Jack Adams Award winner for 2024-25 season debated by NHL.com

The NHL's offseason business is close to finished with most free agents having been signed. Training camps loom in less than three weeks, and the landscape of the League has changed with new faces in new places. Heck, even the team landscape has changed with the Arizona Coyotes being relocated to Salt Lake City and becoming the Utah Hockey Club.

With that in mind, we asked NHL.com staffers to look into their crystal balls and do some prognosticating on the League's major awards. Today, it's the Jack Adams Award, given annually to the League's best coach. Here, in alphabetical order, were the selections.

Craig Berube, Toronto Maple Leafs

The former St. Louis Blues coach could be the right man at the right time for the Maple Leafs. Toronto has reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs eight straight seasons but have won one series, the 2023 Eastern Conference First Round. Berube brings a different kind of energy from Sheldon Keefe, Toronto's coach the previous five seasons, and it might be the kind of intensity and demanding approach this core group needs. Berube wants his players to play fast and be in peak condition and will have no problem cutting ice time for those who won't or can't keep up. There might not be the offensive flash of previous seasons, but the Maple Leafs likely will be a better team, and with that could be some Jack Adams Award votes for Berube. -- Adam Kimelman, deputy managing editor

Rod Brind'Amour, Carolina Hurricanes

I remember talking to Brind'Amour heading into the 2021-22 season after he led the Hurricanes to first in the Central Division the previous season and won the Jack Adams Award. He had a concern about the Hurricanes losing 10 regular players via trade. How did things go that season? Carolina won the Metropolitan Division. I bring this up because the Hurricanes went through another overhaul this offseason, losing nearly a third of their lineup. With Brind'Amour, it doesn't seem to matter. He knows how to fit players into his system, players seem to love playing for him and I expect the Hurricanes to be going to the playoffs for the seventh straight season. Brind'Amour is one of the best coaches in the NHL and he'll prove why again this season. -- Tracey Myers, staff writer

Andrew Brunette, Nashville Predators

Christmas came July 1 for Brunette thanks to the Predators signing free agent forwards Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault, and defenseman Brady Skjei. Now comes the difficult part for the Predators, transforming a roster that looks good on paper into on-ice success. That job lies with Brunette and his coaching staff, which will be under plenty of scrutiny to meet lofty expectations after the high-profile additions. Truth be told, Brunette has already shown his worth as one of the top coaches in the NHL, finishing second in voting last season to Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks. The Predators finished 20-5-3 and played the Canucks in the Western Conference First Round. They managed to do that despite having four 20-goal scorers on the roster. Now, thanks to their offseason spending spree, the offense should get a real boost, much like Brunette's odds of getting more love from the Adams voters. -- Mike Zeisberger, staff writer

Dan Bylsma, Seattle Kraken

There are few coaches hungrier than Bylsma, who is back in the NHL as a head coach for the first time since he coached the Buffalo Sabres in 2016-17. He since paid his dues as an assistant coach and a head coach in the minors. He led Coachella Valley, the Kraken's American Hockey League affiliate, to the Calder Cup Final in each of the past two seasons. Now, he returns to the NHL with a Kraken team that disappointed last season. Let's not forget that Bylsma won the Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009 after joining them as an in-season replacement. In each of the next five seasons, Bylsma's teams finished either first or second in the division. The Kraken are hungry and more mature than in the past and Bylsma knows a good deal of the roster intimately after his past two years with the franchise. -- Shawn P. Roarke, senior director of editorial

Jon Cooper, Tampa Bay Lightning

Don't sleep on the Lightning or Cooper. Sure, Stamkos is gone via free agency, but they still have Nikita Kucherov, Victor Hedman, Andrei Vasilevskiy and newcomer Jake Guentzel, with Cooper still leading the chorus. He's guided the Lightning through challenges and change during 12 seasons, including missing Kucherov in 2020-21 because of hip surgery and Vasilevskiy for 20 games last season following microdiscectomy surgery for a lumbar disk herniation Sept. 28, and still produced winning seasons. Cooper is 525-279-79 in 879 regular-season games and 87-63 in 150 playoff games. He's won the Stanley Cup twice, but never the Jack Adams Award. I think this could be his season. -- William Douglas, staff writer

Travis Green, Ottawa Senators

Nothing doomed the Senators last season quite like their goaltending, which combined for an .884 save percentage that tied the Philadelphia Flyers for last in the NHL using Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg. The Senators traded for Boston Bruins goalie Linus Ullmark, the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner when Jim Montgomery, the new coach in Boston, won the Jack Adams Award. So I'm going with Green, who has a chance to turn around the Senators, a team that hasn't made the playoffs since 2017. Make the playoffs and Green becomes a strong contender. He's 141-159-35 with the Canucks and New Jersey Devils with a reputation for helping with player development on a team with lots of young talent. It could be just the fit to bring home some hardware. -- Amalie Benjamin, staff writer

Kris Knoblauch, Edmonton Oilers

What Knoblauch did after taking over as Oilers coach last season was remarkable and if he can do it again this season, he should be in consideration for coach of the year. Knoblauch was hired to replace Jay Woodcroft on Nov. 12, 2023, with Edmonton at the bottom of the NHL standings, and took it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. He was 46-18-5 in his first season as an NHL coach and a big reason Edmonton was able to get its season back on track. With the Oilers returning most of their roster, it will be interesting to see what Knoblauch can do from the beginning of the season. -- Derek Van Diest, staff writer

Lindy Ruff, Buffalo Sabres

The last coach to lead the Sabres to the playoffs is back to do it again. Of course, that last time was in 2010-11 and plenty of things have changed with Ruff and the Sabres, but one thing has not -- how much the Buffalo fan base loves him. And why not? During his first stint from 1987-88 to 2012-13, Buffalo reached the playoffs eight times in 13 seasons, the Stanley Cup Final once and the Eastern Conference Final three times. Ruff has a track record of turning around teams. After leaving Buffalo, he took over a Dallas Stars team that had missed the playoffs five straight seasons and took it to the postseason in his first and third season. The Devils had made the playoffs once in eight seasons, and he not only got them into the postseason in his third season, they defeated the rival New York Rangers in the first round. Simply put, Ruff makes an impact wherever he goes. He has the fifth-most coaching wins (864) in NHL history and a good, young roster this season to mold into his style. -- Bill Price, Editor-in-Chief

Andre Tourigny, Utah Hockey Club

I spoke with Tourigny during Day Two of the 2024 NHL Draft, shortly after Utah acquired defenseman Mikhail Sergachev from the Lightning. The excitement in his voice was obvious. The anticipation for what could be this first season in Utah was evident. Tourigny's trajectory with the Arizona Coyotes the past three seasons is exactly on course with what the team should be doing. It improved each season, from 25 wins and 57 points in 2021-22 to 28 and 70 in 2022-23 to 36 wins and 77 points last season. This will be the most talented and deepest team he has coached since joining the franchise. In addition to Sergachev, Utah added defensemen John Marino and Ian Cole, and Sean Durzi, Juuso Valimaki and Michael Kesselring return. Clayton Keller doesn't have to be a one-man show anymore. Logan Cooley, Dylan Guenther, Matias Maccelli are there to help provide offense. Tourigny will focus on defense and penalty killing. Improvements in both areas will put Utah in the playoff picture and Tourigny on the list for the Jack Adams Award. -- Dan Rosen, senior writer