Sharks fire coach Quinn after NHL-worst 19-54-9 season
Sharks fire coach Quinn after NHL-worst 19-54-9 season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
David Quinn has been fired as San Jose Sharks coach, the team announced Wednesday.
“After going through our end of the season process of internal meetings and evaluating where our team is at and where we want our group to go, we have made the difficult decision to make a change at the head coach position,” Grier wrote in a statement. “David is a good coach and an even better person. I would like to personally thank him for his hard work over these past two seasons. He and his staff did an admirable job under some difficult circumstances, and I sincerely appreciate how they handled the situation.”
Quinn's dismissal comes after the Sharks finished with the worst record in the NHL during the 2023-24 season (19-54-9).
Quinn inherited a rebuilding Sharks squad before the 2022-23 season, but it's clear Grier didn't see the progress he needed to see.
Quinn finishes with a 41-98-25 record in two seasons as Sharks coach.
The Sharks struggled out of the gate this season, starting 0-10-1 before finally winning their 12th game of the season. Things didn't get much better after that. San Jose also sustained a 12-game losing streak from Dec. 15 through Jan. 9 that dropped its record to 9-29-3 at the time.
The Sharks also have two more separate nine-game losing streaks after the All-Star break, and lost the final three games of the season.
While Mikael Granlund, William Eklund and Fabian Zetterlund had standout seasons for the Sharks, the rest of the roster didn't seem to develop at the rate Grier hoped.
Grier's first hire as Sharks general manager didn't work out, and now he will be tasked with finding San Jose's next coach.
Whoever the next Sharks coach is, he will have a chance to coach the next wave of talent in San Jose's organization, with first-round draft picks Will Smith and Quentin Musty on the way.
If the Sharks land the No. 1 overall 2024 NHL Draft pick, they likely will add top prospect Macklin Celebrini to the system, which would give the next coach a potential cornerstone player to build around.
For now, the spotlight turns to Grier as he begins the search for a new bench boss in San Jose.
