Being a finalist for the title of coach of the year in the NHL was not enough for Andrew Brunette to keep his job behind the bench of the Florida Panthers.
Updated yesterday at 7:22 p.m.
Paul Maurice became the club’s new coach on Wednesday.
“Paul’s intelligence and experience are exactly what we were looking for and we are excited to welcome him as head coach,” said general manager Bill Zito.
Maurice therefore replaces the interim coach of the Panthers, Andrew Brunette, who can stay in the organization if he wishes.
Brunette took over at the start of last season after Joel Quenneville resigned. The latter had to leave his post in the wake of the scandal that hit the Chicago Blackhawks over the way they handled allegations of player abuse during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. Quenneville was the coach of Chicago at that time.
Maurice started in Hartford in 1995, two seasons before that franchise moved to Carolina. He then coached in Toronto for two seasons before returning to Carolina, then spent nearly nine years coaching in Winnipeg before leaving that city in December.
“I pushed as long and as hard as I could here. I like these guys. They need a new voice, and I know that,” Maurice said when he left Winnipeg.
Now, six months after that decision, Maurice is also making a fresh start with a team that thinks it’s a Stanley Cup contender.
The Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy this season, but were stopped in the second round of the playoffs. They still won a postseason series for the first time since 1996.
This failure seems to have cooled the candidacy of Brunette. The Panthers are therefore looking to Maurice, who is fourth on the all-time games coached list with 1,684 and seventh on the wins list with 775, but has never led a team to the Stanley Cup.
Florida, in the past three seasons combined, ranks second in the NHL in wins (130).