Rick Bowness, Andrew Brunette and Rick Tocchet were named finalists for the Jack Adams Award on Friday.
The winner of the award, which is given annually to the top coach in the NHL as voted on by the National Broadcasters' Association, will be announced at a later date.
Bowness, 69, led the Winnipeg Jets (52-24-6) to a second-place finish in the Central Division, improving by 15 points from last season (from 95 to 110). Winnipeg allowed the fewest goals in the NHL this season (199, including shootout-deciding goals), and its plus-60 goal differential was fourth. The 52 wins tied for the most in franchise history and the 110 points were the second most (114 in 2017-18).
He missed four games from March 19-24 because of a minor medical procedure, with Winnipeg going 1-3-0. He also missed 11 games and was away from the team from Oct. 23-Nov. 22 after his wife, Judy, suffered a seizure Oct. 22. The Jets went 9-2-2 in his absence.
A first-time finalist, Bowness would be the first Winnipeg coach to win the award.
Hired as coach of the Nashville Predators on May 31, Brunette led the Nashville Predators to a 47-30-5 record and the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference after the team failed to qualify for the playoffs last season. The 50-year-old guided Nashville to a franchise-record 18 game point streak (16-0-2) from Feb. 17-March 26 and helped them improve to 10th in the NHL in goals per game (3.24), up from 28th in 2022-23 (2.72), and 16th on the power play (21.6 percent), up from 27th (17.6 percent).
"He came in as a new coach, it was a lot of new players, he brought in a new system, different system," Predators captain Roman Josi said. "The biggest thing I would say for him is it didn't always go that well in the beginning, we had our ups and downs, it wasn't as consistent as probably he would have hoped. But he just stuck with it. He kept believing in us. He believed in us the whole year, he believed in the system, and we just kept chipping at it and got more and more consistent. So well deserved. He's done an amazing job this year."
Brunette was runner-up for the Jack Adams in 2021-22 when he guided the Florida Panthers to the Presidents' Trophy as the team with the best record in the NHL.
He would be the first Predators coach to win the award.
Tocchet, in his first full season as coach of the Vancouver Canucks (50-23-9), led them to first place in the Pacific Division, their first division title in 10 years, and an improvement of 12 wins and 26 points from 2022-23. Vancouver was sixth in goals per game (3.40) and tied for fifth with the Boston Bruins in goals allowed per game (2.70), up from 13th in goals per game (3.29) and 25th in goals against per game (3.61) from last season. The penalty kill was tied with the St. Louis Blues for 17th (79.1 percent), an improvement from 2022-23 when it ranked last in the NHL (71.6 percent).
"Honestly, it's an organizational award for me," Tocchet said. "I mean it's the GM, the ownership, the assistant coaches, the players, like you're a piece of the puzzle. I think it's an organizational type of trophy. I've got a huge support group that helps me. That's the way I look at it. I'm just thinking about the game tonight to be honest with you."
A first-time finalist, Tocchet would be the third Canucks coach to win the award, and first since Alain Vigneault in 2006-07.
Bruins coach Jim Montgomery won the Jack Adams Award last season.
NHL.com deputy managing editor Adam Kimelman contributed to this report
