What is the reason behind the NHL's Coaching Carousel's unprecedented spin?

Peter DeBoer, the bench boss of the Dallas Stars, called the coaching changes in the NHL since the previous season "insanity." He's not incorrect, but as Adam Proteau points out, there are plausible justifications for each action.

Sheldon Keefe, the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, was fired on Thursday, marking the most recent development in the NHL coaching industry's never-ending wheel of fortune.

Keefe was six months away from marking his fifth season on Toronto's bench, but the carousel's spin has escalated into a frenzy when you look at the coaching picture in its entirety. Since the end of the previous season, there have been nineteen coaching changes.

An NHL coach with years of experience was even moved to comment on the churn in the league.

Former coach and current bench boss of the Stars Peter DeBoer said to The Athletic on Thursday, "It's insanity." In a time when everyone talks about the modern athlete, we coaches need to establish relationships to work with them. When there is that much turnover, how do you handle it? Like getting married and divorcing before the appetizers arrive after going on a date. It's beyond me. However, that is the reality of our existence.

DeBoer is not in mistake.

You really have to take a seat back and marvel at how often the axe is taken out for these folks when looking at the top 10 NHL coaches with the longest tenures.

With a few notable exceptions, six of the ten highest-paid coaches were appointed in 2021 or 2022.

Three of the four coaches with the highest salaries have Stanley Cup victories on their record: Mike Sullivan of Pittsburgh, Jon Cooper of Tampa Bay, and Jared Bednar of Colorado. The other highest-paid coach, Rod Brind'Amour of Carolina, is in charge of a team that is a strong candidate for the Cup this year and has a track record of success.

These days, a coach's only true job insurance option is that. Never doubt that Peter Laviolette and Bruce Cassidy, the current Cup-winning coaches, could easily find other positions in the event of their dismissal or decision to go on. Proven winners are not disregarded in the never-ending quest to put together the ideal management-coaching team. And when teams hire them, they hope that lightning strikes more than once.

If you acquired that Cup pedigree as a player, that's even more fantastic to have. The titles they have earned as players benefit Brind'Amour in Carolina, Rick Tocchet in Vancouver, Martin St-Louis in Montreal, and Patrick Roy with the New York Islanders.

Even Laviolette, who is currently playing for his sixth NHL team, is not viewed as a journeyman in his field but rather as a 2005–06 Cup winner who can succeed once again with the correct team. He was the ideal player to fit the needs of a team with great expectations like the Rangers in part because of this.

If the NHL salary cap didn't negatively affect a team's ability to make significant roster moves, coaches might have an easier time of it, but that's not the case right now. All NHL general managers can do is make the simplest possible shake-up by switching coaches. They can use this tacit knowledge to show the public that they are completely accountable.

Teams might have been better off in certain situations to hang onto their coaches and wait things out, but as we can see, there is always a temptation to break things off with your coach.

DeBoer is entirely correct when he emphasizes the importance of developing relationships with players, but in the short-attention-span Modern Era, it is better to forego patience and instead restart the coaching wheel from scratch.

It's gotten to the point where even coaches in their second season with a given squad have to start watching closely. Consider Bruce Boudreau with the Vancouver Canucks from the previous season, Lane Lambert with the Islanders from this one, and even David Quinn with the rebuilding San Jose Sharks, who lost his job during or following the team's second season.

Naturally, instructors' methods lose some of their previous impact after a given amount of time. As the game progresses, they either choose to move on or the teams eventually stop contacting them. If this were untrue, Darryl Sutter and John Tortorella would have been employed for life, and Mike Keenan probably would have been an NHL coach for a longer period.

When it comes to coaches, the itchy-trigger-finger affliction that affects NHL general managers won't be healed. You're probably not made out for the position if you can't function in the competitive coaching atmosphere, which involves always keeping your real estate agent on standby while you hop from one sinking lily pad to another. It's an essentially thankless job that almost often ends in failure.