{"id":588231,"date":"2026-06-01T02:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/588231\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T02:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:09:12","slug":"jay-leach-a-strong-candidate-for-two-ahl-head-coaching-jobs-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/588231\/","title":{"rendered":"Jay Leach A Strong Candidate For Two AHL Head Coaching Jobs \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It wasn\u2019t that long ago that Jay Leach was receiving interviews for some NHL head coaching vacancies.\u00a0 He ultimately didn\u2019t land a job and made the decision to go for a second stint with the Bruins, this time as an NHL assistant after previously coaching AHL Providence for four seasons.<\/p>\n<p>However, after two seasons with Boston, they decided not to renew his contract.\u00a0 Inherited on this year\u2019s coaching staff, it appears that Marco Sturm wants to bring someone else in to work with the defense moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>While Leach isn\u2019t believed to be in the mix for any of the current NHL head coach openings, it looks like he\u2019ll be running a bench for the 2026-27 season.\u00a0 In the latest 32 Thoughts podcast (<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/podcasts\/32-thoughts\/the-perfect-storm-hit-montreal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">audio link<\/a>), Sportsnet\u2019s Elliotte Friedman reported that Leach is a strong contender to take over the Rangers\u2019 affiliate in Hartford.\u00a0 Meanwhile, <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thefourthperiod.com\/pagnotta\/chatter-starting-to-pick-up-as-we-sprint-to-draft\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period adds<\/a> that some believe that Leach is in the mix to take over the affiliate of the Senators in Belleville.<\/p>\n<p>Following the season, the Rangers dismissed their entire AHL coaching staff, headlined by head coach Grant Potulny, after two years in that role.\u00a0 As New York embarks on a retooling of some sort after they issued the second version of \u2018<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prohockeyrumors.com\/2026\/01\/new-york-rangers-announce-retool.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the letter<\/a>\u2019 back in January, there will be a greater emphasis being placed on player development.\u00a0 Someone like Leach, who has had some success running Providence in the past, is a logical target.<\/p>\n<p>As for Belleville, that spot isn\u2019t necessarily vacant at the moment.\u00a0 After the Sens dismissed David Bell back in December, Andrew Campbell took over the role on an interim basis for the remainder of the season.\u00a0 At this time, Campbell could be in consideration for the full-time spot but after the team slid from fifth place in the North Division at the time of Bell\u2019s firing to seventh, there\u2019s a case to make a change with Leach being a viable candidate for the spot.<\/p>\n<p>Whether it\u2019s with Hartford, Belleville, or somewhere else altogether as an NHL assistant, it appears that Leach won\u2019t be out of work for much longer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It wasn\u2019t that long ago that Jay Leach was receiving interviews for some NHL head coaching vacancies.\u00a0 He&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[401,5,1071,35,4,25],"class_list":["post-588231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ahl","tag-hockey","tag-jay-leach","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-ottawa-senators"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116672421154668416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588231"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588231\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}