The Boston Bruins have welcomed Marco Sturm as their next head coach.
The longtime NHL player, who played five seasons with the Bruins from 2005 through 2010 and famously scored the winning goal in overtime of the 2010 Winter Classic at Fenway Park, was officially hired Thursday.
This will be Sturm’s first ever NHL head coach job, but he does have head coaching experience at the international level (he won Olympic silver with Germany in 2018) and the AHL level with the Ontario Reign. He had been the Reign’s head coach since the 2022-23 season. Prior to that, he was an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Kings for four years.
Sturm has a tough job in front of him. The Bruins just completed their worst season in almost two decades. They tied for the fifth-worst record in the league, couldn’t score consistently, struggled to defend at a high level and saw a steep decline in goaltending.
There are two key reasons why the Sturm hire has a good chance of being a success.
One of them is player development. The Bruins have done a poor job developing from within for about a decade. Sure, they’ve had a few hits, but their lackluster drafting and development is among the reasons why they’ve lacked the necessary depth to make deep playoff runs in recent years.
Sturm, during his time with the Kings at the NHL and AHL levels, did a great job developing and building relationships with Los Angeles’ top young players. Two of the best examples are center Quinton Byfield (No. 2 pick, 2020) and defenseman Brandt Clarke (No. 8 pick, 2021). The Bruins acquired a couple young players/prospects at the trade deadline in March, most notably Casey Mittelstadt, Fraser Minten and Will Zellers. They also have the No. 7 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft.
In total, Boston could have five first-round picks and four second-round picks in the next three drafts.
Even if the B’s end up trading some of these picks, the players they do get will benefit from Sturm’s ability to connect with players and put them in positions to maximize their potential.
Another reason why the Sturm hire should work out is the impact he can make on the Bruins’ defense. The backbone of the Bruins for the last 10-15 years has been a strong, fundamentally sound defensive structure that’s hard to play against. But for the last two years, the Bruins have been a below average defensive team.
Yes, the goaltending was horrible in 2024-25, and Jeremy Swayman had by far the worst season of his…