Joe Sacco would like to return as Bruins head coach, but unsure about future with franchise
Joe Sacco would like to be back as head coach of the Boston Bruins on a permanent basis. But the interim head coach hasn't been told what his future holds from the Boston brass.
Thursday was clean-out day for the Bruins at Warrior Ice Arena, after the team missed out on the playoffs for the first time since 2016. Players packed up their lockers and held exit interviews with the team, closing the book on a disappointing 33-39-10 campaign.
Sacco was named Boston's interim head coach after the Bruins fired Jim Montgomery in November following an 8-9-3 start to the season. The team went 7-2-0 in his first nine games in charge, but the wheels fell off around the new year when Boston lost six straight. The Bruins lost seven of eight in early February and then closed the season by losing 13 of their final 16 games, a stretch that included a 10-game losing streak.
The Bruins finished 24-30-6 with Sacco as their interim head coach, though he was done no favors by general manager Don Sweeney or president Cam Neely. With a lack of talent on the ice and injuries piling up, the Boston brass saw the writing on the wall and opted to sell at the trade deadline. The Bruins traded away captain Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle, and Brandon Carlo for some much-needed draft capital, but that left a shell of a team to close out the regular season.
Sacco expressed a desire to lose the interim tag and return as Boston's head coach on Thursday, but said he hasn't been given any clarity on his future with the team.
"That will be something that will be addressed as we move forward here. We're doing our exit meetings today, players are taking care of their physicals. That is something that will hopefully be addressed in the near future," Sacco told reporters.
The 56-year-old Sacco is a Medford native and Boston University alum, and has been with the Bruins organization in a number of roles since 2014. He'd love to stick around, but didn't sound interested in returning as an assistant coach again.
"That's a tough question to answer," Sacco responded when asked if he'd consider an assistant role. "I think we'll see what happens in the near future. We'll address that if and when that opportunity comes up."
In late March, Bruins president Cam Neely told The Boston Globe that Sacco would be "in the mix" for the team's head coach.
"We had a pretty good record and then we just stopped playing the way we should play for a stretch there and it really hurt us, but not the easiest situation for Joe to come in," said Neely. "But he's handled it very well."
Sweeney and Neely are set to hold an end-of-season press conference with reporters next week.
Potential Bruins head coach candidates
As much as Sacco would like to return, the Bruins are likely going to go in another direction at head coach. But the team could fill the void with other in-house candidates.
Jay Leach will be in the running after he was in charge of the Boston defense last season. He was previously the head coach in Providence for four seasons, where he oversaw the development of Jeremy Swayman and Jakub Lauko. He spent two seasons as an assistant in Seattle before he returned to Boston in 2024.
Leach, 45, interviewed for Boston's head coaching vacancy in 2022 before Montgomery was hired.
If the Bruins promote from Providence, as they did when Bruce Cassidy first got the job, they could go with Ryan Mougenel. The 49-year-old just wrapped up his fourth season as Providence's coach, and has great knowledge of Boston's system and players at both the NHL and AHL levels.
David Quinn is an outside option after he spent last season as Mike Sullivan's assistant in Pittsburgh. (Sullivan could become a candidate too if he's not retained by the Penguins.) Quinn has five years of NHL head-coaching experience with the New York Rangers (2018-21) and San Jose Sharks (2022-24), but had just one winning season (when he went 37-28-5 with the Rangers in 2019-20) during his time on the bench.
Quinn, 58, also interviewed for the Boston job in 2022. He's a BU alum and coached the Terriers for five seasons from 2013-18 before breaking into the NHL as a coach.
Whether the Bruins retain Sacco or bring in someone new, whoever they tab as head coach will have to be ready and willing to juggle veteran players who want to win now with helping young players progress and develop in a potential rebuild.
