The Vegas Golden Knights have hired Bruce Cassidy as their new head coach, the team announced Tuesday.
Cassidy, the longtime Bruins coach who was surprisingly let go by the team this month, replaces the fired Peter DeBoer in Las Vegas.
Cassidy was expected to be a hot commodity on the NHL job market, and that proved to be the case. His agreement with the Golden Knights came just over a week after his June 6 firing by Boston.
He had coached the Bruins since February 2017, going 245-108-46 and leading them to the playoffs in each of his six seasons, including a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2019. Boston was eliminated in the first round by the Carolina Hurricanes this season.
Vegas fired DeBoer in mid-May after the team stumbled down the stretch and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since entering the league in the 2017-18 season.
He had a record of 98-50-12 in three seasons, leading the Golden Knights to the conference finals in 2020 and the playoffs’ penultimate round in 2021.
But 2021-22 was a different story.
The Golden Knights struggled through injuries and salary-cap-related lineup challenges to finish with a 43-31-8 (94 points) record, missing the playoff cut by four points after being a preseason Stanley Cup favorite. They had a late-season stretch that saw them get one win in six critical games, including a shootout loss at the Dallas Stars that acted as a de facto playoff game.
Information from ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski was used in this report.