Each year, the NHL's broadcasters association awards the Jack Adams trophy to the head coach who "contributed the most to his team's success," but what about the rest of his staff? Whether it's designing systems, setting the lineup or adjusting to changing conditions on a game-by-game basis, coaching an NHL team is a group effort, and some coaching staffs have had more success and experience in this area than others.
Previously, we used various metrics to group all 16 Eastern Conference coaching staffs into five tiers, and we'll use the same method to cover the Western Conference today. Specifically, the following chart attempts to quantify each staff's level of coaching experience, on the horizontal axis, as well as the success their teams have enjoyed, on the vertical axis. The most skilled and experienced coaching staffs will therefore be on the top right, while those with the shortest lists of credentials are on the bottom left.
To briefly recap the formula, experience is the combined games of NHL head-coaching experience by anyone on the staff, plus half-credit for experience in the AHL, ECHL, Canadian Major Junior Leagues, and NCAA Division I. There's also a 25-game bonus for each season as an assistant coach.
The success metric is based on how a head coach's team fared in the standings, compared to the previous season. To be fair to those coaching particularly good or bad teams, the previous season's results are regressed 35 percent towards the league average before the comparison is made, so that a head coach must keep a good team good or help improve a bad team by more than it would have improved without him at the helm.
Once all the numbers are tallied up, each coaching staff can be roughly divided into one of five tiers: best of the best, experienced, typically balanced, green and underachievers. Here is where each of the Western Conference coaching staffs fits.
Tier 1: The best of the best
The teams in the top right-hand corner of the chart are those who have placed the collected high levels of both experience and prior success when assembling their coaching staffs. These are the teams observers should watch the most carefully and whose expectations should be moved up a notch.
Staff: Bruce Boudreau (Head), Paul MacLean, Trent Yawney, Scott Niedermayer, Dwayne Roloson (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,071 games
Standings points added: 108 points
How does Anaheim consistently defy the pundits? With its elite coaching staff. Like all teams in the top tier, Anaheim's staff has three coaches with NHL head-coaching experience but is the only team with two former Jack Adams award winners. The Ducks' staff also boasts a whopping 1,249 games of AHL head-coaching experience, which leads the league by 423 games. Keep your expectations high for the Ducks!
Staff: Darryl Sutter (Head), Davis Payne, John Stevens, Bill Ranford (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,398 games
Standings points added: 69 points
Last season's playoff absence was an entirely new experience for Kings head coach Darryl Sutter. Other than the season he was a midseason replacement for the Flames in 2002-03, Sutter hadn't missed the postseason as a player, assistant or head coach since he was a teenage prospect on the AJHL's Red Deer Rustlers. The Kings' coaching staff is otherwise a better fit in the second tier, since Davis Payne and John Stevens add a lot of NHL and AHL head-coaching experience, but without nearly the same success as Sutter.
Staff: Ken Hitchcock (Head), Kirk Muller, Brad Shaw, Ray Bennett, Jim Corsi (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,731 games
Standings points added: 119 points
St. Louis head coach Ken Hitchcock is potentially the best active coach in today's NHL, a title he previously held in the WHL, as well. Like the other teams in this tier, he is flanked by two others with head-coaching experience in the NHL, but with the added bonus of a combined 30 seasons as NHL assistants. Could this be the season the Blues finally contend for the Stanley Cup?
Group 2: Highly experienced
There is no substitute for experience. While the success metric is somewhat subjective, there is absolutely no mistaking which coaches have seen it all and done it all from behind the bench. These are the teams that are most likely to produce consistent and predictable results.
Staff: Joel Quenneville (Head), Kevin Dineen, Mike Kitchen, Jimmy Waite (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,620 games
Standings points added: 39 points
Why is the staff with the league's best coach -- who has won three of the past six Stanley Cups -- only in the second tier? While there's absolutely no denying head coach Joel Quenneville's credentials, these groupings are about the entire staff, and both Mike Kitchen's and Kevin Dineen's significant struggles as NHL head coaches count against that. In fairness, Kitchen also brings 22 seasons as an NHL assistant for four different teams, while Dineen was one of the AHL's best coaches of the past decade, so feel free to set the numbers aside in your head and move Chicago's staff up to Tier 1, where it belongs.
Staff: Paul Maurice (Head), Pascal Vincent, Charlie Huddy, Wade Flaherty (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,315 games
Standings points added: 20 points
On the flip side, Winnipeg's coaching staff is a good candidate to demote to the fifth tier, where it certainly would have ranked prior to last season. Jets coaches boast an exceptional volume of experience but, with the exception of Pascal Vincent's dominance as a head coach in the QMJHL, not a great deal of success. In my view, consider this team to be one of the West's biggest wild cards.
Group 3: Typically balanced
With only so many elite coaches to go around, many teams assembled a cost-effective but unspectacular staff that combines for roughly 20 years of coaching experience combined and can help generate a few extra points in the standings.
Staff: Bob Hartley (Head), Jacques Cloutier, Martin Gelinas, Jordan Sigalet (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,592 games
Standings points added: 51 points
Last year's Jack Adams winner Bob Hartley is the only member of Calgary's staff with head-coaching experience at any level, but what experience that is! Championships in four different leagues, including with the 2001 Avalanche, and he was the only coach to ever get the Atlanta Thrashers into the playoffs. The Flames aren't quite a one-man show, however, with Jacques Cloutier currently ranking ninth among active coaches with 15 seasons as an NHL assistant and/or associate. Can the Flames defy the odds and get to the playoffs once again?
Staff: Patrick Roy (Head), Dave Farrish, Tim Army, Francois Allaire (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,716 games
Standings points added: 51 points
As a group, neither former goalies nor Hall of Famers have had a lot of success as NHL coaches, but Colorado's Patrick Roy has been building on his considerable QMJHL success to buck that trend. Working in his favor is a well-rounded staff that includes former AHL head coaches Dave Farrish and Tim Army, who have a combined 24 seasons of NHL experience as assistant coaches. Let's see if they can recapture the magic from Colorado's odds-defying 2013-14 season.
Staff: Todd McLellan (Head), Jay Woodcroft, Jim Johnson, Ian Herbers, Dustin Schwartz (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,530 games
Standings points added: 46 points
After several seasons of curious experiments, the Oilers have landed on head coach Todd McLellan, who has a consistent track record of success in several seasons in each of the WHL, AHL and the NHL. He brought along his two assistants from San Jose, including longtime colleague Jay Woodcroft, but should get an interesting diversity of thought from Ian Herbers, who has served on a coaching staff in five different leagues during the past decade. Connor McDavid, upgraded goaltending, and this new coaching staff might help Edmonton avoid tying the record for the longest playoff drought in NHL history.
Staff: Pete DeBoer (Head), Bob Boughner, Steve Spott, Johan Hedberg (Asst. and Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,588 games
Standings points added: 46 points
Historically, coaching success in the OHL hasn't translated into NHL success, but San Jose head coach Pete DeBoer's jaw-dropping record in the OHL deserves one more opportunity to buck that trend. In fact, together with assistants Bob Boughner and Steve Spott, the Sharks have 1,762 games of head-coaching experience in the OHL, over a thousand more than any other NHL team. Consider this season's Sharks the ultimate case study in the value of OHL coaching experience in the NHL.
Next, the following two teams can be considered more as being in "Tier 3a."Their coaching staffs are built with a similar balance as the rest of the tier, but they have each had considerably more success at various levels. The distinction isn't large enough to warrant a new grouping, but significant enough to be worthy of mention.
Staff: Peter Laviolette (Head), Kevin McCarthy, Phil Housley, Ben Vaderklok (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,719 games
Standings points added: 80 points
From time to time, a great coach sits idle, as was the case with Peter Laviolette before Nashville snapped him up last summer. Kevin McCarthy was also hired as his assistant, who now has 19 years of experience in that role, along with four strong seasons as an AHL head coach in the late 1990s. That's why the Predators can be considered a slight notch above the rest of this tier.
Staff: Willie Desjardins (Head), Glen Gulutzan, Perry Pearn, Doug Lidster, Roland Melanson (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,893 games
Standings points added: 77 points
Why would a team with fewer than three full seasons of NHL head-coaching experience on staff warrant special recognition above the rest of this tier? Because head coach Willie Desjardins' prior success in both the AHL and WHL was considerable, assistant coach Glen Gulutzan was also an accomplished head coach in both the AHL and U.S. collegiate ranks, and the Canucks are one of only five teams with more than 30 years of combined NHL assistant-coaching experience.
Group 4: Green
While going with a relatively untried coaching staff is obviously a bit of a gamble, some of today's most effective coaches had very little experience when they got their first opportunities -- such as Chicago's Joel Quenneville and L.A.'s Darryl Sutter, for example. That's why these coaching staffs should be considered the wild cards, with both significant upsides and the potential to really flop.
Staff: Mike Yeo (Head), Rick Wilson, Darby Hendrickson, Bob Mason (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 1,501 games
Standings points added: 12 points
Technically, Minnesota's coaching staff has the experience required for Tier 3, but they have just 550 games of head-coaching experience at any level, the third-lowest total in the NHL. Without Rick Wilson's league-leading 25 seasons as an NHL assistant coach, the Wild would rank among the league's greenest. The Wild have made progress in each of Yeo's four seasons as head coach, but it could take one more campaign for their credentials to truly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other Western Conference staffs.
Group 5: Underachievers
The final group is reserved for those coaching staffs that have, for lack of a better term, underachieved in the past. They include individuals who have shown enough promise to warrant another chance, but they also exclude readily available coaches who would be clear upgrades over some members of the staff.
Staff: Dave Tippett (Head), Jim Playfair, Newell Brown, John Slaney, Sean Burke (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,311 games
Standings points added: -5 points
Dave Tippett won the Jack Adams in 2009-10 but actually had an inferior regulation-time record than the team's previous coach, Wayne Gretzky. With or without the so-called loser points, Tippett's first few seasons with the club were certainly commendable, but he has missed the playoffs in the three straight seasons since. Jim Playfair and Newell Brown are certainly experienced, with 27 combined seasons as NHL assistants and more than four seasons apiece as head coaches in the AHL, but with equally mixed results. It could be another long season in Arizona.
Staff: Lindy Ruff (Head), Curt Fraser, James Patrick, Jeff Reese (Goalie)
Adjusted games coached: 2,354 games
Standings points added: -20 points
If the playoffs are the goal, then the odds might be against this coaching staff. Lindy Ruff might have won the Jack Adams in 2005-06, but his teams have made the playoffs on only four other occasions in the past 13 seasons. Assistant coach Curt Fraser never made the playoffs at all in his four seasons as an NHL bench boss, and only once in four years as an AHL head coach. Dallas has a strong roster, and it certainly has loads of experience behind the bench, but it lacks a consistent track record of success that would more directly predict a playoff berth.