There is less than a month until the NHL playoffs are underway. However, for some teams, it's the offseason that's less than a month away. Decisions need to be made for many of these teams looking outside of the playoffs, and sometimes that includes a coaching change.
Given how close the league is to the end of the season, it doesn't make sense for teams to make any major changes to their coaching staff. However, with the offseason coming up, some moves could leave a handful of bench bosses unemployed. Here are three coaches who might be out of the job in the summer.
John Tortorella
The Philadelphia Flyers have been bad this season and that surprises no one. They are last in the Metropolitan Division and could very well finish last in the Eastern Conference. The team is clearly in a rebuilding state, supported by a young core of players, including 20-year-old rookie Matvei Michkov.
John Tortorella is a coach who thrives on taking teams deep into the playoffs or achieving results above expectations. When he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets, he took them past the first round on a couple of occasions. That includes his famous win against the Tampa Bay Lightning team that went 62-16-4, the second-best record in NHL history at the time.
Last season, he almost blew expectations out of the water with the Flyers, as they held on to a playoff spot for the majority of the season. However, with their young team, they fell out of the race in April, just weeks away from the playoffs.
Tortorella's coaching style and desire to constantly win doesn't suit the life of leading a rebuilding team. Tortorella is still a great coach, but maybe he could showcase that on a different team next season. Opposites don't attract in this situation, and the Flyers and Tortorella are exactly that.
Rick Tocchet
In Rick Tocchet's first season with the Vancouver Canucks last year, they were unbeatable at times. They were one of the best teams in the Western Conference, clinching the Pacific Division along the way. Furthermore, they advanced to the conference semi-finals before being eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers in seven games.
Tocchet went on to win the Jack Adams Trophy as the best head coach in the NHL that season. Going into this campaign, everyone thought the Canucks could have similar success. However, seemingly everything went wrong for Vancouver this season.
The biggest story of the team's season was the rift between J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. It weighed the team down as they've been on the bubble of making the playoffs all season long. Eventually, Miller was traded away, but the team has mildly recovered, if at all.
They remain outside the playoff picture, and the distance seems to be growing between them and the St. Louis Blues, who hold on to the last wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
Vancouver's poor campaign doesn't rest on Tocchet's shoulders, but he could be fed up with the theatrics around the team and market. Therefore, he could be craving some new scenery, and if an opportunity presents itself, he might walk out the door.
Andrew Brunette
It's been a long season for Andrew Brunette standing behind the bench of the Nashville Predators. Every fan, pundit and journalist had the Preds having a great season amid all their free-agent pickups in the previous offseason. However that has not been the case this year.
Nashville is seventh in the Central Division, only better than the Chicago Blackhawks. Their performance this season has been a total opposite of what they accomplished last year. They comfortably made the playoffs, and have done so in nine of the last 10 seasons.
This is Brunette's second year coaching the Predators, and his tenure is the same as General Manager Barry Trotz. It's unclear as to why the team has had such a huge drop-off after adding players such as Steven Stamkos, but sometimes a new coach can freshen things up for the better.