4 things that are ‘musts’ for the Bruins with next head coach

The Bruins are entering the final stretch of their search for a new head coach.

We know some of the names, sure, but ultimately we have no idea where the Bruins are leaning with this next hire. (This is where the NHL could borrow a page from the NFL's playbook and welcome more transparency when it comes to coaching searches. It serves absolutely nobody any good to keep everything a secret the way the NHL does. It's actually one of the biggest things holding them back from a greater mainstream audience, but I digress.)

As the Bruins are quick to remind you, this is just the second coaching search that the Sweeney-Neely regime has embarked on, having previously promoted Bruce Cassidy in 2017 before conducting their lone coaching search during the 2022 offseason, which ultimately ended with Jim Montgomery hired by the club. Montgomery, as we all know, did not finish his first contract with Boston.

But as we sit and wait to see which direction the Black and Gold go with this hire, what should be a focus for the Bruins with this hire?

This one feels obvious, I know, but the Bruins have to let their next head coach make decisions on his own staff. If the Bruins want to try and sell that guy on someone like Jay Leach or Chris Kelly, sure, by all means let them make their pitch and see their visions. But essentially handcuffing your next coaching hire to people who are not his people seems like repeating the same mistake the Bruins made with Montgomery during his tenure with the organization.

Think about this: When the Bruins hired Montgomery, they had him retain every member of what was Cassidy's staff. In fact, the Bruins even let Cassidy essentially fire Kevin Dean before the Bruins fired Cassidy himself. Had Cassidy not done that, the Bruins more than likely would've hired Montgomery but with the entire support staff that Cassidy had to his right and left on the B's bench.

That doesn't make a ton of sense, especially after what was by all means the worst Bruins season in nearly three decades. i'm not saying that the Bruins need to blow it all up, but I'm also not not saying that. In 2024-25, the Bruins had the fourth-worst power play in the NHL (run by Kelly), while their defensive game was downright ugly at times under Jay Leach. The Bruins will blame their lack of success there on their injuries, but they weren't that much better even when they were healthy. So, again, if there's ever been a time to blow it up from a staffing standpoint and try something completely different (or at the very least let someone else decide if they want to keep guys or start with their own people), it's absolutely right here and right now.

Of course, I say all of this acknowledging that Joe Sacco has been with the club since 2014 and served under Claude Julien, Cassidy, and Montgomery before becoming the interim head coach himself. That does not happen if the Bruins do not value what he brings to their organization. It's also worth mentioning that the Bruins love Leach and hated losing him to Seattle in the first place all those years ago. But, again, if you're hiring a coach but not allowing him to make his own decisions, that's a bad start to the relationship.

I think we tend to heap an inordinate amount of praise on the Panthers' physicality as the biggest reason for their success. It's certainly a factor, no doubt. I know better than to try and deny that part of the equation.

But the biggest thing that's kept the Panthers hanging around as a legitimate threat for the Stanley Cup for the last three seasons has been their defense. They can play any style, and they can hang in any style. You need to lock it down and block shots? They'll do that, and they did a ton of that in 2023 and 2024. But this year, you're seeing tons of activation from their defense because this postseason calls for it. Entering Wednesday's Game 5 in Raleigh, the Panthers have four defensemen who have recorded at least five points. The Oilers are getting similar contributions from their backend, with three such defensemen, headlined by Evan Bouchard and his 17 points.

OK, now let's bring it back to Boston.

I think the best version of the recent Black and Gold defense came in 2022-23 when John Gruden had everybody making plays. It didn't matter if it was the top pairing or the third pairing, the Bruins had activations all over, and everybody was trusted to make things happen and push pace the other way. The Bruins were even able to deploy a system and structure that had Matt Grzelcyk succeeding without Charlie McAvoy to his right.

The Bruins were not that team in 2024-25. In fact, the Bruins were tied with the Sharks for the fewest points from their backend, with 130. Given the personnel the Bruins have back there, that number has to increase by a sizable margin in 2025-26, and not just because the B's expect healthy McAvoys and Lindholms.

I try to consider myself a rational, patient person. But I'm not gonna lie, this past Bruins season broke me. When it became clear that the Bruins were not going to hit their ideal ceiling this season, I was accepting it with the hope that we would see some of the team's younger players. Instead, we were served a heaping portion of Oliver Wahlstrom, Vinni Lettieri, Riley Tufte, and Patrick Brown among others over a large stretch of the season.

In fact, let's add it up.

Looking at the group of older players on this list, the Bruins gave almost 1,000 minutes of hockey to the combination of Lettieri (waived multiple times), Wahlstrom (claimed off waivers and then later waived by Boston), Brown (waived multiple times), Johnson (contract terminated), Jones (waived, later traded), Tufte (waived multiple times), and Viel (waived) in 2024-25. Every team has players and situations like this. This is not a "don't call any depth player up ever" take. It just further illustrates how this franchise has often opted for the safer floor (and lower ceiling) than giving meaningful minutes to young players in the pipeline. Sources confirmed to 98.5 The Sports Hub that some of the organization's younger players had grown frustrated with their lack of NHL opportunities in 2024-25, too, at times feeling that there was nothing they could've accomplished in the AHL to earn an extended look in Boston.

The Bruins have to snap out of that cycle. Listen, at the end of the day, the team's young players might not be good enough. But you're never going to find out if they're doing a constant shuffle from Providence to Boston and back again, or if one mistake gets them benched, scratched, and exiled. Whoever this next head coach is, he has to find a way to integrate young players on affordable entry-level deals into the NHL mix. It's by all means the only way for a team to remain competitive in this hard-cap league, and it's something that the Black and Gold have sorely lacked for what feels like ever at this point.

Another easy one, I know, but Boston's next hire has to be someone that the players respect and believe in. Messaging is more important than ever in today's league, and it begins at the top. The Bruins need a general. Or, at the very least, they need someone that makes the players go, "Oh, this guy has my back." And it can't waver depending on stuff that's out of one's control.

The Bruins are embracing their next wave of leadership with David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy as the most vocal presences, along with other players like Nikita Zadorov and even Elias Lindholm in support roles as secondary leaders. But they gotta feel like their coach is the one setting the tone and believe in the message that he's coming into town preaching.