2023 Jack Adams Award winner debated by NHL.com

The 2023 NHL Awards will be held at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville on June 26 (8 p.m. ET; TNT, SN, TVAS). A total of 11 award winners will be announced at the ceremony, and the General Manager of the Year winner will be announced during the 2023 Upper Deck NHL Draft on June 28, also in Nashville.

In the lead-up to the events, NHL.com writers will debate who they think should win most of the awards. Today, senior director of editorial Shawn P. Roarke and staff writers Tracey Myers and Derek Van Diest debate the Jack Adams Award, which is presented annually by the NHL Broadcasters' Association to "the NHL coach judged to have contributed the most to his team's success." The winner is determined by a poll among the association's members at the end of the regular season.

The three finalists are Dave Hakstol of the Seattle Kraken, Jim Montgomery of the Boston Bruins and Lindy Ruff of the New Jersey Devils.

Myers: This is a tough one for a reason, right? You had great regular-season results for each of the three teams but my nod goes to Ruff. Right or wrong, I like to measure this award on how a team has improved season to season. After finishing seventh in the Metropolitan Division last season, the Devils were one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference in 2022-23, finishing second in the division behind the Carolina Hurricanes and third in the League. They had 52 wins, including a 13-game winning streak from Oct. 25-Nov. 21, tied for the longest in their history. Ruff worked with his young roster beautifully and went from hearing "Fire Lindy" from Devils fans at the start of the season to "Sorry Lindy" a few weeks later. Respect.

Van Diest: It is tough to argue against Montgomery considering what he did in his first season with the Bruins. They were runaway winners of the Presidents' Trophy, finishing 65-12-5 and setting NHL records for most wins and points (135) in a season. With essentially the same roster from the previous season, the Bruins improved by 14 wins and 28 points. Montgomery is considered a players' coach and his positive attitude got the most out of his roster during the regular season. David Pastrnak had a career year with 113 points (61 goals, 52 assists), as did goalie Linus Ullmark, who finished 40-6-1 with a 1.89 goals-against average, .938 save percentage and six shutouts, and is a finalist for the Vezina Trophy. The Bruins did falter in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, losing the Eastern Conference First Round in seven games to the Florida Panthers, but this is a regular-season award and no coach was better than Montgomery in 2022-23.

RELATED: [Complete list of 2023 NHL Awards finalists | 2023 Vezina Trophy winner debated]

Roarke: Man, there is no arguing with the qualifications of Ruff and Montgomery. But the rebound Hakstol had with the Kraken in the Pacific Northwest is legendary. This is a team that disappointed when it missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs in its inaugural season of 2021-22 but bounced back to become among the elite in the Western Conference this season. Under Hakstol, the Kraken qualified for their first playoff appearance, which included an upset of the defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche in the first round. Unlike Ruff, with Jack Hughes, and Montgomery, with Pastrnak and Ullmark, Hakstol did not have a superstar to build around. The Kraken were a team and played like one under Hakstol.

Myers: Yeah, there's no doubt Montgomery did great things in Boston, as did Hakstol in Seattle. Still, I'll point to the big turnaround Ruff had with the Devils. I'll start with special teams. Last season the Devils power play was 28th in the NHL, converting 15.6 percent of the time. This season, the power play was 13th in the League at 21.9 percent. The penalty kill was also improved, from 80.2 percent (14th) last season to 82.6 percent (fourth) this season. The Devils allowed 2.71 goals per game this season (eighth in the League) compared to 3.68 (29th) in 2021-22. They scored 3.52 goals per game (fifth), a jump after scoring 2.99 per game last season (19th). Pretty impressive numbers that helped lead to an impressive turnaround.

Van Diest: Good points Tracey, and I love how Ruff got fans to change their tune in New Jersey. I don't know of another fan base that called for a coach to be fired and then apologized to that same coach later in the season. Though Ruff did a great job pointing the Devils in the right direction, I feel there was a lot more pressure on Montgomery taking over in Boston. The bar in Boston is always high and Montgomery did a masterful job under immense scrutiny. The Bruins had the best penalty kill in the League (87.3 percent) and went from fourth in the Atlantic Division to first this season. Ruff taking the Devils from seventh in the Metropolitan Division to second this season was impressive, yet New Jersey had nowhere to go but up, considering the young talent on the roster. Montgomery had to turn a marginal playoff team into a Stanley Cup contender in his first season and did that.

Roarke: Look, there is no wrong choice here and I don't envy the broadcasters, but I'm throwing my lot in with Hakstol, even after your arguments. If you want to talk specifics, I can do specifics as well. The Kraken had 18 players score at least 20 points and 13 players score at least 10 goals. They used a straight goalie platoon with Philipp Grubauer and Martin Jones splitting starts evenly. Matty Beniers, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 NHL Draft, emerged as a legitimate Rookie of the Year candidate, with 57 points (24 goals, 33 assists) in a top-six role. Vince Dunn, a middle-six defenseman throughout his NHL career, turned into a Norris Trophy candidate with 64 points (14 goals, 50 assists) and a plus-28 rating. There were countless other career seasons on the roster. That speaks to coaching and, with all due respect to Ruff and Montgomery, nobody did it better than Hakstol this season.