"I feel good about it. I think that given a fair chance, that I'm the guy for this team," Boughner told The Athletic in remarks published Thursday. "And I think [general manager Doug Wilson] believes that, from what I know. I don't want to speak for him, but I'm planning on being back, I'm planning on putting a plan in place for next year, and trying to look forward."
Boughner was hired after Peter DeBoer was fired as Sharks coach Dec. 11. San Jose was 14-20-3 under Boughner before the NHL season was paused March 12 due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
"I changed the systems around a little bit and made some tweaks and a few changes," Boughner said. "We weren't so concerned about our record. We knew that there were going to be some tough nights and a lot of young guys in the lineup. …
"The one thing I can take from it is we worked hard on the culture, we worked hard on being a team that's hard to play against. For the most part, we were. Regardless of the wins or losses, when we played those games with the systems that we worked on … it's given guys a little bit of excitement knowing that coming back, they bought (into) those systems and they know we can be successful with them."
San Jose lost center Logan Couture, forward Tomas Hertl and defenseman Erik Karlsson to injury after Boughner took over and lost nine of the last 12 games it played. The Sharks were 29-36-5, 15 points out of Stanley Cup Playoff position and last in the Western Conference when the season was paused.
Boughner coached the Florida Panthers for two seasons before being fired after last season and replaced by Joel Quenneville. The 49-year-old described his status with the Sharks as being in a holding pattern.
"To make a fair assessment of the job I did, I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tough to make that decision," Boughner said.
