The NHL coaching carousel has three teams left looking for a new leader, which means the Seattle Kraken search that’s now lasted for over a month could finally be lurching toward the final corner.
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It appears the next domino to fall will be the Pittsburgh Penguins, and steam seems to be picking up for them to hire the one coach candidate with ties to the Puget Sound.
On Wednesday, NHL insider Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects reported that “every team-side source” he has spoken with this week “believes Mitch Love will be the next head coach of the Penguins.” If that’s the case, it may not be long before it happens. According to The Athletic, Penguins general manager/president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas has said he wants to have a new coach by this Sunday, June 1.
Love, who has been an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals the past two seasons, is a British Columbia native who played for the WHL’s Everett Silvertips and later was an assistant with the team from 2011-18. Love is also in the mix for the Boston Bruins’ head coach vacancy, and was mentioned along with Marco Sturm by Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman as candidates of interest to the Kraken who probably won’t land in Seattle.
“I just don’t know if they were the most likely candidates there because they had other options, too, and wanted to see how those situations play out,” Friedman said of Love and Sturm on Wednesday’s edition of 32 Thoughts: The Podcast.
As for the Bruins, Friedman mentioned Sturm, who coaches the AHL’s Ontario Reign, and former Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft as two serious contenders.
Who does that leave for the Kraken job, which appears to be the least desirable of the remaining open NHL coaching gigs?
Friedman said Wednesday that there has been no change in the last week, with Lane Lambert and David Quinn being the key names to watch for Seattle. That came two days after a previous edition of 32 Thoughts where Friedman said Lambert’s interview with the Kraken went well, and that he was on a final list for Seattle along with Quinn and Love.
Lambert, 60, was associate head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs for the 2024-25 season and previously was head coach of the New York Islanders.
The 58-year-old Quinn is a Penguins assistant coach and head coach of the US men’s national team. That latter job is worth taking stock of, as three Kraken players – forwards Matty Beniers and Michael Eyssimont, and goalie Joey Daccord – were part of Quinn’s US team that won the Ice Hockey World Championship last week.
Seattle Kraken trio help US win ice hockey world title