Fastest NHL Coach Firings Since 1995

Todd Richards, who was axed by Columbus after only seven games of the 2015-16 season, still fell well short of the NHL’s all-time record for fastest coach firing at the start of a season: one game, by Paul Thompson of the Blackhawks in 1944. Detroit’s Bill Gadsby (1969) and Toronto’s Michael Rodden (1926) lasted for two. Here are the quickest cannings of the last 20 years.
Fastest NHL Coach Firings Since 1995
Fastest NHL Coach Firings Since 1995 /

Fastest NHL Coach Firings Since 1995

3: Peter Laviolette, Flyers, 2013

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Alex Brandon/AP

Given one last chance after a playoff DNQ, the third-year coach was canned after an 0-3-0 start. Owner Ed Snider clearly had an itchy trigger finger. “I felt training camp, quite frankly, was one of the worst training camps I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Unfortunately my worries were realized in the first three games, scoring one goal in each game and looking disorganized.” Laviolette's successor Craig Berube managed to goose the Flyers into the playoffs where they fell to the Rangers in seven games.

4: Denis Savard, Blackhawks, 2008

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Bill Smith/NHLI via Getty Images

Another coach doomed by a failure to make the playoffs followed by a listless camp, the Hawks Hall of Famer was given the heave-ho after an 0-2-1 start to what would have been his third season behind the bench. “It was a flat camp and we got out of the gate flat,” FM Dale Tallon said. “We felt we needed to send a message and invigorate this team.” Savard’s replacement: Joel Quenneville, who has led Chicago to three Stanley Cups.

4: Ivan Hlinka, Penguins, 2001

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Doug Pensinger/Getty Images

Only the second European to coach an NHL team, Hlinka led the Pens to the 2001 Eastern finals but suffered from his limited ability to speak and understand English as well as his personality clash with star winger Jaromir Jagr. “Total chaos,” one Penguin told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “By the time Hlinka figures out what to say, it’s too late. It’s already time to say something else.” Hlinka was Hlet-go when the team started 0-4 en route to a playoff DNQ under successor Rick Kehoe.

4: Jacques Demers, Canadiens, 1995

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Bruce Bennett Studios/Getty Images

When Montreal did not reach the 1995 playoffs—the first time in 25 years it had DNQed—the Habs' coach started the next season squarely on the hot seat. Demers’ trousers burst into flames when the Habs got off to their worst start in 57 years (0-4). Team president Ron Corey then canned the coach and GM Serge Savard, saying “You might think I’m pushing the panic button, but I am not.” The Habs then went on a 12-2 run, their season finally ending in the first round of the postseason.

6: Bob Hartley, Thrashers, 2007

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Scott Cunningham/NHLI via Getty Images

Leading the Thrashers to the best season in their history—franchise record 43-28-11 mark, Southeast Division title, first playoff appearance—wasn’t enough to earn their fourth-year coach any job security. Their 0-6-0 skid to start 2007-08 led to Hartley being booted. “We still have 76 games left,” said GM Don Waddell, who took over behind the bench. “There is lots of season left to make something up. We just couldn’t let it go any further.” Unfortunately the Thrashers DNQed and didn’t see the postseason again until after their 2011 move to Winnipeg.

7: Todd Richards, Blue Jackets, 2015

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Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

After guiding the Jackets to only the second playoff berth in their 13-year history, Richards presided over an injury-riddled 2014-15 that saw Columbus fall short but end the season on a torrid 15-1-1 run that raised expectations. The wheels came off again during a disastrous 0-7-0 start marked by clown car defense and the meltdown of goalie Sergei Bobrovsky. “We’re not responding the right way,” GM Jarmo Kekalainen lamented while introducing Richards’ replacement: the notorious whipcracker John Tortorella.

8: Ken Hitchcock, Flyers, 2006

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Norman Y. Lono/Getty Images

The Flyers’ worst start in 17 years (1-6-1), including the worst loss in franchise history (9-1 to Buffalo), triggered a sudden housecleaning. Hitchcock, their fourth-year coach, was handed his walking papers a little more than a month after he'd signed a contract extension. Longtime GM Bobby Clarke stepped down, citing burnout. “I no longer wanted to make the decisions general managers have to make,” he said. Respective successors John Stevens and Paul Holmgren fared no better. The Flyers were on the golf course at the end of the regular season.

8: Pat Burns, Bruins, 2000

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Steve Babineau/Getty Images

With the B’s answering a playoff DNQ with a 3-4-1 start and on a four-game slide, GM Harry Sinden decided to turn up the heat by firing their hotheaded fourth-year coach, who’d won the Jack Adams Award with Boston two years earlier. "The team's play over their last several games has convinced me we need to go in a different direction and that a different coach was needed for that to be accomplished," Sinden said. Different? Burns’s replacement, Mike Keenan, was notorious for his own five-alarm temperament. Iron Mike presided over another DNQ and was gone after the season.

11. Terry Crisp, Lightning, 1997

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John Dunn/AP

A catatonic 2-7-2 start cost Tampa Bay the only coach it had known during the team’s six-year history. When an 0-6-1 schneid deposited the Bolts in the Eastern Conference basement, GM Phil Esposito pulled the plug on Crisp, saying, "This is not a happy day in Tampa Bay Lightning history. We've been together since the beginning. However, I was convinced breaking training camp our club was pretty good. It didn't seem like they were responding." Added forward Rob Zamuner, "It was a situation I guess where Phil had to act. It's easier to fire one guy than 25 or 26."


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