After leading the Nashville Predators to their most single-season wins and points since 2018, head coach Andrew Brunette is one of the front-runners for the 2024 Jack Adams award, given annually to the top head coach in the NFL.
Brunette recently came in second in a vote of 15 NHL.com writers for the Jack Adams, finishing as runner-up to Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet. Brunette received 30 points and one first-place vote while Tocchet got 62 points and 10 first-place votes.
In his first season as a full-time head coach, Brunette led the Predators to a 47-30-5 record and 99 points. It was Nashville’s best regular season in terms of wins and points in five years.
The Predators also tied the franchise record for most goals scored in a season (266), and they tied for the second-best power-play percentage (21.6), second-most blocked shots (1,265) and third-most shots per game (32.2) in franchise history.
[READ: Red-Hot Preds Making Andrew Brunette’s Case For Jack Adams Award]
The Predators also had three different win streaks of six or more games and they set a franchise record with an 18-game point streak from Feb. 17 to March 26.
“He deserves a ton of credit,” Roman Josi said. “It wasn’t an easy year in the beginning and he came in with a plan, he came in with a system and a way that he wanted us to play. And there were probably nights where we didn’t execute it and his patience was amazing. He just stuck with it and kept believing in the system, kept believing in us and we felt that as a team.”
Under Brunette’s guidance, Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist had career years while Ryan O’Reilly had the second-best season of his career.
Forsberg set new career bests in goals (48), points (96) and shots on goal (347), and he shattered the franchise record for single-season goals. Nyquist set a new career high in points (75) and he was just five goals away from his career best.
More must-reads: