The Boston Bruins became the last team to fill their head coaching vacancy on Thursday, hiring Marco Sturm as the 30th head coach in franchise history.
The reaction has been… lukewarm. Sports radio was largely negative, including our own Jones & Keefe giving the hire a “thumbs down,” while fans have been more indifferent. In a poll posted by WEEI Afternoons’ Andy Hart, a whopping 78% of respondents gave the move a “Meh” (while 16% love it and 6% hate it).
To an extent, the reaction is understandable. A lot of fans probably simply don’t know enough about Sturm as a coach, especially since he has never been an NHL head coach. They might remember him from his five years playing for the Bruins – he wasn’t a star by any means, but his hard work and gritty play was always appreciated – but they probably lost track of him after he was traded away in Dec. 2010.
Here’s the quick recap of his work since then: After retiring as a player in 2014, he became head coach and general manager of the German national team in 2015. He led a program turnaround that culminated in a surprise silver medal at the 2018 Olympics (which was played without NHLers). Then he spent four years as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings during a retool period that culminated in a return to the postseason in 2021-22 after three years of missing the playoffs. For the past three seasons, Sturm was head coach of the Ontario Reign, the Kings’ AHL affiliate, where he took them to the playoffs all three years and compiled an overall record of 119-80-17.
Sturm isn’t a big name in the coaching world and he’s not the sexiest hire, hence the overwhelming “Meh.” Ultimately, though, what fans and media think of him – or don’t think of him – right this moment won’t really matter. Sturm will be judged by the work he does as Bruins head coach, not by his current Q score.
But that begs the question: What even qualifies as good work for Sturm? What are reasonable expectations for him as he takes over a retooling team that finished last season with the fifth-worst record in the league? How will he actually be judged?
Every coach is ultimately judged on wins and losses. And once you win enough in the regular season, you’re then judged on postseason success. But the Bruins have a lot of work to do before they can realistically start to think about deep playoff runs again. Sturm can’t be expected to get the Bruins to the promised land until or unless the roster is dramatically improved. That is Don Sweeney’s job, and it’s one that might take several years, even if Sweeney hits on more moves than not during this retool.
Sturm is no passenger on this journey, though. There are some crucial tasks on his to-do list, some of them laid out by Sweeney himself in the team’s press release Thursday. So, let’s go through some of them:
Re-establish Bruins’ defensive identity
In his statement Thursday, Sweeney says one of his goals during this search was to find a coach “who could uphold our strong defensive foundation.” “Uphold” might be a bit strong. The Bruins’ defensive foundation was nowhere to be found last season. They gave up the seventh-most goals in the league and ranked in the bottom half in expected goals against and high-danger chances allowed. “Re-establish” would be more accurate.
Too often last season, the Bruins got pinned in their own zone for long stretches. They couldn’t kill plays, they couldn’t win battles, and they couldn’t break out cleanly. Their transition defense also broke down far too frequently, resulting in easy zone entries and quality scoring chances off the rush. Having a healthy Charlie McAvoy and Hampus Lindholm will help. A bounce-back season from Jeremy Swayman would cover up a lot of mistakes, too.
But regardless of the personnel, the play on the ice just has to be better and more cohesive. Sturm comes from an organization that, like the Bruins, has prided itself on stout defense for a long time. In his three AHL seasons, the Reign ranked 11th, sixth and 12th out of 32 teams in goals allowed – and that was without getting particularly great goaltending. As a player, he was always defensively responsible.
The Bruins brought in a bunch of new faces at last year’s trade deadline. They will be adding more through free agency and possibly trades. They will need some kids to contribute somewhere in the lineup. How quickly Sturm can get the new-look group to buy in defensively and play as a five-man unit will go a long way towards deciding just how competitive the Bruins can be this season.
‘Evolve offensively’
Sweeney mentioned “evolving offensively” in his end-of-season press conference in April. He mentioned “helping us evolve offensively” again Thursday while welcoming Sturm. It is a necessity for the Bruins, who ranked 27th in the NHL in goals last season despite having one of the best offensive players in the world on their team in David Pastrnak.
Sweeney’s own moves this offseason will go a long way towards determining just how much the Bruins evolve, but so too will Sturm’s offensive game plan. And that’s where things will get interesting, because while the Kings and Reign were good defensively during his time in the Los Angeles organization, they weren’t exactly offensive juggernauts.
The Reign ranked 27th, 10th and 13th in scoring during Sturm’s three years in charge. For years, the Kings played low-event hockey and employed a 1-3-1 neutral-zone trap under former coach Todd McLellan before shifting away from it under Jim Hiller this past season. The Reign, like most AHL affiliates, followed their NHL parent club in terms of playing style.
It’s not exactly a style that is conducive to “evolving offensively,” but we also don’t yet know if that’s even how Sturm wants to play. He wouldn’t have had much say in the organizational philosophy as an NHL assistant or AHL head coach. Presumably, he shared some more offensive-minded ideas in his meetings with Sweeney. We may get to hear some of them when Sturm is introduced in a press conference on Tuesday. At the very least, it’s a safe bet that his own playing style – fast, aggressive on the forecheck, willing to go to dirty areas – will bleed into how he wants his team to play.
Fix the power play, or find someone who will
This will be part of evolving offensively, but it deserves its own section. The Bruins’ power play was putrid last season – 29th in the NHL. It fell apart down the stretch the year before, too. It is in desperate need of fresh eyes, a fresh approach, a new start.
Whether Sturm can be that reset button is unclear. He was in charge of the Kings’ power play when he was an assistant there, but they consistently ranked near the bottom of the league. He had a good power play his first two years in Ontario (ranking seventh and then second in the AHL), but it dropped down to 24th in 2024-25.
Most head coaches put a trusted assistant in charge of their power plays. If Sturm plans to do that, he will need to find one. Chris Kelly is the only remaining assistant coach from last season who had a hand in the Bruins’ power play, but he clearly didn’t find a fix for it. It’s unclear if Kelly will remain on Sturm’s staff. Jay Leach, if he remains in Boston, is more of a defensive coach. As Sturm and Sweeney build out this staff, bringing in a power-play specialist should be a priority.
‘Develop young talent’
Again, we’re just quoting straight from Sweeney’s Thursday press release here.
“We were also looking for a communicator and leader – someone who connects with players, develops young talent, and earns the respect of the room,” he said.
“Develops young talent.” Sturm has helped do that. While he was a Kings assistant, players like Adrian Kempe, Gabriel Vilardi, Trevor Moore, Sean Walker and Matt Roy emerged as NHL regulars. In Ontario, he coached future NHL regulars like Quinton Byfield, Brandt Clarke and (briefly) Alex Laferriere.
As has been well documented, the Bruins don’t exactly have a ton of young talent for Sturm to work with. Nonetheless, it will be his job to maximize what they do have. Getting Mason Lohrei to improve his defensive play will be crucial. So will helping young centers Matt Poitras and Fraser Minten reach their ceilings, whatever that might be. If Fabian Lysell finally breaks through, Sturm will have to be the coach who helps him stick in the NHL. In a year or two, he’ll get his hands on a top-10 pick who will be expected to develop into an impact, core player.
If there’s any chance of this being a quick retool, young players making a positive impact is a must. Sturm can only work with what Sweeney gives him, but somehow, some way, they need to find a breakthrough.
Bond with Pastrnak and McAvoy
Strictly from a schedule perspective, this is probably one of Sturm’s very first orders of business. Regardless of which one ends up wearing the ‘C,’ we know that this is now David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy’s team.
Sturm needs to clearly communicate his vision with them and get them on board, because the rest of the room – at least most of it, ideally – will follow their lead. If there’s any sort of disconnect there, then this whole project is probably dead in the water before it even starts.