As the coaching carousel continues to turn, the Boston Bruins have officially revealed their next head coach – a name that had been tied to them for more than a week.
Announced by the team on Thursday morning, the Bruins named Marco Sturm as their next bench boss. As I reported on Wednesday morning, Sturm, Mitch Love and Jay Leach were the last remaining finalists in the running for the vacant position. Unsurprisingly, Sturm was the man who ultimately came away with the job.
The Bruins had been thorough in their search as they look to usher in a new era behind the bench. The Joe Sacco experiment as interim head coach did not go as planned, and as the Bruins announced, he will not be returning to the Boston bench in any capacity.
While Leach may not get the head coaching gig, sources tell Daily Faceoff he may be retained in his current role as an assistant coach. Leach is said to be good for the culture and with the Bruins looking to usher in a new era, some familiarity on the defensive side of things could be a good path to take to ease the transition.
As for Sacco, I have heard his name loosely tied to the Philadelphia Flyers in regards to an assistant coach position, though they added Jaroslav Svejkovsky and Jay Varady to their bench on Thursday in their own right.
Former Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft had been tied to the Bruins, but he was ruled out as a contender when I spoke with a source Wednesday morning; he was not among the final candidates. Touching base with a source close to the Flyers, Woodcroft was also ruled out as a candidate to be on Rick Tocchet’s staff in Philadelphia.
With their head coach now named, the Bruins will likely shift their attention to some internal housekeeping with their RFAs. Among the most notable is Morgan Geekie, who is coming off of a 33-goal, 57-point season and turns 27 next month. He is a year away from UFA status and could demand a pretty penny should he hit the open market in a year’s time. With the Bruins looking to remain a competitive team and return to the playoffs next spring, re-upping Geekie will be a top priority for the club this summer.
While I can’t say for certain what a Geekie contract will look like in the long term or a bridge, the Noah Cates four year, $16 million contract does set a floor for what Geekie will command. Cates was a year away from UFA status and produced far less offensively than Geekie.The Matt Corronato seven-year, $45.5 million contract could be a rough framework of what we will see for Geekie should the Bruins look to go long term.
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