How The 9 New NHL Coaches Are Faring So Far In The 2025-26 Season

Sidney Crosby is thriving under new Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse. On Monday, he collected his 1,700th career point in a 6-3 win over the St. Louis Blues. (Photo by Joe Sargent/NHLI via Getty Images)

NHLI via Getty Images

When a flat salary cap made it next-to-impossible for GMs to significantly upgrade their playing rosters through the first half of this decade, NHL teams became increasingly willing to pull the trigger on coaching changes. And old habits die hard. Even though teams had an extra $7.5 million in cap space to work with for 2025-26, nine squads also elected to enter the campaign with new NHL coaches.

The hires ran the gamut, from Stanley Cup and Jack Adams Award winners to journeymen to first-time NHL head men. The only real common thread is that eight of the nine teams missed the playoffs last season.

Three weeks into the new season, no clear trends have emerged. Here’s how each new coach is faring so far.

The Rookies

Though NHL teams are often accused of rehashing the same names when they make their coaching choices, one-third of this summer’s hires are fresh faces. And it’s the coach with who didn’t play in the NHL who’s having the most early success.

After Mike Sullivan left Pittsburgh to join the New York Rangers after three-straight playoff misses, many observers expected the Penguins to slump even further under his replacement, Dan Muse.

Instead, the Penguins have charged out to a 7-2-1 start and sit second in the Eastern Conference after games on Monday, Oct. 27. Rival squads may have been salivating at the prospect of pitching 38-year-old Sidney Crosby on why he should try to take a run at a Cup with their organization but instead, Crosby is tied for fifth in NHL scoring with 14 points, on the way to another stellar campaign with the only team he’s ever known.

Muse was an under-the-radar hire in Pittsburgh, a Massachusetts native who has worked at Yale University and with the U.S. National Team Development program as well as logging assistant-coaching stints with the Nashville Predators and New York Rangers. At 43, he’s also the second-youngest coach in the NHL this season behind only the San Jose Sharks’ Ryan Warsofsky, who turned 38 on Oct. 26.

The NHL’s two other first-time head men both had rich playing careers in the league.

Adam Foote won a pair of Stanley Cups as a hard-nosed defenseman with the Colorado Avalanche and was a mainstay on Canada’s Olympic teams amid his 1,154-game NHL career. He was promoted in Vancouver after Rick Tocchet elected to pursue a new opportunity with the Philadelphia Flyers. Injuries have been the No. 1 storyline in Vancouver in the early going but so far, the Canucks remain on the playoff cutline in the Western Conference with a record of 5-5-0.

In Boston, the Bruins elected to hire an alumnus in Marco Sturm, the 47-year-old who played 302 of his 938 games in the team’s uniform.

After a successful early stint coaching the national team in his native Germany, Sturm spent the last seven seasons in the Los Angeles Kings organization. He followed up four years as an assistant with the NHL club with three years as head coach of the AHL Ontario Reign.

Sturm’s tenure behind the Boston bench started well, with three straight wins. But the road has been rocky since then: the Bruins lost 7-2 in Ottawa on Monday to fall to 4-7-0 on the season, and sit last in the Eastern Conference.

The Veterans

At 67, Joel Quenneville is back in the NHL after nearly four full seasons on the sidelines as a result of his association with the sexual misconduct scandal that happened while he was head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks in the early 2010s.

Quenneville also took the Blackhawks to three Stanley Cups during that era, and won another as an assistant with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, early in his coaching career.

Now, Quenneville has been tasked with taking an Anaheim Ducks team that’s chockablock with young talent to the next level after seven years outside the playoffs.

The early returns have been decent. The Ducks are 4-3-1 through their first eight games and averaging 3.63 goals per game. They’re getting solid offensive contributions from both their young players and veterans like newcomer Mikael Granlund, who’s averaging a point per game.

A two-time Cup winner as an assistant coach in Pittsburgh who also won as a player with the Penguins in the ’90s, Rick Tocchet is also 4-3-1 with the Philadelphia Flyers so far.

True to his reputation, Tocchet has the Flyers grinding out wins with solid defensive play — their 2.09 expected goals against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 is the stingiest in the league, per Natural Stat Trick. Offensively, the team has seen a resurgence from captain Sean Couturier and former Duck Trevor Zegras under the new regime. Both are currently delivering a point per game to lead the team.

As for Tocchet’s former boss in Pittsburgh, Mike Sullivan — his road to guiding the New York Rangers back to the playoff picture has been bumpy so far. The Rangers also boast strong defensive numbers with 2.10 expected goals against per 60, but have struggled to score. They were shut out in their first three home games at Madison Square Garden and are currently mired in a three-game losing streak as they make their way through Western Canada.

At 3-5-2, the Rangers’ eight points tie them with three other teams at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. It’s a humbling debut for one of the most respected coaches in the game, who will guide Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The Journeymen

The other three new coaches all have prior experience as NHL head men, but their resumes aren’t as decorated.

The most impressive effort so far might belong to Lane Lambert, as the former New York Islanders bench boss has the Seattle Kraken among the leaders in the Pacific Division with a 5-2-2 start. Now in their fifth season, the Kraken have been mostly forgettable save for a nice playoff run in Year 2. Under Lambert, they’re producing good team hockey while being led offensively by two of their expansion-draft veterans, Jordan Eberle and Jaden Schwartz.

Lambert spent last season as an associate coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, while new Chicago Blackhawks boss Jeff Blashill spent the last three seasons as an assistant on Jon Cooper’s bench with the Tampa Bay Lightning after leaving the Detroit Red Wings. After being mired near the basement of the Western Conference for the last five years, the Blackhawks are showing signs of life with an early record of 4-3-2 to sit above .500. GM Kyle Davidson looks like he may have saved himself some money after signing Frank Nazar to a big contract extension off a tiny body of work. The 21-year-old has exploded out of the box, with nine points in nine games.

Finally, there’s Glen Gulutzan, the former head man with the Dallas Stars and Calgary Flames who’s now back in the Lone Star State, where his NHL coaching career began.

Gulutzan may have the most talented roster of the new coaches, but he also faces the highest expectations. His Stars are perennial playoff contenders who made a late decision to part ways with Pete DeBoer after losing the 2025 the Western Conference Final.

The Stars have been streaky so far, winning three before losing four and now with two wins over the weekend to get back to 5-3-1. They’ve also been dealing with injuries, but will need to find some consistency for Gulutzan to deliver what their fans have come to expect as one of nine new NHL coaches.