The San Jose Sharks are in an interesting position at this point in the NHL cycle. The league's entry draft is less than a week away, yet the Sharks are without a general manager still to lead them through the process.
And now, the team is without a head coach. The Sharks announced the shocking departures of head coach Bob Boughner and his entire coaching staff on Friday.
While the 51-year-old's tenure in California was not the most successful, this is still an unfair move. It is very late in the hiring cycle for coaches, and most positions have been filled. Boughner's chances of finding a new job in time for next season are extremely low.
However, what's done is done. And the Sharks have six days to find both a coach and a general manager if they want both vacancies filled before the draft on July 7.
The team could wait until the advent of free agency if they truly wanted, but that'd only buy them an extra six days. Free agency begins on July 13.
This team is in an interesting position, but they're in luck as there are still some promising candidates on the market for them.
Here are the three best candidates to fill the vacancy behind the bench for San Jose.
3 best candidates to be next San Jose Sharks head coach
1) Andrew Brunette
Brunette is coming off of a highly successful first season as a head coach in the NHL. Albeit, that experience came in an interim capacity.
The former NHL forward manned the bench for the Florida Panthers as they raced to their best regular season in franchise history. However, the team was swept by intrastate rivals Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the playoffs.
Brunette's future with the Panthers was questioned when the team hired Paul Maurice as the permanent head coach.
It may throw up a few alarm bells that the Panthers decided against retaining Brunette, but that doesn't mean the 48-year-old would be a bad hire. Far from it, in fact.
The former NHL forward is a magnificent coach who was over-matched by an overpowered Lightning squad in the postseason. Brunette can learn from that experience and grow as a coach.
Furthermore, his experience as a player allows him to relate to his players in a way most other coaches can't. It's an invaluable insight to have when the grind of the season really sets in.
The 48-year-old was a candidate for other openings around the league. The Sharks are lucky Brunette is still available at this stage of the hiring cycle, and they should jump at the opportunity to bring him in.
2) Marco Sturm
How about a bit of a storybook candidate for the next entry on this list? Sturm is an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings, but he knows the Sharks organization very well.
The Sharks drafted the 43-year-old German 21st overall in the 1996 NHL Draft. He played eight and a half seasons in a Sharks sweater before being traded to the Boston Bruins as part of the Joe Thornton trade.
He played four and a half seasons in Boston before spending time with the Kings, Washington Capitals, Vancouver Canucks, and Florida Panthers.
Sturm took up the job as head coach and general manager of the German national team following his playing career. And he took the German program to new heights. Most recently, the Germans won silver at the 2018 Olympic Games under Sturm's auspices.
Following the 2018 Olympics, the Kings hired Sturm as an assistant coach. Los Angeles had been struggling at the time but appeared in the postseason in 2021-22.
Like Brunette, Sturm knows the grind an NHL season takes on a player. However, he has the added insight of knowing what it means to represent the Sharks organization.
That one-two combo may be too good for the Sharks to pass up. And what a story it'd be. A former first-round pick coming back to lead the team into the next generation of Sharks hockey.
Of course, the quality of any potential media narrative is not a reason to hire someone. So, it's a good thing that Sturm is a brilliant coach. And he should receive consideration based on those merits.
3) Benoit Groulx
Groulx is someone who could have been a coach last season. He interviewed with the Arizona Coyotes. However, that team went in a different direction.
Groulx is the head coach of the Syracuse Crunch, the AHL affiliate of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Before that, he had a highly successful run as head coach and GM of the Gatineau Olympiques.
The 54-year-old Quebec native won three QMJHL titles with Gatineau in his 12 years in charge. The team never missed the QMJHL playoffs under his watch.
Groulx is credited with helping develop many NHL talents, including Anthony Cirelli, Yanni Gourde, and Carter Verhaeghe.
While not having NHL coaching experience, the 54-year-old knows how to win. And he knows how to get the absolute best out of his players.
The Sharks roster is far from the most talented or most skilled in the world. A coach like Groulx can work with that. He can get more out of his players than would be expected on paper, and he can help the younger players on the roster come into their own in the league.
It may be in San Jose's best interest at this point to give Groulx his first crack at a head coaching position in the NHL.
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