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The NHL head coaching carousel has been spinning since the start of the offseason.
While some clubs are eyeing a Stanley Cup, most are focusing on next season. For a select few, that starts with making changes at head coach.
What started with eight teams in need of a new bench boss has now dwindled down to just three. Which coaches are in new organizations?
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The Sporting News is tracking all of the head coach hirings and openings during this NHL coaching carousel.
2025 NHL head coaching changes
| Boston Bruins | Jim Montgomery | |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Luke Richardson | Jeff Blashill |
| Philadelphia Flyers | John Tortorella | Rick Tocchet |
| Anaheim Ducks | Greg Cronin | Joel Quenneville |
| New York Rangers | Peter Laviolette | Mike Sullivan |
| Seattle Kraken | Dan Bylsma | |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | Mike Sullivan | |
| Vancouver Canucks | Rick Tocchet | Adam Foote |
NHL Hired Coaches 2025
Mike Sullivan, Rangers
New York hired former Penguins coach Mike Sullivan on May 2. He won two Stanley Cups in Pittsburgh but failed to win a playoff series in each of his last seven seasons.
Sullivan is 479-311-112 across head coaching stints with Pittsburgh and the Boston Bruins. He is the sixth-winningest active head coach in the NHL. Sullivan previously worked for the Rangers as an assistant for four seasons (2009-13) under coach John Tortorella.
Joel Quenneville, Ducks
Anaheim hired Joel Quenneville on May 10. He won three Stanley Cups during his time with the Chicago Blackhawks. But his coaching career was marred after former Blackhawks prospect Kyle Beach leveled allegations of sexual assault against former video coach Brad Aldrich in 2021.
Quenneville and several members of the Blackhawks front office were made aware of Beach's allegations, which first came to light during the 2010 playoffs. They opted against taking action against Aldrich, with an independent investigation revealing that Quenneville was especially concerned of causing a distraction to the team's Stanley Cup hopes. Aldrich resigned shortly after Beach lodged his allegations. He summarily pleaded guilty to assaulting a player while coaching at a Michigan high school.
Quenneville eventually apologized for his actions. He resigned from his post as Panthers head coach in 2021 and was reinstated in July 2024.
Rick Tocchet, Flyers
Philadelphia hired former Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet on May 14. He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s Coach of the Year in 2023-24, after leading Vancouver to a division title for the first time since 2013.
Tocchet left Vancouver on his own after the team took a step back in 2024-25, finishing fifth in the Pacific Division and missing the playoffs. Prior to coaching the Canucks, Tocchet had stints with the Tampa Bay Lightning (2008-2010) and the Arizona Coyotes (2017-2021). He has a 286-265-87 record in nine seasons as a head coach.
Adam Foote, Canucks
Vancouver hired Foote as Tocchet's replacement on May 14. He was an assistant for the Canucks the past three seasons. His only previous head coaching experience was two seasons with Kelowna of the Western Hockey League (2018-20).
NHL Fired Coaches 2025
Jim Montgomery, Bruins
Boston fired Montgomery on Nov. 19 after stumbling to an 8-9-3 start in its first 20 games. He had a 120-41-23 record in three seasons with the Bruins.
Montgomery made the playoffs twice, but both trips ended at the hands of the Panthers. Boston was stunned in the first round in 2023 after having the best regular season in NHL history (135 points), and fell to Florida again in the second round in 2024.
Associate coach Joe Sacco was elevated to interim head coach. Montgomery was hired by the Blues immediately after his dismissal, leading St. Louis to a playoff berth.
Luke Richardson, Blackhawks
Chicago fired Richardson on Dec. 5 after a dreadful start to the season. The Blackhawks were outscored 41-27 while going 3-9-1 in the 13 games before Richardson's dismissal.
The team was expected to be more competitive in his third season after signing Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen, Alec Martinez and Craig Smith in free agency. It also had Connor Bedard coming off winning the Calder Memorial Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year in 2024.
Anders Sorensen was elevated to interim coach. He had been coaching the team's top minor league affiliate in Rockford, Illinois.
John Tortorella, Flyers
Philadelphia fired Tortorella on March 27 with nine games left in the regular season, marking what general manager Daniel Briere called "rock bottom" in the team's rebuilding effort.
The Flyers were 29-36-9 in Tortorella's third season at the helm and had lost 11 of their last 12 games before he was axed. They were in second-to-last place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Sabres.
Assistant coach Brad Shaw was elevated to interim head coach. He went 18-18-4 in 40 games after replacing Steve Stirling with the New York Islanders in 2005-06.
Greg Cronin, Ducks
Anaheim fired Cronin on April 19 after the team missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season.
The Ducks were 35-37-10 (80 points) in Cronin's second season behind the bench. While that was a 21-point improvement over last season (27-50-5, 59 points), it wasn't enough to bring him back.
Peter Laviolette, Rangers
The Rangers fired Laviolette on April 19 after the team underachieved in his second year.
The Rangers won the Presidents' Trophy and went to the Eastern Conference finals in 2024, but missed the playoffs by six points in 2025. Current assistant coaches Michael Peca and Dan Muse are expected to interview for the new head coaching vacancy.
Dan Bylsma, Kraken
The Kraken handed Bylsma his walking papers on Monday, spelling an end to a one-year run in the Emerald City.
The former Stanley Cup winner was expected to breathe life into a Seattle side that missed postseason play in 2023-24. Instead, the Kraken posted an even worst record than last year, finishing the campaign with 76 points, the fourth-lowest mark in the Western Conference.
Bylsma's departure comes as a bit of a surprise — one-year dismissals aren't the most common occurrence, especially for someone with as glittering a resume as Bylsma's. Nevertheless, Seattle felt compelled to make a move. Now, Kraken brass will conduct a full coaching search to find its next tactician.
Mike Sullivan, Penguins
(hired by Rangers as head coach)
The Penguins announced that the franchise and long-time head coach Mike Sullivan have agreed to part ways. Sullivan became the head coach for Pittsburgh during the 2015-2016 season. He led them to Stanley Cup wins in both 2016 and 2017.
Sullivan ends his time with the Penguins with a total 409-225 record in 753 games. He also went 44-38 in seven playoff appearances with the two Stanley Cup titles. Pittsburgh has missed the playoffs in three consecutive years and is coming off its worst season under Sullivan at a 34-36-12 record.
Rick Tocchet, Canucks
(hired by Flyers as head coach)
The Canucks announced that Rick Tocchet will not be returning as their head coach next season.
Last week, Rutherford confirmed to reporters that the Canucks would not exercise their club option on Tocchet, and left the decision to return to him.
"After a very long and thorough process, unfortunately Rick has decided to leave the Vancouver Canucks,” said president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford. “This is very disappointing news, but we respect Rick’s decision to move to a new chapter in his hockey career. We did everything in our power to keep him, but at the end of the day, Rick felt he needed a change."
In his first full season as their head coach in 2023-24, Tocchet led the Canucks to their first division title since 2012-13 with a 50-23-9 record. He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s best coach. The team took a step back in 2024-25, finishing fifth in the Pacific Division with a 38-30-14 record and missing the playoffs for the fifth time in six years.
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