The Florida Panthers on Monday announced that former National
Hockey League defenseman, Bob Boughner will become the team’s 15th
head coach in franchise history.
Boughner, 46, served as an assistant coach with the San Jose
Sharks under Peter Deboer the past two seasons. Prior to working with the
Sharks, he served as an assistant coach on Scott Arniel’s, Columbus Blue
Jackets staff.
During his eight seasons as a bench boss with the Windsor
Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League, he guided the team to the Memorial Cup
in 2009 and 2010. The Panthers job will be his first stint at the helm in the
NHL.
In 630 games, over 10 seasons in the league, the defenseman
put up 15 goals and 57 assists. Before hanging up his skates in 2006, he laced them
up for Buffalo Sabres, Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Calgary
Flames, Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche.
Boughner said, “I have
always wanted to coach at the end of my career. I worked hard at it and spent a
lot of time developing players. I put in my time and I am ready. I learned the
craft and I have a lot of knowledge of the league. I am going to make the
organization proud and I am going to make the fans proud.”
He continued, “I have
been thinking of this for a long time. I tried to stay patient, put my time in,
worked hard at it which I have done. I feel this is the right people and right
group to work with, and sometimes that does not always happen. When these jobs
come up you have to accept what is there. I feel like I got the best of both
worlds.”
Boughner will replace Tom Rowe at the behind the bench in
Sunrise. Rowe was reassigned in the organization on April 10. He had served as
the interim coach after the Cats relieved, current Vegas Golden Knights coach,
Gerard Gallant of his duties on November 27 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The Panthers finished the 2016-2017 season, 35-26-11 and 14
points out of the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. The season
before, they won the Atlantic Division with their best record in franchise
history, before falling to the New York Islanders in the second round of the
2016 playoffs.
General Manager, Dale Tallon pretty much knew that he wanted
Boughner as soon as he was finished interviewing him. Tallon mentioned to nhl.com,
that Boughner had come into the process with a couple of stacks of files that
included analytical as well as details on his philosophy for the team.
He said, “Bob impressed
us like no one else. All the years I have been in the business, Bob was the
most prepared. His preparation, his passion, knocked us out of the park.”
Boughner spent three seasons in Pittsburgh, from 1999 to
2001, with current Panthers veteran, Jaromir Jagr. He also has some ties with a
couple of other Panthers players.
His son is friends with defenseman, Aaron Ekblad. He coached
forward Derek MacKenzie while his was in Columbus, as well as goaltender, James
Reimer in San Jose. He also coached defensemen, Mark Pysyk and Alex Petrovic,
in the Under-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
Boughner added, “I
believe in Dale, I believe in this group. I think we have a lot of great pieces
to build a winner. I love the lineup. That is the thing that made me the most
excited.”
Boughner also interviewed for the open Sabres job and was a
finalist last season for the Colorado Avalanche position, before Jared Bednar
won the position, following the resignation of Patrick Roy.
DeBoer said, “I want
to congratulate Bob, as he takes his next step in an already distinguished
coaching career, and thank him for the contributions he made to our team and
many of our individual players. While we hate to lose him, it is the ultimate
compliment to an organization when members of your team are sought out by
others.”
Tallon had interviewed about 15 candidates for the Panthers
open coaching position, while talking to about a handful of others. University
of Denver head coach, Jim Montgomery and former Montreal Canadiens bench boss,
Michel Therrien were amongst those candidates.
He added, “I started
off with a list. I made a long list of guys from all walks, junior coaches,
college colleges, AHL coaches and assistant coaches, and I wanted guys that
were probably newer, not necessarily the most experienced. Being a head coach
in the NHL was not really the number one criteria for my list that I put
together.”
Tallon continued, “I
wanted new voices, new faces, new attitude, more of a contemporary look. I did
not want to go back. There were a lot of good coaches that had NHL coaching experience
that I had good conversations with, but they were not exactly what I felt was
necessary for us moving forward long-term. That was my plan of attack and I
identified a lot of names. Obviously, Bob’s was on the list and then we started
paring that down. This was the right choice.”
With the hiring of Boughner by the Panthers, only the Sabres
do not have a coach in place for the 2017-2018 season.
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