The NHL has announced that Rick Bowness (Winnipeg Jets), Andrew Brunette (Nashville Predators) and Rick Tocchet (Vancouver Canucks) have been named the finalists for the 2023-24 Jack Adams Award. The annual award honors the top head coach in the NHL.
Bowness thrived in his second season as the Jets' head coach as he helped lead the franchise to a 52-24-6 record (110 points). It marked the second-highest regular-season point total in team history, while also finishing with the fourth-best record in the NHL. The Jets also tied a franchise record for wins (52) and set the franchise record for road wins (25).
This was the 14th NHL season for Bowness as a head coach and his 36th as a coach in the sport overall. Bowness becomes the first Jack Adams Award finalist in Jets/Atlanta Thrashers franchise history.
Brunette is in his first season as the Predators' head coach and certainly had an abundance of success. He led the Predators back to the postseason after missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2022-23. Brunette, who suited up for the franchise during his playing days, helped the Predators achieve a franchise-record 18-game point streak -- the longest since the Colorado Avalanche went 17-0-2 during a stretch in 2021-22.
This is the second time that Brunette has been a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as he was also honored while coaching the Florida Panthers in 2021-22. Brunette joins Barry Trotz and Peter Laviolette as the only head coaches in team history to be chosen as a Jack Adams finalist.
Finally, Tocchet has had a great deal of success early on in his tenure with the Canucks. In his first full season as Vancouver's head coach, Tocchet led the Canucks to a 50-23-9 record (109 points) and a Pacific Division title. The Canucks' 109 points were the third-highest point total in franchise history.
After finishing 22nd in the overall standings during the 2022-23 season, the Canucks developed into one of the NHL's top teams and earned one of the two No. 1 seeds in the Western Conference. Tocchet joins Pat Quinn and Alain Vigneault as the only Jack Adams finalists in team history.
