Detroit Red Wings fill out coaching staff with Bob Boughner, Alex Westlund
MONTREAL — The Detroit Red Wings have filled out their new coaching staff Friday in hiring Bob Boughner as associate coach and Alex Westlund as goaltending coach.
The Wings' interest in Boughner was first reported by the Free Press on Thursday.
Boughner, 51, was the Wings' second-round pick in 1989 and played more than 600 NHL games. His coaching resume includes parts of three seasons as head coach of the San Jose Sharks, where he compiled a 67-85-23 record. Boughner returned to San Jose’s coaching staff as an assistant coach on May 29, 2019 before he was elevated to interim head coach Dec. 11, 2019.
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Prior to rejoining the Sharks, Boughner worked two seasons as head coach of the Florida Panthers from 2017-19 and posted an 80-62-22 mark. Boughner led the Panthers to a 44-30-8 record in his first season, as the team finished one point shy of clinching a playoff berth. Boughner previously worked two seasons as an assistant coach with the Sharks from 2015-17, and made his NHL coaching debut as an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets during the 2010-11 campaign.
Westlund, 46, spent the past five seasons in the Washington Capitals’ organization, serving as associate goaltending coach with the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears. Westlund worked with Washington’s minor-league affiliates, providing daily instruction to prospects in Hershey and the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays. Hershey’s goaltending tandem of Pheonix Copley and Zach Fucale won the Harry "Hap" Holmes Memorial Award in 2020-21, presented to the goaltender(s) on the team which allows the fewest goals per game in the regular season.
He joined the Capitals’ organization after spending two years in Germany as the goalie coach with Augsburger Panther Eishockey Club in the Deutsche Eishockey Liga from 2015-17, and was also goalie coach in the Kontinental Hockey League for Medvescak Zagreb during the 2016-17 season.
Contact Helene St. James at hstjames@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @helenestjames. Read more on the Detroit Red Wings and sign up for our Red Wings newsletter. Her book, The Big 50: The Detroit Red Wings is available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Triumph Books. Personalized copies available via her e-mail.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit Red Wings hire Bob Boughner, Alex Westlund for coaching staff
