Bruce Cassidy isn’t behind an NHL bench, where he hoped to be by now, but he’s certainly not sitting on his hands.
The veteran coach is currently at Canada’s women’s national team’s selection camp in Quebec City, helping out as Hockey Canada prepares for November’s World Championships in Denmark.
The 2023 Stanley Cup champion coach was named special adviser to Team Canada general manager Danièle Sauvageau last month, but most of his focus has naturally been on helping support head coach Kori Cheverie.
“It’s been great,” Cassidy told The Athletic on Monday. “I’ve been going to training camps for 45 years as a player and then as a coach. So we have one here. It’s what you’re used to. Just getting back involved, watching video, getting familiar with some of the players here, helping to prepare practice, going on the ice, teaching again.
“Just trying to stay in a routine, so to speak. Great people here. This opportunity came up, and it’s really helped fill that void. It’s been great. I can help out and I’m learning while I’m here.”
Cheverie was named head coach Sept. 24, and Cassidy has enjoyed getting to know her.
“She’s great, really organized,” said Cassidy, the 2020 Jack Adams Award winner as NHL coach of the year.
The Hockey Canada assignment will keep Cassidy busy this fall right through November, when he plans to attend the World Championship in his role. After that? Well, he’s going to see what the rest of the season brings as far as his NHL future.
But in the meantime, the extra free time has its benefits, too.
“I’ve seen a lot of my son playing hockey on weekends. He’s 16, so that’s been great,” said Cassidy, who along with his wife has stayed in Las Vegas, where their daughter is a senior in high school this year.
Cassidy will also do the odd TNT game in studio in Atlanta.
“Those are always fun to do. Those guys are fun,” Cassidy said of the TNT panel.
But an NHL bench is where he belongs. He’ll patiently wait for that phone to ring.
It’s a similar situation to the one Peter DeBoer was in a year ago, when DeBoer was biding his time before the New York Islanders came calling late in the season. Now Cassidy is at the top of the food chain as the most likely coach to get hired if and when there’s an NHL opening.
Of course, the awkward thing for any coach in between jobs is that he isn’t wishing for any pals to get fired.
“They’re all colleagues and some of them friends,” Cassidy said. “I can’t say I know every single NHL coach well, but most of them you interact with somewhere along the line, and some are really good buddies.”
Also, the Vegas Golden Knights will still have to give a team permission to speak to Cassidy, as he remains under contract with them until June 30, 2027.
“Nothing’s changed,” Cassidy said. “They have to give permission. That’s how they left it. So there’s nowhere to go with that until a potential opportunity comes up. We’ll see where it goes. We’ll see if something comes up. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, you know?”
It’s been well documented that the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings were denied permission to speak to Cassidy last spring during the Golden Knights’ playoff run. And the NHL confirmed Vegas was well within its rights to do so, as Cassidy doesn’t have the “out” language in his contract that some other coaches have.
Whatever the case, Cassidy missed out on that NHL hiring cycle. He’s turned the page. He’s ready for the next one.
One thing I always ask a coach in this position: What has he learned after time to decompress and self-analyze that he will bring with him to his next NHL gig?
“Well, I don’t want to change who I am,” Cassidy said. “I’ve always thought I’m a pretty direct coach. I hold people accountable, and my teams play a certain way. But I think it’s always about how you message. You’ve always got to reflect on that. That’s the biggest thing I’ll probably look at again.”
“Again,” because he did the same after being fired by the Boston Bruins.
How can he improve the messaging? He won a Cup in Vegas, then got fired nearly three years later. Lots to digest in there.
“You win the Cup, you want to stay at that standard. How do you get that message across without pushing the guys (too far) and trusting they know what it looks like to win?” Cassidy said. “The first year after the Cup, you do that, and you lose early in the playoffs — you’re like, ‘OK, we’re not the same team. We’ve got to move on. We’re not the defending champs anymore.’
“So how are you messaging that every day and yet the guys in the room know they’ve won and they know what it takes? I think that was the biggest challenge in Years 3 and 4, that I would self-reflect and maybe say I should have done it this way or that way.”
No question there’s been some soul-searching and self-diagnosis going on there. You have to evolve. You have to learn. Or you get left behind.
In the meantime, his current gig comes at a perfect time, just as DeBoer’s work for the men’s national team came at the perfect time a year ago.
“Pete did work with Hockey Canada last year, as well, ahead of the Olympics,” said Cassidy, who was part of that Olympic staff with DeBoer. “That’s why I thought this was a really good fit, because you’re coaching. And you’re coaching women (for the first time), so you’re going to learn something. But you’re still breaking down video. You’re coaching.
“This has been a lot of fun. They’re a good group.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Vegas Golden Knights, NHL, Women's Hockey
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