The Vegas Golden Knights have hired Bruce Cassidy as their new head coach, the team announced Tuesday.
Cassidy, the longtime Bruins coach who was surprisingly let go by the team this month, replaces the fired Peter DeBoer in Las Vegas.
“I am excited to join an organization that shares my commitment to winning and can’t wait to get to work with the talent that has been assembled in Vegas,” Cassidy said in a news release. “It’s been impressive to watch the city embrace the Golden Knights from afar, and my family and I look forward to becoming a part of that.”
Cassidy was expected to be a hot commodity on the NHL job market, and that proved to be the case. His agreement with the Golden Knights came just over a week after his June 6 firing by Boston.
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He had coached the Bruins since February 2017, going 245-108-46 and leading them to the playoffs in each of his six seasons, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2019. Boston was eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes this season.
“The Golden Knights are very pleased to have Bruce come in to coach our team,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in the release. “His success in Boston over six years is extremely impressive. His teams have had a clear identity, having been among the very best in the NHL in terms of goals for, goals against, goal differential and special teams. This is the right coach for our team at this time.”
Vegas fired DeBoer in mid-May after the team stumbled down the stretch and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since entering the league in the 2017-18 season.
He had a record of 98-50-12 in three seasons, leading the Golden Knights to the conference finals in 2020 and the playoffs’ penultimate round in 2021.
But 2021-22 was a different story.
The Golden Knights struggled through injuries and salary-cap-related lineup challenges to finish with a 43-31-8 (94 points) record, missing the playoff cut by four points after being a preseason Stanley Cup favorite. They had a late-season stretch that saw them get one win in six critical games, including a shootout loss at the Dallas Stars that acted as a de facto playoff game.
Information from ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski was used in this report.