Ranking the Best Open NHL Coaching Jobs Right Now

Let's get one thing straight: Any NHL coaching job is one of the best gigs in the world. You get to live out your childhood dreams, make great money and leave your mark on the sport and its best players.

Love it or hate it, the coaching carousel exists because so many bench bosses want to keep going as long as they can.

Still, we'd be lying if we said all head coaching jobs are equally desirable. Each of the 32 NHL markets comes with pros and cons. Some are more long-term, such as geography and franchise reputation; others change year to year, such as front office and rebuilds.

Eight NHL head coaching vacancies need to be filled this offseason, so let's rank them based on all the factors.

The Canucks announced Tuesday that after "thoughtful discussions," Rick Tocchet has decided not to return as head coach for next season. 

"We did everything in our power to keep him, but at the end of the day, Rick felt he needed a change," president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $16.72 million available during the 2025-25 season.

Best Player: Quinn Hughes, but he might want out to join his brothers in New Jersey.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you solve the off-ice drama that plagued the team during the season?

Pros: Quinn Hughes, Stanley Park...and The Roxy if you're into that sort of thing.

Cons: Do you know how bad it has to be to try everything in your power to keep someone as the head coach of your NHL franchise, and he still chooses to walk away from the large amount of money you have?

Mind you, Tocchet won the Jack Adams just last season. 

This team and its seemingly endless public drama, paired with its on-ice inconsistency, was too tall a task for the 61-year-old.

With everything Tocchet knows about the team, everything he has tried and how beloved he is, it's hard to convince yourself you are walking into a good situation as the next Vancouver head coach. 

The Canucks went from one of the best regular-season teams of 2023-24 and a decent playoff run despite a brutal goaltending injury, to a chaotic 2024-25 culminating in missing the postseason. 

Management traded away its most productive player in J.T. Miller, because of locker room tension, and nothing improved. Now it's looking like another homegrown player, in Brock Boeser, could walk away during free agency. 

You get the sense it's going to get worse before it gets better, and given the recent history of the franchise, there will be a lot of hard questions every day.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $21.75 million during the 2025-25 season.

Best Player: Might be the biggest issue facing the Kraken. It should have been either Matty Beniers or Shane Wright, but we'll go with Jared McCann for this season after a 61-point campaign.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you get more out of the young players?

Pros: The roster has potential and seems coachable, plus there's a solid staff of assistant coaches in Dave Lowry, Jessica Campbell, and Bob Woods to work with (assuming they stay after the firing of Dan Bylsma).

The Kraken head coaching role seems like a solid landing spot for a fresh face to make their way onto the coaching scene or an old head content with their playoff resume.

Seattle also has a load of first-round draft picks in the next few years and some great prospects. This could be a great situation for a coach who wants to be part of a transitional process.

Cons: Seattle is a middling team with a lack of direction, and that can be dangerous for a coach with Stanley Cup dreams. Ron Francis' history with the Hurricanes and their mediocre rosters makes us wonder if things could be headed that way.

To be fair, Francis has been named team president and Jason Botterill has come in as the new GM, so maybe he will take the team in a more decisive direction. But we just don't know yet.

Then you consider that the Francis-led front office went through three coaches in three years, and that doesn't bode well for the aforementioned pro of wanting to stick it out.

There are just too many variables here to rank the Kraken vacancy any higher.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $9.672 million during the 2025-25 season, with RFAs K'Andre Miller and Will Cuyle to sign.

Best Player: Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox will get some consideration, but a new coach's success is going to be built around the 2022 Vezina Trophy winner, Igor Shesterkin.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you fix the toxic culture and bad vibes in the locker room while working with an impatient front office and tough media market?

Pros: You get to live in one of the best cities in the world, with all the convenience you could need and opportunities abound for family members moving with you.

You will also get an opportunity to raise your coaching profile on a big stage. This could be great if your last stop was a failure, or if you are new in the NHL head coaching game.

Plus, last season was a collective down year for many of the Rangers' stars. If they simply return to normal form, it'll make you look good by association. As unpredictable as this team is headed into next season, there's a decent chance they could be back in the playoffs next year.

Cons: Former HC Peter Laviolette is one of the most experienced coaches in the league, and even he was left speechless by the end of last season.

Although the front office has made plenty of moves over the past year, none of them have ushered in fresh leadership that could shift the terrible vibes. It all just seemed to get more confusing and inconsistent, so good luck mitigating that. By the end, the defense looked uncoachable.

The drama is at an all-time high in New York, so all eyes will be on the new hire as they deal with not only shifting the culture on the ice but also off it. This job is going to take a more specific coach who craves a risk and a challenge.

The new hire will also have to deal with the mysterious and erratic-seeming plan GM Chris Drury has been implementing.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $28.8 million during the 2025-26 season.

Best Player: Despite all the turmoil, David Pastrňák managed a 106-point season and remains one of the NHL's top players.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you navigate a rebuild with a front office that has lost the fan base's confidence?

Pros: If you're in the coaching pool, there's roughly a 45 percent chance you grew up here and get to live out a childhood dream as head coach.

At least the rebuild has started now, which wasn't the case in the difficult situations for the last three HCs, who all got the (arguably undeserved) axe. The job security situation would be decent as far as a market like Boston goes.

The new coach has a clean slate to make their mark on, as Brad Marchand was the last remaining Bruin from that 2011 Cup team.

If your name is Mike Sullivan, you get to coach your son-in-law.

Cons: This is the very beginning of a rebuild that the new coach probably won't get to see all the way through. This is one of the most successful sports cities in the world, but this is a franchise that hasn't done it in a decade.

We've seen the front-office duo of Cam Neely and Don Sweeney protect themselves as they've moved on from coaches, and what makes you think you're exempt from that treatment?

If your name is Mike Sullivan, you may have to coach your son-in-law.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $24.72 million during the 2025-26 season.

Best Player: Even in year one, Matvei Michkov is already showing signs of being a star. Nevertheless, the nod has to go to Travis Kocency for now after making Team Canada's Four Nations roster and a 76-point season.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you finish the rebuild and guide the Flyers back into contention? Oh, and finding a goalie would really help, too.

Pros: If you aren't allergic to fun and skill, the talented Michkov is a thrilling building block to work with.

Theoretically, the team should be trending upwards with the rebuild, even if it's been standing still for a few years. If management does what it needs to do this offseason, this could be an exciting run the next few years. Plus, being the coach to follow John Tortorella is probably fun.

Cons: Take Tortorella with a grain of salt if you wish, but his comment that he had no interest in coaching a team in this situation raises red flags. This is the fifth consecutive year the Flyers are in the draft lottery and we're seeing a similar situation play out year after year.

Is everyone on the same page here? Is management ready to stop giving up and selling at the deadline and fully buy into the team? There are some bad long-term contracts on the books. That's not the fault of the new head coach, but it will be their problem.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $23 million during the 2025-26 season.

Best Player: Sidney Crosby. He's still elite and one of the league's best players despite his age.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you navigate the end of Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang's careers while kick-starting a rebuild with a strong personality as your GM?

Pros: You get to coach Crosby, and you get to have that forever.

GM Kyle Dubas wants to stay competitive while Crosby is still on the roster, and it doesn't look like he's going to completely overhaul the team if he can avoid it.

Expectations aren't through the roof after a few rough years. Even though the new hire will have to coach a team that probably won't make the playoffs, it will be less of a shock at this point.

Cons: Sullivan's tenure in Pittsburgh is an incredibly tough act to follow, and the new HC is going to be compared to him no matter what you do.

Dubas sold at the deadline, and even though we all know he wants to keep the team competitive, it's a fine line when you're attempting a delicate retool.

It also sets confusing expectations for the new coach and the fans: How hard should you push for playoffs, and how much of a failure is missing them?

The new hire is going to get a lot of unwarranted criticism because the goaltending situation is very bad. This is just the opposite situation of when a coach wins the Jack Adams because he had the best goaltender in the league.

You can't fire your goalie, but you sure can fire your coach.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $23 million during the 2025-26 season.

Best Player: Connor Bedard. A 67-point season as a 19-year-old with the weight of the franchise on you is good considering how bad Chicago was.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you find the right combination and players around Bedard to get the team to flourish?

Pros: The young talent showed real promise at the end of the season, and there will be some enticing pieces to work with. The new coach will also have a huge budget to work with and a relatively low amount of pressure to deal with.

And hey, none of it will be the new coach's fault if it's another down season. Just let the kids play and put them in the correct positions to succeed. Pick the best wingers to play with Bedard and give them a few seconds to develop chemistry. That alone should get the city of Chicago on the new coach's side.

The job security to opportunity to take a step forward ratio here is pretty solid.

Cons: It's the new HC's job to turn the miserable vibes of the past few years around, and the star player seems disappointed in himself and the team after last year. Additionally, the current supporting cast around the budding talent is just brutal. You have to hope management makes the right decisions with all that money and go in blind.

Cap Situation: Projected to have $38 million during the 2025-26 season.

Best Player: A left field shout for this season: Jackson LaCombe. Became the team's No. 1 defenseman and was the most consistent player throughout.

Biggest Question to Answer for New Coach: Can you get the young core to make the next step together?

Pros: Excellent goaltending and a young core with a few years of experience that has improved every year. It feels like this is the year when these Ducks are going to put it all together and go for their first playoff push.

Best part? It's not a complete failure on the new coach's part just yet if they go for it and miss; just make sure they get closer.

Former head coach Greg Cronin was unpopular and took the brunt of the rebuild.

There's hype for the year ahead, but the new HC will still be out of the spotlight. They can blend in if the team is going through a rough patch.

Cons: Disney adults. Have you ever experience a line at Disneyland before?