San Jose Sharks announce Bob Boughner as the ninth head coach in franchise history
The San Jose Sharks announced early Tuesday that Bob Boughner has been named the ninth head coach in franchise history after serving as interim head coach for 37 games during the 2019-20 NHL season.
Boughner, 49, took over as interim head coach in December 2019 after the team fired Peter DeBoer and went 14-20-3. Under Boughner, San Jose went 13-2-1 when allowing two or fewer goals, and owned the NHL’s best penalty kill percentage (85.7 per cent), with their goals-against per 60 minutes improving from 29th (3.42) to T-15th (3.03) and their odd-man scoring chances against going from 30th (4.90) to 8th (3.16).
He re-joined the Sharks coaching staff ahead of the 2019-20 season as an assistant coach after spending two seasons as the head coach of the Florida Panthers. Boughner previously served as an assistant coach with the Sharks from 2015-2017 and had stint behind the bench with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2010-11.
“I’m very excited about the opportunity to return to the San Jose Sharks organization as head coach,” Boughner said in a statement. “I want to thank Hasso Plattner and Doug Wilson for their trust in me. Last year was a difficult season for everyone but I think we learned a lot about ourselves as a group and we made some positive strides over the second half of the year. I’ve been in contact with many of our players over the break and, as a coaching staff, we are going to make it clear that our team is going compete every night, play hard and be a tight group on and off the ice.”
The Sharks also named Rocky Thompson as associate coach and John Madden as assistant coach.
“Bob did a tremendous job last season, getting our group back to playing with an identity and structure that we need in order to be successful,” said Sharks general manager Doug Wilson. “We saw a marked improvement in our play in several key areas during the second half of the season, before losing some key players to injury.
“We’re also very pleased to add Rocky and John to our staff. Both come with a wealth of experience, both in playing the game and as teachers and leaders. With a healthy and motivated group of players, we are confident that this staff will do a terrific job leading our group in the coming years.”
Igor Burdetskiy
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