There’s a common theme for the Coach of the Year awards in all the major sports. It’s not awarded to the best coach in the league. If that was the case, Rod Brind’Amour would win the Jack Adams Award all the time (he only won it once, in a 56-game season at that).
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Instead, the award is usually given to an overachieving team. Specifically, it’s awarded to a coach who takes a team that isn’t expected to do well and leads them to the playoffs or the best record in their division.
In addition, the award is typically handed out to a coach in a new setting and not one who has been with the same team for multiple seasons. The past three winners all completed their first seasons with their teams and the sweet spot is either that second season with a team or the first full one. With this in mind, let’s sort through the candidates, starting with the names that should win it but won’t.
Mainstays Who Won’t Win it
Brind’Amour, Jon Cooper, Jared Bednar, and Mike Sullivan are the longest-tenured coaches in the NHL. Sullivan enters this season on the hot seat with the Pittsburgh Penguins possibly moving on from him if they miss the playoffs for the third season in a row. Otherwise, these four coaches are regarded as the four best in the league.
The problem is that these coaches aren’t going to surprise anybody. They are expected to do well and the teams are expected to do the same. The only way that any of these four coaches take home the award is if their teams have historically great regular seasons. Think the Boston Bruins in 2022-23 or the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2018-19 (which ironically was a Cooper-coached team yet he didn’t win the award).
With this in mind, there’s a slight chance but only by the slimmest of margins that Brind’Amour or Bednar can win it. The Carolina Hurricanes have a stacked roster and could end up winning 60 games and the Colorado Avalanche can do the same if the depth steps up. Both coaches are unlikely but it can’t be put past them.
First-Year Coaches to Watch
The first season is always one to pay attention to as a new coach can drastically turn around a team and be credited with the great season. There are eight new head coaches heading into this season and they fall into two categories. Half can win the award by taking a rebuilding team to the next level and the other group can take a good team to contention.
The rebuilding category has Dean Evason and Ryan Warsofsky as the two primary names to watch. While Evason isn’t expected to turn the Columbus Blue Jackets, a team battling a lot both on and off the ice, into a competitive team this season, Warsovsky is a coach to watch. If he takes a San Jose Sharks team that has been a bottom-feeder in recent seasons and makes them a playoff team, it will be hard to deny him the award.
Then there’s Sheldon Keefe, Scott Arniel, Dan Bylsma, and Travis Green, all of whom can take teams with a lot of upside to the top of the standings. Keefe seems like a perfect fit and is landing in a situation where the star power might get his team back to contention but that star power will be held against him at the end of the season if the New Jersey Devils do well. Arniel replaced Rick Bowness as the Winnipeg Jets head coach and he has a good chance, but a lot of the credit will be given to Bowness for laying down the foundation (unless the Jets have one of those historically great seasons). Bylsma and Green fall into similar categories as they can take teams who have missed the playoffs in recent seasons but are talented enough to contend.
These coaches will have great arguments to win the award if their teams are successful. However, they won’t have the most convincing arguments. Instead, there are a few coaches who if they lead good enough teams will end up taking home the Jack Adams.
The Names to Watch
Considering the sweet spot for this award is a head coach in their second season or their first full season with a team, there are three names to keep a close eye on.
Patrick Roy was hired halfway through last season by the New York Islanders and while he helped them make the playoffs, the real impact was the identity he instilled in the team. He made them a balanced and structured group that could win high-scoring games as well as defensive battles. He can have the Islanders playing great early and if this team doesn’t look back, he’ll easily win the award.
The Minnesota Wild also hired a head coach midseason as John Hynes took over halfway through 2023-24. He brings a defense-first style to the team and will fix a unit that struggled last season. With the skill already in place on the offensive end of the ice, Hynes fixing the defense will make him an easy pick for the Jack Adams Award if the Wild are one of the best teams in the Western Conference.
Ryan Huska doesn’t fall into the same category as Hynes or Roy as he was hired in the 2023 offseason with the Calgary Flames in the middle of the teardown. However, if the Flames start playing great this season and sneak into the playoffs in a Pacific Division that could be up for grabs outside of the Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks, he could be in consideration.
There are also a few coaches who have been around for a few years but by taking rebuilds to the next level, they will be on the shortlist of candidates. Martin St. Louis has a lot of young talent surrounding him and the Montreal Canadiens are poised to take a big step forward this season. Luke Richardson doesn’t have as promising a roster with the Chicago Blackhawks still lacking talent in a few positions, but the team goes hand in hand with Connor Bedard and they could make the playoffs to put him in the conversation. Then there’s Andre Tourigny who is coaching a team ready to take that next step and without the looming questions about the future with the franchise settled in Utah.
A lot of changes have happened behind the benches in recent seasons, and with that comes some unpredictability for the Jack Adams Award. That said, the names to monitor are the ones coaching teams who are expected to take a big leap this season and surprise the public. That’s what Roy, Hynes, Huska, St. Louis, Richardson, and Tourigny have the ability to do.
