The Boston Bruins officially introduced Marco Sturm as the franchise’s 30th head coach Tuesday at their offices high above TD Garden, with Sturm and general manager Don Sweeney both taking questions from media.
Here are some key takeaways from the press conference, which lasted nearly 50 minutes:
This was Sturm’s ideal landing spot
Sturm, like anyone seeking his first NHL head coaching job, would have been happy with just about any opportunity. But Sturm made it clear that it’s extra special for him to get his shot in Boston, where he spent five years as a player from 2005-10.
While Sturm has not lived or worked in Boston since getting traded away 15 years ago, he always had it in his head that he might end up back here. So did his family. His son, Mason, is a hockey player at Bowdoin College in Maine. His daughter, Kaydie, will be a freshman at UMass Boston this fall. They wanted dad in the region, too, after seven years in California with the Los Angeles Kings organization.
“They've been bugging me for a while to get a place in Boston,” Sturm said of his family. “They always wanted that. My kids grew up here. They always wanted to come back. And here I am. Now they get their wish.”
Sturm nearly landed his first NHL head coaching job last year, when he was runner-up to Ryan Warsofsky for the San Jose Sharks gig. He interviewed with at least two other teams this year, but knew as he went through the process that his heart was set on Boston if Sweeney picked him.
“When I saw Don Sweeney's name on my text, it was pretty special,” Sturm said. “It got me really, really excited. Of course, I want to be an NHL coach, but this means more. Why? I think there's a few reasons. I think the identity, and Don was talking about the culture we built here 20 years ago, it's still here – the style and all that, the winning mindset we had. I think that's something that just gets me really excited, and that's what I believe in. I also think working especially with Don and Cam [Neely] on a regular basis, because I know they're gonna push me hard, we want to lead by example every day. So, for that, I'm really looking forward to push the team to the next level as well.”
Most of the coaching staff is staying in place
Sweeney confirmed that assistant coaches Jay Leach, Chris Kelly and Bob Essensa will all remain in Boston on Sturm’s staff. Joe Sacco, who took over as interim head coach after Jim Montgomery’s firing in November, already departed for the New York Rangers to join Mike Sullivan’s staff there.
Essensa has been the Bruins’ goalie coach since 2003. Despite Jeremy Swayman having a down season, Essensa was always the safest bet to remain in place and work with a seventh head coach. Leach was a finalist for the head coaching job during this search, so the front office is certainly happy he agreed to remain with the team despite not landing the head job.
Kelly was the one real question mark going into Tuesday, but he’ll be sticking around as well. The former Bruins forward is highly thought of within the organization, but his role may be shifting a little bit. At the very least, it seems like he probably won’t be as involved with the power play. Speaking of which…
Expect a power-play specialist to be added
All that leaves the Bruins with one opening left on the coaching staff, and Sturm and Sweeney both said they plan to fill that opening well before training camp. Sturm added that he wants that incoming assistant coach to be “somebody who has some power-play experience.”
That would be welcome news for Bruins fans. Boston’s 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.
Sturm himself has some experience running a power play, but with mixed results. When he ran the Kings’ as an NHL assistant, it consistently ranked near the bottom of the league. With AHL Ontario, he had a good power play his first two years (ranking seventh and then second in the AHL), but it dropped down to 24th this past season.
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. Sturm’s comments Tuesday suggest that he and Sweeney are looking for a power-play specialist – an increasingly common position on NHL staffs – to come in and take the reins.
Some on social media immediately connected some dots to Sturm’s former Bruins teammate, Marc Savard, who has run power plays for the St. Louis Blues, Calgary Flames and, most recently, Toronto Maple Leafs. Makes sense, except Savard is still employed by the Leafs, and this would be a lateral move for him. So, unless something changes in Toronto, we wouldn’t bet on that.
The Bruins really want to ‘evolve offensively’
“Evolve offensively” might as well be the motto for the 2025-26 Bruins. Sweeney used that term in his end-of-season press conference when discussing his then-upcoming coaching search. He used it again in his statement on Sturm’s hiring. And by our count, he said it three more times during Tuesday’s press conference. In case it isn’t already clear, Sweeney really wants the Bruins to “evolve offensively.”
But what does that actually mean? I figured I might as well ask Sturm himself what his offense will look like if and when he gets the Bruins playing the way he wants.
“I mean, there's different ways to approach things,” Sturm said. “I think when I talk about, we want to score more goals, scoring more goals is not just in the offensive zone. Yes, that's where the puck’s going to end up. But for me, it all starts, how are we going to get there? So, that's a big part too. Not just focusing on one area. I think there's different areas in the game where we can definitely get better. It's coming out with the puck. We want to have the puck more. We gotta have better entries, for example, not turn pucks over. I think that part was a big issue.
“And the offensive zone, yeah, I mean, we gotta put that structure in place. But we also gotta be more hungry, and we gotta have a better mindset. So, there's not just one thing. Overall, there's a bunch of other things I think we just have to get better at. And again, I want them to have that offensive mindset and then the mentality when we have the puck, we want to play with pace, with and without the puck. And I think not just think the game, we just want to play the game fast. It's not going to happen overnight, but that's something I will address right away.”
There’s a little bit of coach-speak there, and not a whole lot of X’s and O’s, but there are also a couple key phrases just to keep in mind as we watch Sturm’s Bruins take shape: “Coming out with the puck” – i.e. exiting the defensive zone cleanly. “Better entries” and “not turn pucks over” – this would be a big one, because it was definitely a huge problem last season. “Play with pace” – the Bruins have been trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to play faster for a couple years now.
How Sturm will manage players
Another key part of Sweeney’s statement on hiring Sturm was this: “We were also looking for a communicator and leader – someone who connects with players, develops young talent, and earns the respect of the room.”
Our own Bridgette Proulx asked Sturm just what his communication with players might look like.
“I'm very clear,” Sturm said. “I would say the meetings I have, the messages I'm going to deliver – could be system-wise, could be anything – I think it's very, very clear. There will be no gray area. We’re all going to work together, and one thing is, I want to push those guys forward. I hate losing, and I'm very competitive on and off the ice, and that's something a lot of people don't know about Marco Sturm. So again, it's not about me. I know today will be, that's fine, maybe tomorrow too, but to be honest, I can't wait to just go in the locker room and just work with my guys. I know that's what I love to do, that's what I want to do.”
Sturm said he will have some patience for young players making mistakes, but that he’s also going to make sure the mistake is addressed.
“Of course. We're all going to make mistakes. Old, young, it doesn't matter,” Sturm said. “As long as you're going to support him, but also you’ve got to be... again, you’ve got to be very honest and direct with him. You’ve got to work with him. And they also have to learn from it. I feel like they're going to learn from our core group, from the older guys. And that's why the whole thing, it's so important. It's not just me, it's the team, right? And they gotta see it every day in practice. For example, they gotta see how guys practice every day so the young guys can follow. There shouldn't be any excuses.
“…And that's why I just address things very directly. Because of Claude Julien, Darryl Sutter, those are guys I learned from. And by being honest, I think you come a long way. But those young guys, and Don said it, they gotta earn it too. I'm going to do everything in my power to get them better, but they also... it’s got to come from them to jump on that wagon and show me that they're willing to do all those things we want them to do.”
Sweeney talked to 14 candidates
Sweeney said he talked to 14 head coaching candidates in some form or fashion, starting with some initial phone calls before progressing to Zoom interviews and then in-person interviews with the finalists.
In addition to Sturm, we know that Leach, Sacco, Mitch Love and Jay Woodcroft made it to the final week. The Bruins are believed to have talked to Rick Tocchet at some point, but didn’t pursue him as aggressively as the Philadelphia Flyers, who ultimately hired him. New Chicago Blackhawks coach Jeff Blashill is another the Bruins interviewed.
Sweeney heard some ‘uncomfortable’ feedback
Sweeney said that part of those interviews was hearing candidates break down the Bruins’ play last season and their current roster, a process that was sometimes “uncomfortable” for the GM.
“The process, in that sense, it can be uncomfortable in terms of the critical eye that other people are watching your team and breaking down your team and the changes they want to make,” Sweeney said. You have to be open to all of it. You have to understand that the position we're in, we didn't execute both at the management level and the coaching level and the player level, so we have to be open to that and the tweaks that coaches want to make. It wasn't about coming in to say, well, they're selling me on how they're going to coach. But if they oversell in terms of how the team was previously constructed, or any of those things, then it doesn't really have its value.
“And thankfully, coaches came in and gave their honest opinion of how they wanted to see things. The things you had done well, the things you hadn't done well, the outside perspective that teams have had of the Bruins organization over the years, the changes that have gone well and haven't gone well during those years, and success or not having success. So those are eye opening at times, and it's constructive. You have to take it to heart and make adjustments. We're not currently playing right now, so you have to accept the failures that we have. And coaches were honest in pointing that out.
“Marco went through some of the things that he felt that we had done well, but things that we had gotten away from, and where the league is at and where the league is headed to. It's all important parts of it, and the player development part of it was certainly a big part of those conversations, and how do you integrate the players and when they're going to be ready, and having connectivity with your minor league program, and how that relates to the development they're doing there. There were some very constructive things that took place during the process that I'm grateful for.”
Sweeney didn’t rule out trading the No. 7 pick
Sweeney was asked about how involved, if at all, Sturm will be in the draft process. He noted that coaches generally aren’t too involved in the draft – that’s true across the NHL – but what he said after was a little more interesting, because he left the door open to the possibility of trading the seventh overall pick in this year’s draft, set to be held later this month.
“It's always going to be about what's best for the organization,” Sweeney said. “We're in a unique position this year drafting in the top 10 that we haven't been there for a significant amount of time. We're excited about that. We have two second-round picks. You have two firsts the following year, two firsts. We've been an aggressive organization, whether or not you want to point out fault in regard to trying to win and accomplish the ultimate goal. That's what we're here for. So, we will use the draft capital and try to improve our hockey club this year and moving forward in every capacity possible. It might be making the selection, but it won't mean that we aren't having conversations that says, ‘How do we improve our hockey club today and moving forward?’”
It’s an interesting debate. On the one hand, the Bruins desperately need to improve their thin prospect pool, and whichever player they draft at seven will immediately become the organization’s top-ranked prospect. On the other hand, that player might be several years away from being an impact NHLer, and the Bruins do have to be mindful of not wasting the prime years of David Pastrnak, who just turned 29.
If the No. 7 pick could help land them a 20-something impact roster player, you can see how that might be tempting. This could all depend on how the board falls. Are the Bruins in love with a player who’s available at seven or not? Is there another team who’s in love with a player and wants to strike a deal? This is generally considered a weaker draft, but there is also a pretty wide range of opinions on a lot of the top-10 players, so we could easily see a situation where one team likes the board a lot more than another.