The San Jose Sharks are in the market for a new coach after firing David Quinn on Wednesday.
Quinn leaves San Jose with a 41-98-25 record over two seasons. The Sharks finished the 2023-24 campaign in the basement of the league with only 19 wins.
“After going through our end-of-the-season process of internal meetings and evaluating where our team is at and where we want our group to go, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at the head coach position,” Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “David is a good coach and an even better person. I would like to personally thank him for his hard work over these past two seasons. He and his staff did an admirable job under some difficult circumstances, and I sincerely appreciate how they handled the situation.”
Quinn’s tenure lasted just shy of two calendar years, as the Sharks hired him in July 2022 to replace Bob Boughner who went 67-85-23 and failed to reach the playoffs each year in San Jose.
Before joining the Sharks, Quinn coached the New York Rangers from 2018-19 through 2020-21. He went 96-87-25 in the regular season. In the COVID-19 bubble play-in tournament in 2020, Quinn’s Rangers were swept in three games by the Carolina Hurricanes. That was the closest New York came to the playoffs under Quinn, who was fired after the 2020-21 season.
Why fire Quinn now?
The 57-year-old coach was in a no-win situation with San Jose while Grier further dismantled the Sharks as part of his total rebuild. The underwhelming roster was not on a level to be competitive with most teams, and you can argue that it was part of the plan to land a franchise piece in this year’s draft. And that could be the case as San Jose holds the best odds for the draft lottery and would figure to take Boston University star and Hobey Baker Award winner Macklin Celebrini if it gets the No. 1 pick.
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But the process to the NHL-worst 19-54-9 record took a toll on many, including Quinn. The year began with a 0-10-1 record that included consecutive home losses of 10-1 to Vancouver and 10-2 to Pittsburgh. Somehow it got worse with a 12-game run of losses all in regulation. There was another stretch of 18 defeats in 19 games. Having injured captain Logan Couture for only six games didn’t help. Quinn got a nice comeback season from Mikael Granlund and helped shepherd youngsters William Eklund and Henry Thrun as full-time regulars, but the Sharks were overmatched on many nights until the end.
It couldn’t have been easy for Grier to fire his friend, and the two share a strong connection to BU, but this has the look of the GM wanting someone who has experience with rebuilds and a strong reputation for developing young players. The next core that’s being built — one that should center around Boston College star Will Smith (the No. 4 pick in the 2023 draft), Eklund and their top selection this year — will be the group that tries to lift the Sharks back to prominence. It will take a long while for that and require a new coach with the stomach to withstand a lot of growing pains. — Eric Stephens, NHL staff writer
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(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
