NHL Coaching Carousel Spins Fast, Even for Highest-Paid

Being an NHL head coach is rarely a long-term endeavor, with an average tenure of 2.3 years, a figure barely half the comparable marks in the other major U.S.-based men’s pro sports leagues. Hockey’s offseason coaching carousel, however, is taking on an even more frenetic pace.

This week, the Penguins fired Mike Sullivan, who was behind the bench for 10 seasons and won two Stanley Cups, while the Canucks parted ways with Rick Tocchet after failing to come to terms on a new contract. Those moves created the seventh and eighth head coaching vacancies around the league. 

That figure is equal to the NHL offseason coaching carousel a year ago, but both the names and dollars involved make the latest situation particularly remarkable. The league’s highest-paid coach, Sullivan ($5.5 million), and No. 3 coach (the Rangers’ Peter Laviolette, $4.9 million) were both fired. Additionally, the wave of dismissals involves three of the four U.S.-based Original Six teams, with the Blackhawks and Bruins looking for new head coaches in addition to New York.

The names and numbers could also grow in the coming days based on the outcome of a particularly tense opening round of the NHL playoffs, with a minimum of five of the eight first-round series due to reach at least a sixth game. 

To that end, the coaching carousel also reflects a vastly altered playoff landscape this year, one that includes the largest presence of Canadian teams since 2017 and no U.S. Original Six franchises for the first time in league history. 

The other teams with open coaching slots include the Ducks, Flyers, and Kraken, and like Blackhawks, Bruins, Canucks, Rangers, and Penguins, those teams had significantly greater hopes for the 2024–2025 season that were not realized. New York, in particular, won the Presidents’ Trophy last year. 

It’s likely, however, that several of the newly fired coaches will soon resurface in the other openings, as the NHL has tended to recycle familiar names across multiple teams. 

“Two things can be true: that someone can be a great head coach and they’ll move on to become a great head coach on their next stop, and it can also be time for a change here,” said Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas after parting ways with Sullivan. “That was the conclusion that I had come to. It was something on my mind during the season.”

The NHL’s situation, though continuing the heightened turnover inherent to the job, also resembles a frenetic period that just unfolded for NFL head coaches.