List of Boston Bruins head coaches

Claude Julien, Bruins head coach from 2007-2017.

The Boston Bruins, a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts, has had 27 head coaches in its team history. The franchise is a member of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). The franchise was founded in 1924 and entered the NHL as the first American-based expansion team. It is an Original Six team, along with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Chicago Blackhawks. Its home arena is the 17,565-person capacity TD Banknorth Garden, where it has played since 1995, after leaving the Boston Garden.

Art Ross served four terms as the Bruins head coach. Ross, Cy Denneny, Lynn Patrick, Milt Schmidt and Mike Milbury have all been inducted to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Harry Sinden, Gerry Cheevers, Tom Johnson and Frank Patrick are in Hockey Hall of Fame inductees, and spent their entire coaching careers with the Bruins. Cooney Weiland, Dit Clapper, Terry O'Reilly, Steve Kasper, Mike O'Connell and Mike Sullivan also coached only for the Bruins.

Statistically, Tom Johnson was the best coach, with a winning percentage of .738. He is followed by Harry Sinden, who, averaging his two terms, had a winning percentage of .689. The worst coach statistically was Phil Watson, who, with a winning percentage of .268, only won 16 out of the 84 games he coached. Claude Julien, the current coach of the Bruins, took over after Lewis was dismissed in 2007.

Key

#	Number of coaches[A]
GC	Games coached
W	Wins
L	Losses
T	Ties
Win%	Winning percentage
*	Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame
†	Spent entire professional head coaching career with the Bruins.
*†	Elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame and spent entire professional head coaching career with the Bruins.

Coaches

Art Ross, the first coach of the Bruins, led them to a Stanley Cup championship.

Frank Patrick led his team into the playoffs in every season of his Bruins coaching career.

Dave Lewis coached the Bruins during the 2006–07 season.

#	Name	Term	Regular season					Playoffs				Championships/awards won	Reference
			GC	W	L	T	Win%	GC	W	L	T
1	Art Ross*	1924–1928	154	64	72	18	.474	—	—	—	—
2	Cy Denneny*	1928–1929	44	26	13	5	.648	5	5	0	0	1 Stanley Cup Championship (1929)
—	Art Ross*	1929–1934	232	124	76	32	.603	6	2	4	0
3	Frank Patrick *†	1934–1936	96	48	36	12	.563	6	2	4	0
—	Art Ross*	1936–1939	144	89	39	16	.674	18	9	9	0	1 Stanley Cup Championship (1939)
4	Cooney Weiland†	1939–1941	96	58	20	18	.698	17	10	7	0	1 Stanley Cup Championship (1941)
—	Art Ross*	1941–1945	198	84	90	24	.485	21	9	12	0
5	Dit Clapper†	1945–1949	230	102	88	40	.530	25	8	17	0
6	Georges Boucher	1949–1950	70	22	32	16	.429	—	—	—	—
7	Lynn Patrick*	1950–1954	310	117	130	63	.479	40	16	23	1
8	Milt Schmidt*	1954–1961	460	172	203	75	.455	34	15	19	0
9	Phil Watson	1961–1962	84	16	55	13	.268	—	—	—	—
—	Milt Schmidt*	1962–1966	266	73	157	46	.361	—	—	—	—
10	Harry Sinden*†	1966–1970	296	136	105	55	.552	28	18	10	0	1 Stanley Cup Championship (1970)
11	Tom Johnson*†	1970–1973	208	142	43	23	.738	22	15	7	0	1 Stanley Cup Championship (1972)
12	Bep Guidolin	1973–1974	104	72	23	9	.736	21	11	10	0
13	Don Cherry	1974–1979	400	231	105	64	.658	55	31	24	0	1976 Jack Adams Award Winner
14	Fred Creighton	1979–1980	73	40	20	13	.637	—	—	—	—
—	Harry Sinden*†	1980	7	6	1	0	.857	10	4	6	0
15	Gerry Cheevers*†	1980–1985	376	204	126	46	.604	34	15	19	0
—	Harry Sinden*†	1985	24	11	10	3	.521	5	2	3	0
16	Butch Goring	1985–1986	93	42	38	13	.522	3	0	3	0
17	Terry O'Reilly†	1986–1989	227	115	86	26	.564	37	17	19	1
18	Mike Milbury*	1989–1991	160	90	49	21	.628	40	23	17	0
19	Rick Bowness	1991–1992	80	36	32	12	.525	15	8	7	0
20	Brian Sutter	1992–1995	216	120	73	23	.609	22	7	15	0
21	Steve Kasper†	1995–1997	164	66	78	20	.463	5	1	4	0
22	Pat Burns	1997–2000	254	105	103	46	.504	18	8	10	0	1998 Jack Adams Award Winner
23	Mike Keenan	2000–2001	74	33	34	7	.547	—	—	—	—
24	Robbie Ftorek	2001–2003	155	76	65	14	.577	6	2	4	0
25	Mike O'Connell†	2003	9	3	3	3	.500	5	1	4	0
26	Mike Sullivan†	2003–2006	164	70	79	15	.543	7	3	4	0
27	Dave Lewis	2006–2007	82	35	41	6	.463	—	—	—	—
28	Claude Julien	2007–2017	164	94	48	22	.640	18	10	8	0	2009 Jack Adams Award Winner
29	Bruce Cassidy	2017–present	191	117	52	22	.612	42	22	20	0

Notes

• ^A  A running total of the number of coaches of the Bruins. Thus any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.

References

General

• Boston Bruins Coach Register. Hockey-Reference.com. Sports Reference, LLC. Retrieved on 2008-07-16.
• Boston Bruins - History. NHL.com. Lincoln Hockey and the National Hockey League. Retrieved on 2008-06-29.

Specific