Boughner rumoured for Panthers job

The Florida Panthers have reportedly been given permission by the San Jose Sharks to speak with Windsor Spitfires’ majority owner Bob Boughner about that club’s vacant head coaching position, according to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun.

Boughner is currently out of town and could not be contacted for comment on Tuesday.

The 46-year-old Boughner has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach with the Sharks under head coach and former Spitfire Peter DeBoer and helped the team reach the Stanley Cup final a year ago.

Boughner retired from the NHL in 2006 after 12 seasons as a player to purchase the Spitfires with Warren Rychel and Peter Dobrich.

Boughner guided the Spitfires to back-to-back Memorial Cup titles as head coach in 2009 and 2010 before leaving the team to join the Columbus Blue Jackets for the 2010-11 season.

He returned as head coach of the Spitfires in 2011-12 and spent another four seasons with the team before joining DeBoer’s staff.

“I want to one day be a head coach in the NHL and this is the path,” Boughner said to The Star after taking the San Jose job. “This is the next phase of my life.”

Boughner was rumoured to be a finalist last year for the head coaching job in Colorado, where he spent part of his playing career.

No doubt, he will also get consideration for the vacant head coaching job with the Buffalo Sabres, which was another stop in his career.

With the Panthers, Boughner, who is a former NHL defenceman, already has a long history with prized Florida defenceman and Belle River native Aaron Ekblad.

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