The Edmonton Oilers would like to interview Bruce Cassidy for their vacant head coaching job, but as of today Vegas hasn’t given them permission. GM Kelly McCrimmon read a statement yesterday that said, “Teams have asked for permission to speak with Bruce Cassidy and we have been consistent that our focus currently is on the Stanley Cup playoffs and teams have respected that. I have spoken with Bruce and he understands this as well.”

That would lead one to believe that once Vegas’ season is over they will grant permission to teams interview Cassidy. That could happen by the end of the month, if Vegas loses to Colorado, but if they defeat the Avalanche then it won’t happen until the Stanley Cup is awarded. It is within Vegas’ right to grant permission when they feel it is appropriate. It doesn’t look good, but they aren’t doing anything illegal, and if a team really wants to hire Cassidy, then they will have to wait until Vegas grants permission. But there is no guarantee they will do that when their season is over, and so Edmonton, Los Angeles, and Toronto will have to decide if it is worth waiting to interview Cassidy, or fill their vacancy sooner.

There is no major rush to hire a head coach. Ideally, you’d like him in place before the draft. Not because he will have input on who they draft, but we do see some trades at the draft, and a GM would like some input from his head coach on how he views a player they might trade for. The draft is Friday, June 26th, so the Oilers, Maple Leafs and Kings have time. I haven’t included Vancouver, because they are in a rebuild, and I don’t see Cassidy being a fit.

Cassidy got his first head coaching job in the NHL in 2002/2003 with Washington. He’d been a head coach for three years in the ECHL, one season in the now-defunct IHL and two in the AHL when the Capitals hired him. He was 37 years old when he joined the Capitals. They lost in round one in his first year, and he was fired 25 games into his second season. The Capitals were struggling, but Cassidy’s post-game rant on December 6th was the final straw. He mentioned players’ personal lives and their family situations in his on-ice complaints, which was a glaring error, and it cost him his job.

He didn’t get another head coaching job in the NHL until 2016/2017 with Boston. He had been hired as an assistant coach in the summer after three seasons as an assistant coach and the final five as the head coach of the Bruins’ AHL affiliate Providence Bruins. Cassidy was promoted to head coach after Claude Julien was fired after 55 games. Cassidy took over for the final 27 games, going 18-8-1, but the Bruins lost in the first round. Cassidy coached five more seasons with the Bruins, making the playoffs each year including a trip to the Cup Finals in 2019. He coached 399 regular season games with the Bruins going 245-108-46, but was fired  on June 6th, 2022.

He was hired eight days later by Vegas. Vegas had fired Peter Deboer on May 14th and pounced quickly on Cassidy. Cassidy won a Stanley Cup his first season with Vegas, then they lost in round one in 2024 and round two last year to the Oilers. He was fired with eight games remaining this season.

In his nine full NHL seasons, Cassidy has never had a losing record. His teams have made the playoffs each season. His second year in Washington was a trainwreck, but Cassidy learned from it and paid his dues coaching in the OHL and AHL, before getting back to the NHL.

I caught up with Vegas forward Brett Howden to get his thoughts on Cassidy as a head coach.

Gregor: What were his best coaching traits?

Howden: He is probably the most intelligent coach I’ve had. He is really, really smart and knows the game so well. He was really good on the fly with adjusting our game to who we are playing. When we needed to switch something up because another team is playing good against us, maybe a certain way against our system he was good at changing up right away. He just knows the game really well.

Gregor: Some say he can be hard on guys. Is he pretty demanding?

Howden: He is hard on players when he needs to be. If we are going through a rough patch and he needs more from his players and more from his top end players, he is not afraid to kick them in the butt and try to get things going that way. That is how I found him. I found when it was needed, he knew he had to do it.

Gregor: How was his personality as a coach?

Howden: In practice if he felt we were slacking a bit too much he’d tighten the reigns, but if we were working hard and still having fun doing it, then he wasn’t afraid to have fun that way. He got a good feel of our room when he came over from Boston realizing that we work hard, but we like to have fun doing it and I think he embraced that. He can go both ways. He can have fun, but when it is time to get serious he will tighten it up.

Gregor: How did he make sure every player on the team felt involved?

Howden: The year we won, I do remember one speech he gave us. We were up 3-0 on Dallas in the Conference Finals, but then we lost the next two and we were going back to Dallas up 3-2 and the night before Game 6 we had a meeting. I remember when we left that meeting, we were all ready to go, and it was only the night before. He got everyone’s attention. It is so vivid in my mind. He had a very passionate and direct speech about how we had been slacking the past two games and enough was enough. He asked us each individually what we wanted our legacy to be. It was a much-needed meeting for us. He connected with every player. We went out and won 6-0.

Like I said before, when he knew it was time to push the buttons of the top guys, he would do it, and he would with all the guys when needed, but your best players play the most and when a coach holds them accountable it makes the entire team accountable. Most players in the league know when they don’t have it, but sometimes as a coach you need to reiterate that to each player.

SNAPSHOTS…

I liked Howden’s last line about how players know when they have it or when they don’t. The majority of on-ice success is on the players, but a coach needs to know the right time to give an encouraging pat on the back or challenge is players or give a passionate speech. Cassidy had success with that, but it is interesting to see that the late-season coaching change by Vegas helped them. Does it make Cassidy a bad coach? Not in my books, but since John Tortorella took over Vegas is rolling. They went 7-0-1 down the stretch and are now in the Conference Final against Colorado.

I asked Howden: Why did the coaching change help them?

“That is a good question,” said Howden. “I think it was just new energy, and we got traction. We started playing better the first few games, and then we got on a roll, and that’s when everything just started building momentum. There wasn’t one specific thing I can point to.”

I’ve long believed a coach is only as good as his players are. Vegas had a good team that wasn’t playing to its potential. They made a coaching change, and it worked, but I’d argue most of the success has come from the players playing better, more than Tortorella coming in with a new system. But one change he has made is to play Howden with Mitch Marner on the penalty kill.

Howden is currently second in the NHL with eight playoff goals, and he leads the league with three shorthanded goals, which ties an NHL record. Does the goal look like a soccer net for Howden right now?

“I don’t know about that (laughs), but it is crazy,” said Howden. “Stoney (Mark Stone) told me that stat today. I just thought it was funny. When I’m on the PK in the regular season, I rarely get chances, but me and Mitch (Marner) have started killing a little bit together, and whenever he gets the puck, everybody backs off and it creates space, whereas when I get the puck, everyone is coming at me (laughs). It is funny. Things have been going pretty well, and it is nice getting Karlsson back to. Hopefully, we can keep things rolling.”

Howden was pretty humble about his scoring prowess, but he gave a good assessment of Cassidy’s coaching capabilities, and after listening to him, I could see why some teams might wait until Vegas’ season is over with the hope they can interview Cassidy.