Six new NHL head coaches for 2026-27, and why the two Canadian hires carry the most weight

The NHL's official list of coaches, published June 23, the day the last vacancy was filled, shows six benches that changed hands since the 2025-26 season began: Peter DeBoer with the New York Islanders, Manny Malhotra in Vancouver, Peter Laviolette in Los Angeles, Jim Hiller in Toronto, Ryan Craig in Vegas and Mike Babcock in Edmonton. Two of the six are first-time NHL head coaches; the other four have coached a combined 4,300-plus NHL regular-season games. [S1][S6][S4]

The one that happened in April

The Islanders moved first and strangest. General manager Mathieu Darche fired Patrick Roy on April 5 with four regular-season games left and hired DeBoer the same weekend, a coach whose 662 wins ranked sixth among active coaches. Darche's reasoning was explicit: "Guys like Pete DeBoer don't stay on the market very long," and he did not want to lose him in the summer. DeBoer inherits Matthew Schaefer, the No. 1 pick in 2025 who was on his way to the Calder Trophy. [S2]

A rebuild in Vancouver

Vancouver finished last in the league at 25-49-8 with a minus-100 goal differential and the NHL's worst penalty kill at 71.5 percent. Adam Foote was fired May 19 after one season, five days after Ryan Johnson was hired as general manager in a regime change that made Daniel and Henrik Sedin co-presidents of hockey operations. Johnson hired Malhotra on June 1; he had hired him to run AHL Abbotsford two years earlier, where Malhotra won a Calder Cup in his first season. Johnson described the assignment as structure "within a game in three zones" and said the club will "have the patience within the wins and losses." [S3]

Experience in Los Angeles

After firing Hiller on March 1 and getting swept by Colorado in the first round under interim coach D.J. Smith, Los Angeles hired Laviolette on June 9. He is seventh in NHL wins at 846 and won the Cup with Carolina in 2006. The Kings have made the playoffs five straight seasons and lost in the first round every time. [S4]

Toronto and the "organizational shift"

Toronto fired Craig Berube on May 13 after finishing last in the Atlantic at 32-36-14, a decision new general manager John Chayka framed as a needed "organizational shift." Chayka said he spoke with 25 candidates before hiring Hiller on June 17. Hiller was 93-58-24 with the Kings and was a Toronto assistant from 2015-19, so he already knows Auston Matthews, William Nylander and Morgan Rielly. His stated first job is defensive: Toronto allowed 295 goals last season, 31st in the league, while Hiller's Kings were tied for seventh at 238. [S5][S10]

Vegas promotes from within

Vegas changed coaches twice in three months. Bruce Cassidy was fired March 29 and John Tortorella took over for the final eight games; the Golden Knights went 7-0-1 and reached the Final. On June 16 the club said Tortorella would not return, and on June 17 it named Craig, 44, who had been a Vegas assistant for six seasons including the 2023 Cup and had coached Henderson of the AHL for three. General manager Kelly McCrimmon said Tortorella "did want to coach our team next year." Craig's own framing is continuity: Henderson ran similar systems, and he expects "a seamlessness in that transition." [S8][S6]

Edmonton and the last vacancy

Edmonton was the last team without a coach. Kris Knoblauch was fired May 14, after three seasons and two trips to the Final, shortly after Vegas denied the Oilers permission to speak with Cassidy while he remained under contract. Babcock was hired June 23. He is 12th in NHL history with 700 wins, but had not coached a game since Toronto fired him 23 games into 2019-20, and he resigned from Columbus before coaching a game there after a report that he had asked players to share personal photos. When the Oilers' interest surfaced, the NHL investigated and said on June 18 there was "no current basis to restrict his employment in the League." Commissioner Gary Bettman added that he expects "a certain level of decorum and conduct among all NHL personnel, especially head coaches." [S9][S7]

Babcock said a meeting with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman "changed everything," and Hyman, who played five seasons for him in Toronto, said the players are "excited for what he brings." General manager Stan Bowman said the previous two hires had been first-time coaches and "we need something different than we had before." McDavid can become an unrestricted free agent after 2027-28. [S7][S9]

What we will watch

Coaching changes are the hardest offseason variable to price because the evidence arrives slowly. Our modest expectation is that the two continuity hires, Craig in Vegas and Malhotra in Vancouver, produce the least visible change in October, and that Hiller and Babcock will be judged on goals against and playoff results rather than on anything a preseason can show. That is a statement of what to watch, not a forecast. [S6][S3]