Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
As always, the head coaches of the American Hockey League are on the road this summer.
NHL organizations have a long history of acquiring AHL coaching talent. At the end of the 2025-26 season, 21 NHL clubs were led by former AHL coaches. That list includes the last Jack Adams Award winners in Tampa Bay John Cooper and Washington Spencer Carberyboth of whom also won the Louis AR Pieri Award as coach of the year during their AHL days.
Now, nearly a month since the start of the season, 10 other AHL head coaches have landed NHL gigs. Two of those promotions are to NHL head coaching roles.
The Vancouver Canucks are promoted Manny Malhotra from Abbotsford on June 1. He won the Calder Cup with Abbotsford as head coach in 2025, and oversaw the development of no fewer than 11 prospects who skated in Vancouver last season.
Vancouver will have a heavy AHL flavor on a revamped coaching staff in September. Ryan Mougenelwinner of the Pieri Award in 2025-26, will serve as Malhotra’s assistant and former Abbotsford assistant. Jordan Smith. Mougenel’s Providence Bruins own the best record in the AHL over the past five seasons at 217-103-26-14 (.658).
Ryan Craig has landed his first NHL head coaching job after the Vegas Golden Knights promoted him to Henderson on June 17. Craig will bring a well-decorated resume with him to T-Mobile Arena, having moved from the ice to an assistant coaching role with the expansion Golden Knights in 2017 before spending three seasons as the head coach of the Silver Knights. All that experience on the bench followed a playing career that included 198 NHL games and 711 in the AHL, and he captained the Lake Erie Monsters to the Calder Cup in 2016. Mark Letestufresh off a trip to the conference finals in his first season as head coach of the Colorado Eagles, he was hired as an assistant on Craig’s staff.
Trent VogelhuberCraig’s teammate in Cleveland, was also arrested by the NHL. Ohio-born Vogelhuber moves from Monsters to parent Columbus Blue Jackets as assistant coach; won a division title with Cleveland in 2023-24, advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals in the spring, and guided the Monsters to three appearances after his four seasons.
John Gruden has been promoted to the new head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs Jim Hillerreturning to the NHL after three seasons as head coach of the Toronto Marlies. Gruden, a former assistant with the New York Islanders and Boston Bruins, led the Marlies to a 107-75-19-15 (.574) record and earned his spot in the 2026 Calder Cup.
Matt McIlvane he went east to join Boston as an assistant after three seasons as head coach of the San Diego Gulls. He will work with the Bruins coach Marco SturmMcIlvane’s former Pacific Division rival from Sturm’s time in Ontario. The two worked together again during the 2018 Olympics, helping Germany to a silver medal.
There are some back-to-backs in the NHL Greg Cronin, Rocky Thompson again Pascal Vincent. Cronin was hired as an assistant coach by the St. Louis Blues, and a former assistant for the Rochester Americans. Vinny Prospalafter leading the Iowa Wild in 2025-26. Thompson was promoted to the New York Islanders after guiding Bridgeport to the Calder Cup Playoffs this past season. And Vincent, a two-time Pieri Award winner, is now an assistant with the Seattle Kraken following two seasons as head coach of the Laval Rockets that led to back-to-back division titles.
Four long-time NHL players took significant steps in their coaching careers this AHL season. Joel Ward and his 726 games of NHL playing experience will replace Craig with Henderson. Ward, who spent the past three seasons as an assistant with the Golden Knights, is back with Henderson, where he got his start in the coaching business as an assistant coach. Jay McKee takes over the Hamilton Hammers, the newly relocated AHL affiliate of the New York Islanders, after nine seasons as head coach in the Ontario Hockey League. Steve SullivanCalder Cup winner with Albany before skating in more than 1,000 games in the NHL, returns to the Marlies as head coach, and Steve Ott signed a two-year extension to remain head coach of the Springfield Thunderbirds after taking over on an interim basis in January.
Other first-time head coaches in the AHL in 2026-27 include Stu Bickeltaking over at Iowa after four years as an assistant coach in the Coachella Valley; Nick Bootlandan assistant at Hershey who became the new head coach in Cleveland; again Daniel Jacobwho takes over from Laval after working as an assistant for the Rockets and Syracuse and San Diego.
Charlotte Geordie Kinnearhired by the Florida Panthers as their AHL head coach prior to the 2016–17 campaign, is the league’s longest-tenured head coach. He approached behind him Karl Taylorhas been with the Milwaukee Admirals since the start of the 2018-19 season.
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
