List of Boston Bruins head coaches

The Boston Bruins, a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, has had 27 head coaches in its team history.[1] The franchise is a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The franchise was founded in 1924 and entered the NHL as the first American-based expansion team, playing its initial seasons at the still-active Boston Arena.[2][3] It is an Original Six team, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks.[1] Its home arena is the 17,565-person capacity TD Garden, where it has played since 1995, after leaving the Boston Garden.[1]

Art Ross served three terms as the Bruins head coach.[4] Ross, Lynn Patrick, and Milt Schmidt have all been inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Harry Sinden, Gerry Cheevers, Tom Johnson and Frank Patrick are Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, and spent their entire coaching careers with the Bruins. Cooney Weiland, Dit Clapper, Terry O'Reilly, Steve Kasper and Mike O'Connell also coached only for the Bruins,[5][6][7][8][9] with Mike Sullivan taking over as head coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins on December 12, 2015.[10]

Statistically, Tom Johnson was the best coach, with a winning percentage of .738.[11] He is followed by Harry Sinden, who, averaging his two terms, had a winning percentage of .689.[12] The worst coach statistically was Phil Watson, who, with a winning percentage of .268, only won 16 out of the 84 games he coached.[13] Claude Julien, the previous coach of the Bruins, took over after Dave Lewis was dismissed in 2007.[14][15]

Bruce Cassidy was named interim head coach on February 7, 2017 following the firing of Julien. Cassidy has since been named permanent head coach.

Key

# Number of coaches[A]
GC Games coached
W Wins
L Losses
T Ties
Win% Winning percentage
* Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame
† Spent entire professional head coaching career with the Bruins.
*† Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and spent entire professional head coaching career with the Bruins.

Coaches

Frank Patrick led his team into the playoffs in every season of his Bruins coaching career.
Dave Lewis coached the Bruins during the 2006–07 season.
# Name Term Regular season Playoffs Championships/awards won Reference
GC W L T Win% GC W L T
1 Art Ross* 1924–1934 430 214 161 55 .497 31 14 12 5 1 Stanley Cup Championship [4]
2 Frank Patrick *† 1934–1936 96 48 36 12 .563 6 2 4 0 [16]
— Art Ross* 1936–1939 144 89 39 16 .674 18 9 9 0 1 Stanley Cup Championship (1939) [4]
3 Cooney Weiland† 1939–1941 96 58 20 18 .698 17 10 7 0 1 Stanley Cup Championship (1941) [17]
— Art Ross* 1941–1945 198 84 90 24 .485 21 9 12 0 [4]
4 Dit Clapper† 1945–1949 230 102 88 40 .530 25 8 17 0 [18]
5 Georges Boucher 1949–1950 70 22 32 16 .429 — — — — [19]
6 Lynn Patrick* 1950–1954 310 117 130 63 .479 40 16 23 1 [20]
7 Milt Schmidt* 1954–1961 460 172 203 75 .455 34 15 19 0 [21]
8 Phil Watson 1961–1962 84 16 55 13 .268 — — — — [13]
— Milt Schmidt* 1962–1966 266 73 157 46 .361 — — — — [21]
9 Harry Sinden*† 1966–1970 296 136 105 55 .552 28 18 10 0 1 Stanley Cup Championship (1970) [12]
10 Tom Johnson*† 1970–1973 208 142 43 23 .738 22 15 7 0 1 Stanley Cup Championship (1972) [11]
11 Bep Guidolin 1973–1974 104 72 23 9 .736 21 11 10 0 [22]
12 Don Cherry 1974–1979 400 231 105 64 .658 55 31 24 0 1976 Jack Adams Award Winner [23]
13 Fred Creighton 1979–1980 73 40 20 13 .637 — — — — [24]
— Harry Sinden*† 1980 7 6 1 0 .857 10 4 6 0 [12]
14 Gerry Cheevers*† 1980–1985 376 204 126 46 .604 34 15 19 0 [25]
— Harry Sinden*† 1985 24 11 10 3 .521 5 2 3 0 [12]
15 Butch Goring 1985–1986 93 42 38 13 .522 3 0 3 0 [26]
16 Terry O'Reilly† 1986–1989 227 115 86 26 .564 37 17 19 1 [27]
17 Mike Milbury 1989–1991 160 90 49 21 .628 40 23 17 0 [28]
18 Rick Bowness 1991–1992 80 36 32 12 .525 15 8 7 0 [29]
19 Brian Sutter 1992–1995 216 120 73 23 .609 22 7 15 0 [30]
20 Steve Kasper† 1995–1997 164 66 78 20 .463 5 1 4 0 [31]
21 Pat Burns* 1997–2000 254 105 103 46 .504 18 8 10 0 1998 Jack Adams Award Winner [32]
22 Mike Keenan 2000–2001 74 33 34 7 .547 — — — — [33]
23 Robbie Ftorek 2001–2003 155 76 65 14 .577 6 2 4 0 [34]
24 Mike O'Connell† 2003 9 3 3 3 .500 5 1 4 0 [35]
25 Mike Sullivan 2003–2006 164 70 79 15 .543 7 3 4 0 [9]
26 Dave Lewis 2006–2007 82 35 41 6 .463 — — — — [36]
27 Claude Julien 2007–2017 759 419 246 94 .614 97 57 40 — 1 Stanley Cup Championship (2011), 2009 Jack Adams Award Winner [15]
28 Bruce Cassidy 2017–present 191 117 52 22 .612 42 22 20 0 [37]

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