Boughner appears set for Panthers job

Florida Panthers alternate captain and Belle River, Ont., native Aaron Ekblad would love to see Windsor native Bob Boughner as the NHL team’s next head coach.

Multiple sources are reporting that Boughner, who is also president of the Windsor Spitfires, will be named the 15th head coach in the history of the Panthers as early as Monday.

“If the rumours are true, I’d be very excited,” the 21-year-old Ekblad said on Sunday.

The 46-year-old Boughner has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach for the San Jose Sharks under head coach and former Spitfire Peter DeBoer. The Panthers were given permission in early May by the Sharks to interview Boughner for its vacant head coaching position.

The Panthers fired head coach Gerard Gallant in November and replaced him with Tom Rowe on an interim basis, but he was not retained.

Florida had the best record in the NHL’s Eastern Conference in 2015-16 with a 47-26-9 record for 103 points, but missed the playoffs this season after finishing with a 35-36-11 record for 81 points.

When contacted on Sunday, Boughner would offer nothing on the report.

“No comment,” Boughner said. Boughner acknowledged he interviewed for the Florida job and it is also believed he was a candidate for the Buffalo Sabres job. Boughner retired from the NHL in 2006 after 12 seasons as a player to purchase the Spitfires with Warren Rychel and Peter Dobrich.

With no head coaching experience, he took over behind the Windsor bench and was twice named Ontario Hockey League and Canadian Hockey League coach of the year while guiding the Spitfires to back-to-back Memorial Cup titles in 2009 and 2010 before leaving the team to join the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2010-11 season.