Top 10 Coach’s During the 2019/20 Season

10: Rod Brind’Amour, Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes had their best season in a very long time last year, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals in their first playoff berth since Brind’Amour joined the Front Office. He’s had nothing but success since he was promoted from Assistant Coach to Head Coach in the 2018 offseason. With the help of three solid deadline acquisitions of Vincent Trocheck, Brady Skjei, and Sami Vatanen, Brind’Amour was on pace to lead his system-based team back to the playoffs. What separates him from other bubble-playoff teams is his ability to win without strong goaltending. Mixing between Petr Mrazek, James Reimer, and Alex Nedeljkovic, Brind’Amour’s system helped these goalies surprisingly succeed en route to the playoffs. Many people overlook the Canes in the Playoffs since they went 0-3 against the Rangers in the regular season, don’t count them out as a team that can go on another big run.

9: Jared Bednar, Colorado Avalanche

It takes more than a few stars to be a great team. Sure, anyone can be successful with a line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Gabriel Landeskog, but it takes a visionary to put it all together from the first line to the fourth line. He used goaltenders Philip Grubauer and Pavel Francouz well, used his defensive depth to his advantage and played a big part in Cale Makar becoming a Calder Trophy favorite. Nevertheless, with the amount of injuries this team had to go through and to still be fourth place in the league is extremely impressive.

8: Dave Tippett, Edmonton Oilers

Similar to Bednar, he had two of the league’s best forwards, but was finally able to put it together. McDavid and Draisaitl dominance have been brewing for years, but before this season have reached the playoffs only once together. But in just his first year as the Oilers’ head coach, Tippett managed to put together a regular season where he was on pace to get about 98 points, which would have been their second time reaching 98 points since 1990. Obviously his first line was performing phenomenally, but he really made the most of the rest of his offensive lines as well as his defensive pairs and goaltending.

7: Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning

Ranked this low due to a slow start, Cooper was able to rally the troops and have another great season. Following a 128 point season and a presidents trophy, the Lightning battled mediocrity until breaking through in late January and early February. The 11-game win streak swung the team’s momentum and ever since they’ve played great hockey, not far behind the league-leading Boston Bruins. If Jon Cooper can deliver the Stanley Cup that Lightning fans have been waiting for since first overall pick Steven Stamkos and company broke out in 2011, he can rise to as far as #1.

6: Barry Trotz, New York Islanders

The 2019 Jack Adams winner Barry Trotz couldn’t exactly copy his greatness from last season. A 17-game stretch going 15-0-2 in October and November cemented a strong season, but the team’s reputation decreased when posting a 10-13-7 record in the calendar year of 2020. It got really bad when they went 0-4-3 in their last seven leading into the season’s delay. However, the Islanders were still on pace to barely slide into the playoffs, and if Trotz can work his magic and everything clicks, the Isles are a team to look out for.

5: Mike Sullivan, Pittsburgh Penguins

Early on it seemed this season could be the end of the Penguins dynasty, winning three cups in nine years, making playoff runs in all the other six. But when healthy, this team has shown flashes of still being cup contenders. They’ve been rattled with injuries, the most devastating one was losing Sidney Crosby for over two months. But especially when he came back in mid-January, this team was not easy to beat.

4: Bruce Cassidy, Boston Bruins

It doesn’t matter how good your team is, you can’t win without a great coach. Cassidy actually achieved a lot this year, as his Bruins were on pace to reach 117 points, tying 2014 for their best seasons since the 1970s. With that, the Bruins were awarded the Presidents Trophy even with the shortened season. Cassidy got everything he possibly could have of every player on this team. His top line of Brad Marchand, David Pastrnak, and Patrice Bergeron scored about 3.5 points a game between the three of them, 42-year-old Zdeno Chara helped metro young defenseman Charlie McAvoy and Brandon Carlo, and his veteran goalie tandem of Finnish Tuukka Rask and Slovakian Jaroslav Halak won the William M. Jennings trophy for least goals allowed.

3: Craig Berube, St. Louis Blues

An Adams candidate after helping the Blues win the Stanley Cup in dramatic turn-around fashion, Berube helped the Blues stay atop the Western Conference since October. When you win the Stanley Cup and keep essentially the same roster, all you can do is copy everything and do it again. Berube has done that, and it’s worked. Until someone can find a way to stop these Blues, consider them serious contenders for a back-to-back Stanley Cup victory.

2: Alain Vigneault, Philadelphia Flyers

If I told you last year that Alain Vigneault was the second-best NHL coach, I think you’d be shocked. So let’s take a dive into his past. He started his coaching career in 1997, coaching the Canadiens for 3.5 seasons before being fired after only one series victory. He went down to the QMJHL and AHL before beginning an 11 consecutive year stint as the Head Coach of the Vancouver Canucks and New York Rangers. Nine of these years he made the playoffs, all of which coming to devastating ends. Two of these were in the Stanley Cup finals, losing the 2011 Stanley Cup with the Canucks and the 2014 Stanley Cup with the Rangers. The Rangers fired Vigneault after the 2017-18 season, the only of his five in New York where he didn’t make the playoffs. After taking a year off, the Flyers gave him another chance. After an average start, what was a questionable move by the Flyers ended with them being geniuses, as Vigneault led Philly to their best season since 2012 and a bye in the 24-team playoffs.

1: John Tortorella, Columbus Blue Jackets

When realizing their best two players, Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky were leaving in free agency, they acquired Matt Duchene and Ryan Dzingel at the deadline, going all out. They stalled in March dropping to the second wild card, but did manage to sweep the Lightning in one of the craziest upsets in hockey history. Also, it being their first playoff series win in their 19 year history, most Blue Jackets fans would call last year a success. But the Blue Jackets were expected to go back to the bottom after Panarin, Bobrovsky, Duchene, and Dzingel all found their new respective teams in July 2019. However, losing four big name free agents and only getting Gustav Nyquist out of it, Tortorella had an amazing season. Both goalies, Elvis Merzlikins and Joonas Koprisalo overperformed. Even though no player reached 50 points in 70 games, only one other playoff team has (Arizona Coyotes) a mix of veterans like Seth Jones, Nick Foligno, and Cam Atkinson with young guns like Pierre-Luc Dubois, Zach Werenski, and Emil Bemstrom. Simply put, this team even having a chance to make the playoffs in normal circumstances is almost entirely thanks to Coach Torts.

By: Ben Kule