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The Florida Panthers are working on a deal to make San Jose Sharks assistant Bob Boughner their next head coach, a source confirmed to the Sun Sentinel.
Panthers general manager Dale Tallon had said he wants a coach who will relate to Florida’s young stable of 20-something budding stars. It appears he may have found that in Boughner, who played for the Panthers’ minor league affiliates in the mid-90s.
The deal to hire the Panthers’ 15th coach in franchise history is expected to be finalized on Monday. TSN first reported that the Panthers and Boughner were closing in on a deal Saturday morning.
Boughner, 46, a 12-year NHL defenseman, coached the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League for eight seasons, including two resulting in Memorial Cup titles in 2009 and 2010. He earned Coach of the Year honors twice.
Boughner (pronounced Boogner), still the majority owner of the Spitfires, has successfully developed 20-goal scoring forwards such as New Jersey’s Taylor Hall and Adam Henrique, as well as outstanding defensemen Cam
Fowler of Anaheim and Nashville’s double-digit goal scoring defenseman Ryan Ellis.
While Boughner has run the defense for former Panthers coach Pete DeBoer for the past two seasons in San Jose, defenseman Brent Burns has flourished. He is the Norris Trophy front-runner after leading all blueliners with 29 goals and 76 points.
Boughner and the Sharks, who reached the Stanley Cup Final last season but were bounced in the first round of this year’s playoffs, were ranked fifth in fewest goals allowed this season, compared to Florida’s rank of 21st.
It had been believed that Tallon was waiting for the Stanley Cup Final to end so he could interview Nashville Predators assistant Phil Housley for the coaching position. But it appears a hire could be completed before then.
Both Housley, a Hall of Famer, and Boughner began their NHL careers with Buffalo and both have been linked to the Sabres’ coaching vacancy.
Boughner, who was a finalist for the Avalanche head coaching job last summer, has several ties to Panthers players such as forward Jaromir Jagr, a teammate in Pittsburgh in 2000, and an impending free agent, who’s a year younger than him.
Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad, a Windsor native, is a close family friend of Boughner and his son. Boughner was an assistant coach with Columbus for the 2010-11 season where he coached Panthers captain Derek MacKenzie. And Florida goalie James Reimer was with the Sharks and Boughner briefly in 2016.
“I’ve known Ekblad his whole life. I see him all the time during the summer — he’s actually buddies with my son. I see him around the house a lot,” Boughner told SportsNet last month. “I’ve got some familiarity with that team. I’ve had Derek MacKenzie in Columbus, had Reimer in San Jose, [Mark] Pysyk and [Alex] Petrovic at the under-18s Ivan Hlinka [Tournament], so pretty familiar with the team and I think they have a great base moving forward.”
Since Tallon has taken over the decision-making role for the Panthers in 2010, he has hired Kevin Dineen and Gerard Gallant, while Peter Horacek and Tom Rowe were both dismissed after their stints as interim coaches. Of the quartet, only Gallant had previous head-coaching experience in the NHL.
Tallon is back in his role as general manager after Rowe was demoted from GM and interim coach to adviser following the Panthers’ disappointing 81-point season this year. The previous season, Gallant had directed the team to 103 points and the Atlantic Division title, but he was fired by owner Vinnie Viola on Nov. 27 after Florida started 11-9-1.
Boughner, who was drafted by the Detroit Red Wings in the second round in 1989, played 630 NHL games for the Sabres, Predators, Penguins, Flames, Hurricanes and Avalanche, and had 15 goals and 72 points in his career. Known as a physical player, he notched eight seasons of 100-plus penalty minutes.
Before he reached the NHL in 1995, Boughner signed a minor league freeagent deal with the Panthers and played for the Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL and Carolina Monarches of the AHL, then Florida’s affiliates in parts of the 1994 and ’95 seasons.
Boughner played for Stanley Cup winning coaches such as Predators coach Peter Laviolette in Carolina, Chicago coach Joel Quenneville in Colorado and Darryl Sutter in Calgary throughout his career.
Boughner told the San Jose Mercury News recently that he feels he’s ready for an NHL head coaching job.
“This is my third full year on an NHL bench and looking back, at the time when I won a couple [Memorial] Cups, I said, ‘I’m ready to go to the NHL.’ Well, it’s not as easy as you think,” Boughner said. “There’s a lot of learning and the league changes every year and team’s identities. … So, you’ve got to stay on top of it. You’ve got to know the league.
“I feel comfortable going into a position, if I was fortunate to be in that position … to manage people. Managing NHLers is different than managing kids in the OHL. I know how teams are playing, their tendencies, their coaching. So that experience has helped me. I’m ready. I’m definitely ready and I want to get my own team.”