The number of available head-coaching jobs in the NHL keeps dwindling. Coming into Wednesday, just four teams were without a bench boss, and that number has since appeared to drop to three, with The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reporting that the Chicago Blackhawks have hired former Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill.
Washington Capitals assistant Mitch Love has generated a significant amount of interest as teams search for their new leaders. Love has already interviewed with the Pittsburgh Penguins and is now being linked to the Seattle Kraken job by TSN’s Darren Dreger.
Seattle continues to work through its process in hiring a head coach. Toronto has granted the Kraken permission to speak with Lane Lambert. Mitch Love and David Quinn believed to be among those in the mix as well.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) May 21, 2025
“Seattle continues to work through its process in hiring a head coach,” Dreger tweeted Wednesday. “Toronto has granted the Kraken permission to speak with Lane Lambert. Mitch Love and David Quinn believed to be among those in the mix as well.”
With the Blackhawks’ job coming off the board, the Kraken, Penguins, and Boston Bruins are the lone three teams yet to hire a new head coach.
Love already has ties to the Pacific Northwest through his six years as an assistant coach with the WHL’s Everett Silvertips. The 40-year-old former AHL enforcer is also a British Columbia native who played the final two seasons of his junior career in Everett, Washington.
The 2024-25 Kraken finished out of the playoff picture in the Western Conference with a 35-41-6 record, firing head coach Dan Bylsma after just one year in charge of the club. In their four-year existence, Seattle has qualified for the postseason just once (2023).
Love, a two-time AHL Coach of the Year, has led the Capitals’ defense corps on Spencer Carbery’s staff for the past two years. In addition to his two years as a head coach in the AHL with the Calgary Flames’ organization, Love also served as bench boss of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades for three years.
“He’s done a tremendous job for us and very similar coaching path to where I came from, having been an assistant a couple years,” Carbery said of Love last week. “Hoping that he gets an opportunity at some point. He deserves it. He’s earned it. He’s done a great job coaching our D-corps the last two years, has had a ton of success as a head coach. He is a head coach, and so it’s just a matter of him getting that opportunity.”
Hershey Bears head coach Todd Nelson was previously mentioned as a candidate for the Vancouver Canucks’ job before they promoted Adam Foote to the position, but hasn’t been mentioned in any recent reports regarding the three spots still open.