In the NHL, the best route to a new head-coaching job is often having already had a head-coaching job.
That was the case for the three latest hires around the league. Sheldon Keefe, Dan Bylsma and Scott Arniel were all introduced by their new teams this week.
Though he had a contract extension covering the next two seasons in hand when he was let go by the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 9, Keefe needed just 14 days to secure new employment, with the New Jersey Devils.
According to , the new deal for the 43-year-old is for four years. Compensation has not been disclosed.
After Keefe spent five seasons in arguably the most intense media market in the NHL, it would have been understandable if he’d elected to take some time away from the game to decompress. But New Jersey general manager Tom Fitzgerald reached out immediately. Subsequent conversation, along with expressions of support from Devils owner David Blitzer, quickly re-ignited Keefe’s passion.
“That was incredibly exciting, to know that you would have that support and resources necessary,” at his introductory media conference on Tuesday. “Then, also just how aligned Tom and I were. With each conversation, with each day, it became more and more exciting and more real that I was wanting to jump back into it and take on this responsibility that I will not take lightly for a second but also the privilege to coach the New Jersey Devils and work with the incredible talent we have here.”
Seen as a team on the rise with an impressive core of young talent including first-overall picks Jack Hughes and captain Nico Hischier, the Devils made noise in 2022-23, especially when they knocked their rivals, the New York Rangers, out of the first round of the playoffs. But they slipped by 31 points in the 2023-24 playoffs, finishing 23rd overall, and desperately need more stability in goal if they hope to return to contender status in the Metropolitan Division.
Also on Tuesday, the Seattle Kraken introduced the second head coach in their team’s brief history.
Dan Bylsma, 53, won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in his first NHL head-coaching job in 2009, after with 25 games remaining in the regular season.
He got the Penguins back to the Eastern Conference Final in 2013, but was let go at the end of the 2013-14 season, following a second-round loss to the Rangers.
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After a year away, he returned as the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, but couldn’t get them close to a playoff spot and was fired after two seasons.
Bylsma took another year off in 2017-18, then spent three years as an assistant to Jeff Blashill with the Detroit Red Wings. In the fall of 2021, he moved on to an assistant’s job with the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers and in 2022, he was hired as head coach of the Kraken’s brand new AHL affiliate, the Coachella Valley Firebirds.
There, he excelled, getting the expansion franchise to overtime of Game 7 of the 2023 Calder Cup Final in its inaugural season. As an encore, the Firebirds cruised to the best record in the Western Conference in the 2023-24 regular season, and are currently about to meet the Milwaukee Admirals in a rematch of the Western Conference Final, which begins on Wednesday.
“Watching him work with Coachella Valley the last couple of years, seeing the relationships he had with his players, the effort he had with his players, the effort he got each and every night, the way his teams played … it became clear he was the guy we wanted to lead us at this point,” said at Bylsma’s introductory press conference on Tuesday.
Bylsma believes that his time at the minor-league level has prepared him well for what lies ahead.
“I think I needed to discover the joy of coaching again and changing a little bit in establishing relationships with the players,” he said. “Having done that over the past three years, it’s led me to this wanting to be the opportunity that I took next.”
After their first coach, Dave Hakstol, led the Kraken to the second round of the playoffs and was named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year in the club’s second season, the Kraken also took a step backwards. In 2023-24, they slipped by 19 points to finish 25th overall and miss the playoffs.
The terms of Bylsma’s contract are not know. After Tuesday’s media conference, he was immediately headed back to Coachella Valley to guide the rest of his AHL team’s playoff journey.
Finally, the Winnipeg Jets also chose to promote from within when they elevated associate coach Scott Arniel into their head job, follow the retirement of Rick Bowness.
“He’s sitting here today because he’s earned this opportunity,” said Jets’ GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. “The reality is, you’re going to build upon something that the foundation has been laid.”
Now 61, Arniel has been with the Jets for the past two seasonswinnipeg jets playoff schedule 2024. He was pressed into head-coaching duties at times during the 2023-24 campaign, when Bowness was away from the team for personal reasons.
Under Bowness and Arniel, the last two seasons have been a high points since the Jets franchise relocated from Atlanta in 2011. The coaches were able to take the team from 95 points in 2022-23 up to 110 points and a league-low 199 goals against in 2023-24, for a fourth-place finish in the NHL standings.
A pair of first-round playoff losses have made for disappointing endings to both years.
As a player, Arniel was drafted in the second round by the original Jets back in 1981. He spent the first five years of his pro career in Winnipeg, returned for the 1990-91 campaign, and finished his playing days with three years with the Manitoba Moose, then in the International Hockey League.
After his retirement, Arniel immediately transitioned into an assistant coach’s role with the Moose, then worked his way up. In 2010, he was named head coach of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets. But after posting a record of 45-60-18 for a .439 points percentage over 123 games, he was fired midway through his second season in Columbus.
With that, just one NHL coaching opening currently remains. Names in the rumor mill for the San Jose Sharks’ top job include former Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill, current Sharks assistant and AHL Calder Cup winner Ryan Warsofsky and former Sharks center Marco Sturm, most recently the coach of the AHL’s Ontario Reign. Sturm also has experience as an assistant with the Los Angeles Kings and as coach of the German national team.
After a dismal 2023-24 season that saw them finish last in the league, the Sharks’ fortunes could rise quickly thanks to an influx of young talent. Will Smith, the fourth-overall pick from 2023, officially signed with the Sharks on Tuesday after leading the NCAA in goals and points as a freshman at Boston College in 2023-24. And after San Jose’s draft-lottery win, Smith’s Boston University rival, Hobey Baker Award winner Macklin Celebrini, is widely expected to be the at the 2024 draft in Las Vegas on June 28.
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