Sam Navarro-Imagn Images
On Thursday night, the NHL officially hit the midpoint of the 2024-25 season.
That gives us a reasonable sample size to consider which coaches could be in contention for this year’s Jack Adams Award, as voted by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association.
We all know the trends. The broadcasters love to vote for a coach who’s relatively new to his position, and who has pulled his team well up the standings and into a playoff spot.
But, 22 of the league’s 32 teams currently have coaches who have been on the job for two years or less, so that doesn’t narrow the field very much. And based on the way this season is shaking out so far, it might not be entirely fair, either.
Here’s a look at four categories of coaches who could find themselves in Jack Adams consideration when it’s time for the ballots to be cast in mid-April.
Tier I – The Favorites
As we start down the home stretch, Spencer Carbery of the Washington Capitals is running in the pole position.
He checks the boxes that the voters love — a first-timer who’s young, at 43, in just his second year on the job, and who delivered an 11-point improvement for the Washington Capitals in his first season before launching them to the top of the Eastern Conference this year.
It looks a lot like the template that Rick Tocchet rode to victory with Vancouver in 2024.
By making the Capitals matter again, Carbery has also done the NHL a major favor, upping the importance of every goal that Alex Ovechkin scores.
A win would make Carbery the fourth Washington coach to earn Jack Adams honors after Barry Trotz (2016), Bruce Boudreau (2008) and Bryan Murray (1984).
If the Capitals were to falter in the second half, Carbery could be overtaken by the coach of the team that’s sitting right behind them in the Metro Division standings.
Just one year older and in his second NHL job, Sheldon Keefe has returned the New Jersey Devils to contender status in his first year with his new team.
The two top contenders know each other well, of course: Keefe gave Carbery his first NHL opportunity as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2021. The pair spent two years together before Carbery was tapped for the head job in Washington. Keefe’s departure came one year later.
Tier II – The Old Guard
On merit, the voters should be taking a long look at the job that Bruce Cassidy is doing in Vegas this year.
After the Golden Knights went through a bit of a second-half Stanley Cup hangover last season, Cassidy has successfully integrated high-profile new additions Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin and positioned Jack Eichel as a possible Hart Trophy contender as the Golden Knights have steamrolled their opposition with a league-best record of 28-10-3.
Cassidy was a Jack Adams darling when he won the award in Boston in 2020, having re-invented himself after a brief stint behind Washington’s bench nearly two decades earlier.
His work in Vegas has been even better and included a Cup win in his first season. But, at 59 years old and already in his third year with the Golden Knights, Cassidy’s narrative might not be fresh enough to earn the attention of the broadcasters.
If the voters were to change course and consider a coach’s body of work when casting their ballots, they’d find other worthy candidates with experience as well.
Jon Cooper and Jared Bednar have both coached just one NHL team. Each has delivered a championship — or two, in Cooper’s case — and managed to keep their squads competitive as the salary cap has siphoned their talent away.
Against all odds, the Lightning and Avalanche still look tough to beat this year. Ignore these resilient tacticians at your peril.
Tier III – The Surprise Success Stories
John Hynes is like fine wine, getting better with each successive coaching stop. He posted a .487 points percentage in his first job with New Jersey, then raised that to .577 in Nashville.
Now, he’s at an impressive .614 through 105 games in the State of Hockey. He also has the Minnesota Wild looking like contenders a year ahead of schedule, while they’re still dealing with nearly $15 million in dead cap space.
Despite serious injury issues, the Wild had won six of their last seven games before getting crushed by Colorado on Thursday.
Also surprising: the second act for the man that Hynes replaced in Minnesota. Under impossibly difficult circumstances, Dean Evason has guided the Columbus Blue Jackets to their first winning record since the 2019-20 season in his first year with the team.
Zach Werenski has put his squad on his back and earned a spot in the Norris Trophy conversation. The kids are starting to produce. And big Kirill Marchenko isn’t just piling up points — he’s turning into a two-way beast.
Tier IV – Under the Radar
Columbus isn’t the only surprise in the playoff mix at the midway mark.
In the East, Travis Green’s Ottawa Senators and Martin St. Louis’ Montreal Canadiens are hanging around, and Todd McLellan is now 5-1-0 in Detroit. If the Red Wings snap their playoff drought, coach-of-the-year consideration will be all-but guaranteed.
In the West, McLellan’s successor Jim Hiller has guided the Los Angeles Kings with a steady hand since stepping up nearly a year ago, and Ryan Huska deserves respect for keeping the Calgary Flames in the hunt after what looked like a major talent sell-off last season.
And while Craig Berube has refashioned the Toronto Maple Leafs into a defense-first outfit and Scott Arniel has built off the strong foundation that Rick Bowness built with the Winnipeg Jets, both veterans face an uphill battle for Jack Adams consideration. Because their teams were already good when they took over last summer, they’re hard-pressed to deliver enough of a pop in the standings to turn voters’ heads when flashier options grab at their attention.
For both Toronto and Winnipeg, their real success will be measured in the playoffs, after the Jack Adams votes are locked in.
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