Sharks make a bunch of coaching changes
Pierre LeBrun: The San Jose Sharks fired head coach Pete DeBoer. It was purely a hockey decision to let him go.
David Pagnotta: The Sharks also let go assistant coaches Dave Barr and Steve Spott, as well as goaltending coach Johan Hedberg.
David Pagnotta: Bob Boughner remains and has been named their interim head coach.
Roy Sommer has been named an associate coach, Mike Ricci named an assistant coach, and Evgeni Nabokov as their goalie coach.
Pierre LeBrun: DeBoer has one more year left on his contract at a $3 million salary.
David Pagnotta: Sharks GM Doug Wilson:
“When you have had a level of past success, change is never easy, but we feel this team is capable of much more than we have shown thus far and that a new voice is needed.”
Meskanen on unconditional waivers
Cap Friendly: The New York Rangers have put forward Ville Meskanen on unconditional waivers for the purpose of terminating his contract.
Francis on why he gave Peters an extension in Carolina
Geoff Baker of the Seattle Times: Now Seattle GM Ron Francis on why he gave Bill Peters a contract extension with the Carolina Hurricanes after he was made aware of the physical contact he had with players during a game.
“We looked where the team was and how it was playing,” Francis said. “It was moving in the right direction. We’d made a huge increase from where it was the year before to where we were that year. And quite honestly, we looked at that (physical-abuse) situation, we addressed it and we felt it was behind him.”
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is still looking into the discrepancies between Francis’ statement that he told ownership about Peters’ actions and former Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos who said he was never told about the physical abuse.