The day after the NFL regular season ends is known as ‘Black Monday’ for the mass firings of coaches and staff that occur after teams fall short of playoff expectations. Missing the NFL playoffs is high stakes and brutal, often surrounded by fan anger and media scrutiny. 

It’s not much different in the NHL. 

On Sunday, the Vegas Golden Knights didn’t even wait for the regular season to end to fire Bruce Cassidy and bring in John Tortorella. Vegas very well could still be a playoff team, sitting third in the Pacific and four points inside the cut-off line, but that move happened because the Golden Knights have Stanley Cup goals and are falling well short of pre-season expectations, looking for a bump down the stretch and into the post-season.

The surprise with Vegas’ change isn’t so much that it happened, but that Vegas didn’t replace Cassidy with a different kind of coach. Usually, when you make a change behind the bench, you go from bad cop to good cop, or good cop to bad cop, but in going from Cassidy to Tortorella, Vegas is going with two bad cops in a row. That tells you how upset the front office is with some of the players on their roster. The team has been inconsistent, and if Tortorella doesn’t fix this in the short term, player personnel change could follow in the off-season.

A lot of people are already speculating about Mark Stone’s health next season and whether he’ll be able to play. It’s not out of the realm to think Stone could be looking at a similar situation to Alex Pietrangelo, where the body finally breaks down and prolonged time off is necessary. Stone turns 34 in May and has just one season left on his contract with Vegas. 

Beyond Vegas, it’s not clear at this point how many other teams will be looking to change out their head coach and/or manager, but there are a few whose futures are uncertain. 

Unlike Vegas still hoping for playoff success, Toronto, New Jersey and Vancouver are all playing out the string, already out of the playoff race, and needing to consider deep changes throughout their organizations. With less than three weeks left in the regular season, speculation is already surrounding these teams. Regardless of when the respective ownership groups of these teams decide the fate of their coaches, all three management groups are expecting a version of their own ‘Black Monday’ once 82 games pass. 

Let’s take a closer look at each…

• In Toronto, Keith Pelley has already started his internal investigation into what went wrong this season. The CEO has scheduled debriefings with various staff members to get a range of opinions regarding management, coaching, and player evaluations. This will also include feedback on player leadership. 

• In New Jersey, Tom Fitzgerald holds the president of hockey operations and GM titles together, but some are wondering if the Devils’ ownership will look to break up those two jobs. That was their intention when they first offered the president job to John Davidson when he left the Rangers in 2021, but Davidson felt at the time it was too close to his ties to New York and chose to return to Columbus instead.  

It will be interesting to see if the Devils do look to hire someone solely for the president of hockey operations title this summer, and whether that would allow Fitzgerald to stick around for at least one more season as GM and assess him from there. The feeling in New Jersey is that Fitzgerald is preparing for the worst, knowing he’s on the hot seat.

• In Vancouver, there are strong suggestions that change is coming, but to what extent remains unclear. Until there is a better understanding of Jim Rutherford’s full commitment to a rebuild, things remain fluid. Either way, I hear GM Patrik Allvin doesn’t expect to survive past this season.

Who is looking for a job and might be available?

When it comes to the names being discussed most, we have to mention Brendan Shanahan, Peter Chiarelli, Marc Bergevin, and Brian Lawton as four people with executive experience who might have their sights set on a president of hockey operations title.

We also want to keep an eye on Chris Pronger and Ryan Getzlaf, two others being discussed for front-office jobs, who don’t have the same kind of executive experience. It doesn’t appear Nashville is moving in that kind of direction, as they’ve made it known they want more NHL front office experience than what Getzlaf or Pronger can provide at this point. 

We also need to talk about two others still under contract: St. Louis’ Doug Armstrong and Seattle’s Ron Francis. 

Armstrong, currently St. Louis’ president of hockey operations and GM, is under contract with the Blues through the 2028-29 season, but, effective July 1, he is set to relinquish his GM duties to Alex Steen and focus solely on the president role. However, I’m told he still immensely enjoys the day-to-day duties of a GM. 

If Armstrong could get out of his contract with the Blues, it would only be for both a president of hockey operations and GM role elsewhere. However, for him to make such a significant personal change in his life at this point, he would want complete autonomy and to only answer to ownership in hockey decisions. There are conflicting reports out there if Armstrong actually has an out window this summer or not, but there is buzz that St. Louis ownership has tired of the Toronto rumours. We will have to keep a close eye on this situation in the coming weeks. 

Meanwhile, in Seattle, Jason Botterill has a long-term deal in the GM’s chair, which has limited Francis’ involvement in hockey decisions. So, like Armstrong, Francis may be in a position to seek out other longer-term opportunities should they arise.   

And finally, we are keeping an eye on Steve Yzerman in Detroit. Ownership, led by Chris Ilitch, may be feeling more pressure than Yzerman himself to contemplate a change. Chris’ parents, Mike and Marian, drafted Yzerman back in 1983 and have shared a family-bond loyalty ever since.  

If the Wings miss out on the playoffs this season, it will be the seventh time they’ve fallen short under Yzerman, and fan-based pressure will hit a fever pitch. Just another situation to keep tabs on. 

What is Alex Ovechkin’s plan?

Washington has eight games left in its season, and it’s all quiet around Alex Ovechkin, who is in the final season of his contract at 40 years old. 

Ovechkin has kept his cards very close to the vest, and not many know his intentions right now. What I’ve heard is that he’s never been interested in a farewell tour like Anze Kopitar has been having with Los Angeles this season. Ovechkin liked the way Wayne Gretzky did it at the end of his career, announcing two days before his last regular-season game that he was retiring at the end of the season. Ovechkin could follow a similar blueprint if he decides this is it. 

What’s Gary Bettman’s future?

Managerial and coaching positions are not the only ones being wondered about at the end of the regular season.

Many at the recent GM meetings quietly speculated where Gary Bettman’s future lies as commissioner of the NHL.  It appears for at least the next two seasons, he isn’t going anywhere.

Two main focal points for Bettman continue to be American broadcasting rights and the search for expansion into at least two more markets. It has been noted that additional commissioner responsibilities that were on Bettman’s plate over the years have already been allocated to deputy commissioner Bill Daly.  

Whenever Bettman does decide to retire, Daly is the odds-on favourite to be his successor.

One interesting scenario I heard about was the possible creation of a new job role, something like a chairman of the board type of position in the NHL. This would create the potential for Bettman to stay on with the league in a much leaner role after he decides to step down as commissioner. 

Chairman roles can feel somewhat part-time, but they still carry critical responsibilities of governance and overall strategic health of the league.