NHL Odds: Who will be the first coach fired this season?
Generally, November is the month you will see the first head coach fired in the NHL. Enough games have been played to get a good idea of which teams are playoff locks, which teams are on the bubble and which teams have underperformed.
There is no shortage of candidates in the ‘underperforming’ teams category, but who will be the first coach to take the blame and be fired? Let’s look at some possible hot seats around the NHL, including a few in Canada.
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D.J. Smith, OTT (+200)
Few teams in recent history have grabbed as many negative headlines as Ottawa has through the first month of the season. With D.J. Smith’s job security already in doubt before the season started, a 4-6-0 start to the year hasn’t helped. The Senators were supposed to push for a playoff spot this year, but instead they sit last in the Eastern Conference standings and they are five points back of the final Wild Card spot.
Fans have started chanting for Ottawa to fire Smith and the team has been booed off the ice multiple times. GM Pierre Dorion has already been shown the door and with a veteran assistant coach in Jack Capuano capable of leading the team on a interim basis, it seems to be a matter of when, not if, Smith is fired.
Jay Woodcroft, EDM (+400)
It’s been an absolute disaster in Edmonton this season. The Oilers sit second-last in the NHL standings with a 2-8-1 record and they are eight points out of a Wild Card spot. They have just one win in their last seven games and you have to think Jay Woodcroft’s job hangs in the balance based on the outcome of Edmonton’s game in San Jose on Thursday.
Woodcroft is taking a lot of the blame for a new defensive system, but to be fair, it’s not like he can go out there himself to stop pucks going in the net. The Oilers are dead last in the NHL with an .861 team save percentage and Jack Campbell, their presumed starting goalie, now finds himself in the AHL. Woodcroft will enjoy some warm weather in California, but it’s a whole lot hotter for him in Edmonton right now.
David Quinn, SJ (+500)
San Jose made it no secret that they were going the full rebuild route, but no one thought it was going to be this bad and head coach David Quinn could very well end up as the sacrificial lamb. The Sharks lost their first 11 games of the season and before that first win they were torched for 10 goals each in back-to-back home games.
Quinn hasn’t been able to get anything out of San Jose and the Sharks’ minus-42 goal differential is the worst in NHL history through 12 games. For comparison, the next worst mark this year is Edmonton at minus-18. This is a historically bad team that could end up having one of the top-five worst NHL seasons of all-time. How long can you expect Quinn to hold onto his job if San Jose’s train wreck of a season doesn’t improve?
The Field (+400)
Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe is the poster boy for the field. Toronto might be the overreaction capital of the NHL, but the Leafs haven’t looked like the Stanley Cup contender they should be and a lot of the blame is falling on Keefe’s inability to integrate new additions Max Domi, Tyler Bertuzzi and John Klingberg into the lineup.
Domi is still searching for his first goal of the season, Bertuzzi has found himself sliding further and further down the lineup and Klingberg has been an absolute defensive liability. At 6-4-2, the Leafs currently still hold a playoff spot, but they are on pace for just 89 points this season, their lowest total in a full season during the Auston Matthews era.
