How the NHL Can Fix Flawed Jack Adams Award

As mentioned, the best coach is basically chosen by looking at the current and previous season’s standings, and picking the team that improved the most. It works in theory, but if you apply this to other awards, it seems pretty silly.

For example, the Hart Trophy. It’s a neck-and-neck race between Leon Draisaitl and Connor Hellebuyck, who are arguably the two best players at their positions this season. But instead of those two, the Columbus Blue Jackets’ Kirill Marchenko takes the cake. He’s the best forward on the roster and has improved from 42 points to an impressive 73. Maybe it’s the best player on the team that improved the most, which would be Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals.

Do we see how that can be problematic? Perhaps the wording of the Jack Adams Award allows for voting to be this way, but the true “best coach” in the sport is often left out. This is the only accolade where that’s the case.

NHL’s Best Coaches Don’t Win the Jack Adams Award

On Tuesday, April 15, the NHL released its Jack Adams Award tracker. Though votes haven’t been officially cast, we can be pretty confident that what is shown below will be how things shape up:

The Capitals’ Spencer Carbery seems to be the runaway favorite. In his defense, he’s an excellent head coach. As is Scott Arniel of the Winnipeg Jets, who turned a great team into the best in the league. With all due respect, however, neither of these two are the best coaches in the NHL.

While Jim Montgomery was fired from the Boston Bruins early in the season , they went from a mediocre team to one of the worst in the league after his departure—you might say he “contributed the most to his team’s success.” The St. Louis Blues scooped the big-name bench boss hastily, letting go of Drew Bannister in the process.

Let’s compare the numbers of these two coaches in St. Louis, which is fair, given the fact that the roster hasn’t undergone major changes in a while. There’s a huge difference between Montgomery and Bannister:

Bannister’s teams were dreadful at 5-on-5 but stayed afloat, resulting in mediocrity. Montgomery, on the other hand, has arguably turned the Blues into a contender. At least, a team that could give the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Jets a run for their money. Despite his unquestionable impact and previous status as one of the best coaches in the game (holds the best single-season record in NHL history), he’s only fifth in voting via that tracker, shared earlier.

Cooper is a two-time Stanley Cup champion who has proven to be one of the best coaches of this era. Though taking over mid-season for a 2012-13 Tampa Bay Lightning team that finished third-last in the standings, he has only missed the playoffs twice in his tenure and has a .638 career points percentage. So, why is it that the most accomplished coach of the 21^st century has never won the Jack Adams Award?

How about Paul Maurice, hired in 2022-23, who is probably the brightest mind in coaching? He turned a Florida Panthers team that hadn’t won a second-round game since 1996 into the most intimidating club in the sport—back-to-back Eastern Conference championships and a Stanley Cup victory to boot. He’s never won the award.

Not even Jared Bednar has managed a case for the Jack Adams Award. He saw the Colorado Avalanche go from a 48-point regular season to a Stanley Cup win, with contender status since 2019-20. What else does he need to do?

In my opinion, I just listed off the four best coaches in the NHL there (in no particular order): Montgomery, Cooper, Maurice, and Bednar. Yet, the highest any of them is positioned in the aforementioned tracker is fifth.

How the NHL Can Fix the Jack Adams Award

The fix here can be to model the Jack Adams Award after the Hart Trophy. Instead of looking at the standings, which can be ever-so-volatile in some instances, look at results and that coach’s ability.

In some seasons, that might not change anything. For example, Carbery or Arniel may still be deserving of the award in 2024-25, but with Montgomery at the very least breathing down their necks instead of a distant fifth. Also, maybe Maurice gets it in 2023-24. Perhaps Cooper wins it a couple of times along the line. Bednar may have been deserving in 2021-22. That’s the vision.

To make everyone happy, an idea worth considering may be to hand out a “Most Improved Award” to the team that moved up the most in the standings while also achieving a playoff berth. That way, coaches who would previously be winners of the Jack Adams Award can be acknowledged.

What do you think? Is the Jack Adams Award fine as it is, or should the way it’s handed out be changed entirely?