotes (2020 Qualifying Round), everything else gets put under a microscope.
Nashville is in a position where it has to choose between trading players with value to launch a rebuild or acquiring players to improve the team and make a real run at the Cup. Regardless of which route they select, I don’t love Hynes as the leader of either project.
Sheldon Keefe, Toronto Maple Leafs
Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe needs to go. He has been the man in Toronto since former coach Mike Babcock was let go in the early portion of the 2019-2020 season. Since then, the Leafs have grown as a regular season team but remained stagnant in the postseason.
This most recent campaign brought the franchise’s fifth consecutive win-or-go-home loss in Round One of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
His Maple Leafs had two chances to eliminate the back-to-back champions, but after an overtime win in Game 6, the Tampa Bay Lightning were not going to be stopped.
It’s no secret that the star power is there for Toronto, and in my opinion, the team has solid depth, despite the amount of money that is tied up in only a handful of players. It is for that reason that I see Keefe as the necessary piece to replace.
This Maple Leafs team is still young and has little experience when it comes to winning in the playoffs. Keefe falls in that same category, as he had not been an NHL head coach prior to being hired by Toronto.
Yes, his regular season record is strong. In two and a half seasons, he has compiled a 116-50-19 mark, but that no longer matters in Ontario. What matters is getting over the hump in the postseason, and he has not proven that he can help the Leafs do that.
This year’s playoff series was an improvement (remember all of that respect in the handshake line?), but postseason losses to the Columbus Blue Jackets (2020) and Montreal Canadiens (2021) prove that he is not the right man to get the Maple Leafs to the promised land.
Mike Sullivan, Pittsburgh Penguins
Mike Sullivan is in a different category than the other two coaches on this list. He is a two-time Stanley Cup champion with the Pittsburgh Penguins, and he has yet to miss a postseason as the Pens’ bench boss.
Of the three men I’ve discussed here, Sullivan is the one for which I would not advocate his firing. I believe that both Hynes and Keefe are preventing their teams from reaching their potential, but with Sullivan, it’s just about looking for a change.
I think he has done fantastic work with the Penguins, but after four years without a series victory, including this season when they failed to take advantage of a 3-1 series lead over the New York Rangers, something has to change in Pittsburgh, and it’s possible that that could be Sullivan.
The Penguins are in an interesting spot, because with the core aging and/or needing new contracts, the championship window is narrowing in the Steel City. With that said, one could make two opposite arguments when it comes to this Cup-winning coach.
Do the Pens want to make a change to jump-start this team with the hopes of it taking advantage of its last few relevant years, or does Pittsburgh see the limited amount of time remaining and fear that a coaching change could waste time and slam the window shut?
In his career with the Penguins, Sullivan is 297-156-54 with a 44-38 playoff record. Again, a firing here has nothing to do with his body of work and everything to do with disappointing postseasons.
Of course, the fact that there is a new ownership group in Pittsburgh makes this situation more interesting. Could the folks at Fenway Sports Group be looking for their own coach, or do they like what Sullivan brings to the table?
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Different coaches get let go for different reasons, but at the end of the day, underwhelming first-round performances could send all three of these coaches packing this offseason.