Reports coming from Boston Hockey Now are that Boston Bruins’ Assistant Coach Joe Sacco is interviewing for the Shark’s head coaching position this week. Sacco has been an assistant coach with the Bruins since 2014 and recently interviewed with the Bruins to replace former head coach Bruce Cassidy. Boston elected to hire St. Louis Blues’ Assistant Coach, Jim Montgomery, for the position.
Sacco was head coach of the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-2013 and made the playoffs just one of the four seasons. After that, Sacco was an assistant with Buffalo for one season before joining Claude Julien’s staff with Boston in 2014-15. Sacco has spent eight seasons with Boston, with one of his duties being the Bruins’ power play.
The former fourth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1987 NHL Draft played college hockey at Boston University, as did Sharks’ General Manager Mike Grier. The two were not teammates, but there is a connection there. The Sharks would like to wrap up the coaching search in the next week to ten days. San Jose fired Bob Boughner after missing the playoffs for a third straight season.
Sacco played a total of 738 games in the NHL while registering 94-119-213. The Medford, Massachusetts native played with five NHL teams. The Bruins are already in need of an assistant coach after firing Kevin Dean. Dean has been hired in a similar role by the Chicago Blackhawks.
