Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Monday that he believed Jim Montgomery, Jay Leach and Nate Leaman were all “in the mix” for the Bruins’ head coach job.
Now comes a report from Joe McDonald of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette that the Bruins are scheduled to interview five candidates: Montgomery, Leach, Joe Sacco, Spencer Carbery and David Quinn.
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Interestingly, McDonald’s report does not include Leaman. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Leaman is out of the running, but it should be noted that Leaman just signed a multi-year extension at Providence College last month. It’s possible that’s enough to keep him as a Friar for the time being.
We covered Montgomery and Leach here, so let’s focus on the other three.
Sacco has been an assistant coach with the Bruins since 2014, beginning on Claude Julien’s staff and continuing through Bruce Cassidy’s entire tenure. The 53-year-old Medford native and Boston University alum has previous NHL head coaching experience, having spent four years with the Colorado Avalanche from 2009-13.
In Colorado, Sacco took over a rebuilding team that featured a young core of Paul Stastny, Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly, and in the next couple years Gabriel Landeskog, Erik Johnson and Kevin Shattenkirk as well. They made the playoffs his first season, but missed out the next three and finished last in the Western Conference his final year.
Duchene said after Sacco’s firing that players weren’t happy playing for him, and Sacco later acknowledged that he could have been more patient with the Avs’ young players. With the Bruins’ front office publicly putting an emphasis on improved communication with younger players, they would have to be convinced that Sacco is better equipped for that now.
Quinn, 55, is another BU guy, and one who was actually in the Avalanche organization at the same time as Sacco. He was head coach of the AHL Lake Erie Monsters from 2009-12 before joining Sacco’s NHL staff as an assistant coach for one season.
Quinn returned to his alma mater in 2013 to replace Jack Parker as head coach of the Terriers. He spent five seasons there, leading BU to four NCAA tournaments, two Hockey East tournament titles, and a national championship game appearance in 2015. Quinn previously won a national title at BU as an assistant coach in 2009.
Quinn left BU to become head coach of the New York Rangers in 2018. He missed the playoffs in two of his three seasons, and lost in the qualifying round in the 2020 bubble postseason. This past season, Quinn coached the U.S. Olympic and World Championship teams.
Carbery, 40, is the youngest coach connected to the Bruins so far, and maybe the least well-known. He spent this past season as an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs. Notably, he was in charge of the Leafs’ league-best power play.
The Bruins have some familiarity with Carbery, as he spent one year as an assistant coach with the Providence Bruins in 2017-18. He left to become head coach of the AHL’s Hershey Bears, where he remained for three years. Prior to that, Carbery spent five years as head coach of the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays and one as head coach of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit.
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