This year's race for the Jack Adams Award is one that really brings an old trope around the honour into focus: are we sometimes too quick to reward a coach whose team outstripped expectations rather than the one who oversaw the highest level of excellence?
Of the 51 occasions the NHL has handed out the Jack Adams beginning in 1974, only 10 times did it land in the hands of the bench boss who guided a team to first overall in the standings.
Another thing that happens very infrequently is repeat winners. The only two coaches to win the Adams twice this century are Barry Trotz and John Tortorella. In all, only seven coaches have won the award twice, with the late Pat Burns being the lone three-time winner.
The way things look at the halfway point this year, though, there’s a very good chance coach of the year goes either to the guy whose team wins the Presidents’ Trophy or to a suit who does have one win under his belt already.
With that in mind, let’s examine the candidates.
Jared Bednar, Colorado Avalanche
Three years ago, Jim Montgomery won the Jack Adams on the strength of the Boston Bruins setting an NHL record with 135 points.
Seems reasonable.
So how could we not hand this award to Bednar if his Avs break the Bruins’ mark? After all, Colorado is currently on pace to tie.
Even if the Avalanche fall a few points shy, it sure seems like a 125-point showing should land a few guys on the team some hardware, including the coach.
If Bednar wins a second Cup and gets a first coach-of-the-year nod in the next six months, he instantly becomes one of the defining bench bosses of this century.
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Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay Lighting
Remember how we said it’s hard to imagine Bednar not winning the Adams if his team sets a new points record? Well, seven years ago, Cooper’s Lighting tied the all-time wins record with 62 (Boston broke it four years later with 65) and he still finished as the runner-up to Barry Trotz of the New York Islanders. Believe it or not, that’s the highest Cooper has ever finished in voting.
Let’s be real: we’re in lifetime achievement territory here for a guy who’s the longest-tenured coach in the NHL and just spent his 1,000th career game behind the bench. Being Canada’s coach at the 4 Nations Face-Off and for the 2026 Olympics has lifted Cooper’s profile again just as Tampa has dipped in terms of being a team that makes deep playoff runs.
'Coop' is still getting the most out of a Bolts club that could easily finish as the top seed in the East. Nobody would have an issue with him getting his first Adams.
Martin St. Louis, Montreal Canadiens
The Canadiens made the playoffs last season, but there was certainly no guarantee the young club would make it back this spring. While basically nobody is safe in the East in terms of getting in — and certainly not a club that’s still cutting its teeth — Montreal is well-positioned to make a post-season return, especially thanks to its current 9-2-2 run through a tough stretch of schedule.
Canadiens players sound reverential when they speak about St. Louis, which has basically been the case since he took over a team at the bottom of a rebuild nearly four years ago. The question with St. Louis was always whether he could be a tactician behind the bench and, more and more, he’s putting those queries to bed.
Todd McLellan, Detroit Red Wings
We might as well finish off our trio of Atlantic Division candidates right here.
As everyone knows, the Wings have not seen the post-season since 2016. McLellan was hired just over a year ago to try to change that fact — and he’s got Detroit in a good spot with half a season to go.
McLellan — an assistant coach on the Wings staff when they won the 2008 Cup — has pushed the right buttons in the Motor City, overseeing a Red Wings squad that’s seventh in goals against since Dec. 1 and ninth in goals for during that span.
Rick Tocchet, Philadelphia Flyers
My goodness, somehow it was only two seasons ago that Tocchet won the Adams behind the Vancouver Canucks bench. That seems like something that happened when the NHL still had games end in ties.
This felt like a good fit from the beginning when Tocchet was hired last spring, though few people could have envisioned the Flyers having the fifth-best points percentage in the Eastern Conference past the halfway point.
Why Tocchet over somebody like Dan Muse, who coaches another Pennsylvania-based squad (Pittsburgh) that’s overachieving? In a word, consistency.
The Flyers have lost back-to-back games in regulation time just once this year. Combine that steadiness with Tocchet’s ability to get the best out of newcomer Trevor Zegras and he might win two Adams in three seasons.
Patrick Roy, New York Islanders
Roy won the Jack Adams as a rookie NHL coach in Colorado during Nathan MacKinnon’s debut season of 2013-14. Now, in Matthew Schaefer’s freshman campaign with the Isles and Roy’s second full year with the club, New York could make a surprise return to the playoffs one season after being a deadline seller.
As hockey folks sometimes like to say, “show me a good goalie and I’ll show you a good coach.” Hey, that phrase was probably uttered more than a few times in French during Roy’s playing days with the Canadiens. Certainly the Isles have benefited from fantastic play both from No. 1 guy Ilya Sorokin and backup David Rittich, but few clubs fit the bill of a surprise squad without superb goaltending.
If Roy can push this Islanders squad to a top-three finish in the Metro, he’s going to get Adams consideration no matter how much nerds point to New York’s underwhelming analytics.
