Preds hire Brunette as their next coach

The coaching shuffle in Nashville is complete, with Andrew Brunette officially hired as the Predators coach on Wednesday, a little over 12 hours after the team announced that John Hynes was fired.

The moves are the first being made by incoming general manager Barry Trotz and come about six weeks after the Predators missed the playoffs.

Brunette, 49, spent this season as a Devils associate coach under Lindy Ruff and has previous head-coaching experience.

He was promoted to interim coach of the Panthers during the 202122 season and oversaw a team that set franchise records for wins (58) and points (122) in claiming the Presidents’ Trophy before being eliminated in the second round of the playoffs.

Brunette finished second in the Jack Adams Award voting for the NHL’s coach of the year.

He becomes just the fourth coach in the history of a Predators franchise and returns to Nashville, where Brunette played for the Trotz-coached team during its inaugural season in 1998-99.

Auto racing: NASCAR penalized Stewart-Haas Racing for an alleged “counterfeit part” found on Chase Briscoe’s car in a secondary inspection after Monday’s Coca-Cola 600. SHR’s No. 14 team was docked 120 points in both the owner standings and Briscoe’s driver standings, and he also was stripped of 25 playoff points. John Klausmeier, the crew chief, is suspended six races and was fined $250,000.

College basketball: Junior Gs Johnell Davis and Alijah Martin withdrew from the NBA draft and will return to Florida Atlantic next season. Davis and Martin were catalysts of the Owls’ 2023 Final Four run.

NBA: The Knicks will not extend the contract of GM Scott Perry, according to reports. Perry was on an expiring contract with the Knicks, who qualified for the playoffs this season for the second time in three years.