The Carolina Hurricanes’ Rod Brind’Amour took home the Jack Adams Award last season as the NHL’s coach of the year. Can he make it two in a row?
Brind’Amour helped lead Carolina to a 36-12-8 record and became the only coach in Hurricanes history to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs in three consecutive seasons.
It’s never easy to repeat as an award winner, and Brind’Amour has some stiff competition if he wants to accomplish such a feat.
Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper is the favorite at DraftKings Sportsbooks, which shouldn’t come as a surprise given his team is trying to three-peat as Stanley Cup champions.
Let’s take a look at some of the other candidates.
JACK ADAMS AWARD ODDS
Jon Cooper +600
Joel Quenneville +700
Dean Evason +750
Barry Trotz +900
Bruce Cassidy +1000
Gerard Gallant +1100
Rod Brind’Amour +1100
THE PICK
Bruce Cassidy (+1000) — The Bruins head coach has some big holes to fill with the departure of David Krejci and Tuukka Rask recovering from offseason hip surgery. Needs certainly were addressed with the additions of Linus Ullmark, Nick Foligno, Erik Haula and Tomas Nosek, but the Bruins will look like a different team without Krejci centering the second line and Rask between the pipes. Boston still is poised to be a good team, but if Cassidy can put together a strong regular season with a new(ish)-look club, his name certainly should be in the running and it might be worth taking that bet.
