Jack Capuano
The Ottawa Senators are getting the absolute most out of their roster, even if they aren’t in the playoffs right now. Jack Capuano was added as the right-hand man to D.J. Smith‘s coaching staff. The former New York Islanders head coach went to the Florida Panthers after he was fired in the middle of the 2016-17 season.
Capuano is showing he’s ready to jump behind the bench again. Smith is extremely inexperienced, yet he’s getting a Senators team with a bottom of the league roster to play every single night. After starting the season 1-6-1, they’ve gone 15-15-4. It is starting to show what this team needs to win, and despite lacking in the talent department, Smith’s team is fighting for every victory.
The Senators aren’t going to ever come close to the playoffs, so this might be an outside-the-box choice. Usually when assistant coaches get hired to be head coaches, they come from teams in the Stanley Cup Finals. Those are hard teams to predict. So, we have to go with a safer option for right now.
The Devils could take a former head coach who knows the area and knows how to get the most out of his roster. Capuano isn’t the typical NHL retread, since he’s had two other coaching jobs to show he’s ready to take on one himself. The Devils job is going to be one of the jobs with the most upside, and they might want to take a coach that has a similar amount of upside.