Poll: The Bruins have their man…but for how long?

The Boston Bruins are no longer the only team remaining in the NHL without a head coach under contract as this morning the organization announced Marco Sturm as the 30th head coach in franchise history.

He's the 13th former Bruins player to be named as the team's head coach.

Sturm spent five seasons in Boston from 2005-2010, scoring 106 goals and adding 87 assists in 302 games played. As a coach, he's guided the Kings’ AHL affiliate to a 119-80-17 record over the last three seasons.

The 46-year-old first time NHL coach has his work cut out for him now leading a Bruins team that managed just eight wins in their final 31 regular season games.

He's also up against what appears to be a diminishing patience from GM Don Sweeney. Sweeney, who has at least another three years on the job after his recent 2-year extension, was asked by The Boston Globe's Tara Sullivan at Boston's year-end press conference whether he feels firing three Jack Adams Award winning coaches since 2017 would turn off prospective candidates from the job.

Sweeney got testy with Sullivan in his response, scoffing at the idea. Well, it took way longer than anybody else to get an agreement and there was even a report that longtime NHL boss Rick Tocchet turned down an opportunity to interview for the job for that very reason.

Claude Julien won the team's only Stanley Cup in the last 53 years. Bruce Cassidy took the team over 100 points in every full season he had the job, in addition to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, and yet he was out of a gig after six years. Then immediately went on to win the Cup with Vegas.

Jim Mongtomery came in, guided the team to the greatest regular season in the sport's history, and a year and a half later was canned. After quickly landing on his feet in St. Louis, I don't believe it was just a coincidence that Monty's Blues were one of the best teams in the league over the second half of the 2024-25 season.

The problem with the B's is upstairs, not on the bench. Will Sturm get a long enough leash to turn around this team's prospects? Or will he be the latest short term fix on Boston's bench?