The San Jose Sharks parted ways with head coach Bob Boughner and the rest of his coaching staff on Friday.
With less than a week until the NHL draft, which begins next Thursday, the club is without a permanent general manager and any coaches with the dismissal of assistant coaches John MacLean and John Madden and assistant coach/video Dan Darrow.
Doug Wilson, who assumed the general manager role in 2003, stepped down in February for health reasons. Joe Will is the interim general manager.
“As we progress through our search for the next general manager of the Sharks following 19 seasons under Doug Wilson’s leadership, it has become apparent that the organization is in the process of an evolution,” Will said in a statement. “The bottom line is we have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons, which isn’t acceptable to our owner, our organization, or to our fans. As part of this evolution and evaluation, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to allow the next Sharks general manager to have full autonomy related to the make-up of the on-ice coaching staff moving ahead.
“I want to thank Bob, John, John and Dan for their dedication and commitment to the Sharks organization. The past two-plus seasons have been extremely challenging — on and off the ice — and Bob and his staff worked admirably under some very difficult circumstances. This change is not an indictment of their performance as much as it is a recognition of the complete organizational reset that we feel is in the best interest of the team at this point.”
Boughner, 51, coached the Sharks for two-plus seasons, taking over when Peter DeBoer was fired 33 games into the 2019-20 season. Under Boughner, the Sharks were 67-85-23 and never made the playoffs.
Boughner previously coached the Florida Panthers to an 80-62-22 mark in two seasons (2017-19).
Before the 2019-20 season, the Sharks had made the playoffs in the previous 19 of 21 campaigns.
–Field Level Media
