The San Jose Sharks have seen enough of Bob Boughner.
The club fired their head coach on Thursday evening, along with assistant coaches John Madden, Dan Darrow, and John MacLean. The news was announced on Friday.
Boughner, who played in the NHL for 15 seasons, had served as the Sharks’ head coach for parts of the past three years accruing a 67-85-23 record, and failed to make the Stanley Cup playoffs in any of those seasons. Boughner had one year remaining on his contract and was set to make $1.5 million.
“It has become apparent that the organization is in the process of an evolution,” Will said. “The bottom line is we have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons, which isn’t acceptable to our owner, our organization, or to our fans,” Sharks interim general manager Joe Will said in a statement. “As part of this evolution and evaluation, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to allow the next Sharks general manager to have full autonomy related to the make-up of the on-ice coaching staff moving ahead.”
Albeit the Sharks have a couple of months to tie some loose ends, Boughner and his staff may have an onerous time finding a job. Eight NHL coaching jobs that had previously opened up have already been filled, with only the Winnipeg Jets yet to hire a new head coach. But it seems unlikely that the Jets, who finished the season on a four-game winning streak, would be willing to risk erasing the gains they made this season under the tutelage of interim head coach Dave Lowry, who took over following the resignation of longtime coach Paul Maurice in December.
According to sources, the Jets are working on an agreement to bring Rick Bowness on board to be the next head coach, which would leave Boughner on the outside looking in.
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