The voting for all of the NHL league awards is done before the playoffs begin and after the regular season. That makes sense for most awards like the Hart, Vezina, Norris and Calder Trophies. But when it comes to the Jack Adams Award for the best coach, that’s the one award that should include the playoffs. The fact that New York Rangers coach Gerard Gallant finished third behind Darryl Sutter and Andrew Brunette just reinforces that.
There’s a simple reason why. The goal for every coach in the NHL is to win a Stanley Cup. That’s why a coach is hired. To judge a coach’s performance without including the playoffs makes absolutely no sense.
Jon Cooper has won two straight Stanley Cups and has made three trips to the Stanley Cup Final along with three trips to the Conference Finals. Yet, because his teams have finished in first place only twice, he has not won the Jack Adams Award.
Barry Trotz is widely regarded as one of the best coaches in the business. One reason is that he’s won the Adams twice, once with the Capitals and once with the Islanders. Yet, he has been an NHL coach for 23 years and won only one Stanley Cup.
The last coach to win the Adams and then take his team to the championship was John Tortorella of the Lightning in 2004. Only two other coaches who have won the Cup have also won the award. Scotty Bowman won with Montreal in 1977 and Fred Shero took home the first Jack Adams Award in 1974.
Four coaches have won the Jack Adams for their regular season work and then gone on to to lose in the Stanley Cup Final. They were Gallant in 2018 (Vegas), Pat Burns in 1989 (Montreal), Mike Keenan in 1985 (Flyers) and Pat Quinn in 1980 (Flyers).
That means in the 48 seasons that they have handed out the Jack Adams Award, of the 96 coaches who made it to the Stanley Cup Final, only seven were recognized as the best coach.
The players have the Conn Smythe Trophy that recognizes excellence in the playoffs. It can go to a skater or a netminder and a playoffs only award makes a lot of sense. An individual player can elevate his game and take his team deep into the playoffs. It can be a player who was not a superstar in the regular season. Ryan O’Reilly of the Blues, Justin Williams of the Kings and Cam Ward of the Hurricanes are excellent examples.
But there is no recognition for a coach who not only excels in the regular season and then carries that into the playoffs.
Purists will argue that the Cup winning coach will always win the award. That simply is not so. We have to give the voters more credit than that. A coach whose team has an “average” season and makes the playoffs, then goes on a postseason run should not win the award based on a small sample size of 20 games.
But in a season like this one, the fact that Gerard Gallant has guided his team to the seventh best record in the NHL and then has followed it up with a trip to the Conference Finals, it should count considering that Darryl Sutter’s Flames were upset by the Oilers and Andrew Brunette’s Panthers were humiliated by the Lightning in the Second Round.
So, including the playoffs in the Jack Adams voting is a logical solution to a situation that is simply unfair. It won’t happen so all Ranger fans will have to be satisfied with the knowledge who the true coach of the year is this season. It’s Gerard Gallant.