It has been an offseason of some surprise when it comes to the coaching carousel around the league. Vegas opted to part ways with Peter DeBoer, their second coaching change in their five seasons of existence, making them one of the more prominent teams looking for a new bench boss. Recently, there was a surprise addition to the coaching market when Boston let Bruce Cassidy go earlier this week. As Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reports (video link), the Golden Knights have started to key in on Cassidy as their top candidate over the last few days.
Regular season success is something that Cassidy had plenty of in his days with the Bruins posting a 245-108-46 record with him behind the bench, good for a .652 points percentage. Vegas has been under that mark in two of the last three seasons. However, his track record of playoff success hasn’t been as good as Boston went 36-37 in the postseason under their former bench boss which is something that teams will certainly be considering as they work through evaluating him.
Vegas is certainly one of the more appealing teams looking for a head coach. They’re an organization that clearly has a win-now mindset and they have shown no hesitance towards spending to the Upper Limit (or higher, considering their cap management in recent years). Both of those have to be appealing to any coaching candidate although the quick trigger on coaching changes also stands out.
Cassidy has expressed a desire to jump right back into coaching and would be a good fit in Vegas so it will be interesting to see if they can get a deal done over the next few days. It would go a long way towards kickstarting the coaching shuffle as things have slowed to a crawl on that front with many feeling Barry Trotz’s decision on where to go next is holding things up. If Vegas goes a different direction and opts for Cassidy, perhaps that domino falling will get things going on that front soon after.