Bruins provide update on coaching staff following Marco Sturm hire

Changes will come on the support staff, but it will not be a full staff teardown for the Bruins and new head coach Marco Sturm.

With Sturm formally introduced as the 30th head coach in franchise history on Tuesday, and in the wake of confirmation that veteran coaching staff member Joe Sacco has left the organization after 11 years for a new post with the Rangers, the festivities did come with an update from Bruins general manager Don Sweeney on the rest of the Black and Gold's NHL coaching staff.

"Lot of conversations about the staff between Marco and myself, and he’s excited that Jay [Leach], Chris Kelly, and Bob Essensa are all returning to be part of that," Sweeney said, confirming that at least three members of last year's coaching staff will return to the club in their current roles.

Given that Essensa has served as the team's goaltending coach since 2003 and has a track record of proven success and has been a holdover for now seven different head coaches, his status on the club was never in jeopardy. Same for Leach, really, as the Bruins liked him enough to make him a finalist for the head coaching gig before ultimately landing on Sturm. And though Kelly ran a Boston power play that really struggled in 2024-25 (15.2 percent, 29th in the NHL), the Bruins are not moving on from Kelly after four seasons as an assistant under Bruce Cassidy, Jim Montgomery, Sacco, and now Sturm.

Instead, it sounds like Sweeney and the Bruins are looking to shift some of the responsibilities that their assistants last year struggled with onto a new hire.

"We are in a search for another assistant coach that can complement and fill in the gaps that we may currently have," Sweeney, who acknowledged the variety of roles and focuses that Sacco had as an assistant over his 11-year run with the club, admitted. "We’re aggressively looking for someone to help in an area that we need to complement Marco and the current staff.” 

Sturm, meanwhile, made it clear that they're casting a wide net, but with a particular focus in mind for a B's team starved for more offensive production.

"I'm looking at everything right now," Sturm said about the vacant assistant position. "Experienced, young, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it's gotta be the right fit for me and the team. We want someone who has power-play experience, right? But again, I'm looking at everything right now, and we are in that process right now.

"There's a lot of coaches out there, but I'm very confident that we're gonna find the right one who checks all those boxes we need. But it's not just one area. It's gotta be a good fit, too. I gotta be comfortable [and] the team's gotta be comfortable because we're gonna set the tone and we need to come out very strong and very prepared. The coaching staff, we're gonna be together every day, so it's a big hire for me."