After losing his assistant coach job with the Toronto Maple Leafs over the summer, Guy Boucher is starting a new tenure with another team — on another continent.
On Wednesday, KHL club Avangard Omsk announced that they have hired the 53-year-old as their new head coach.
With the ongoing KHL season already halfway done, Boucher was signed to a deal that will last through the team’s 2025-26 campaign.
⚡ Хоккейный клуб «Авангард» заключил контракт до конца сезона 2025-2026 с канадским тренером Ги Буше: https://t.co/7iDZwVLmbS#checkmate #ВремяАвангарда pic.twitter.com/iGxqgMoS9W
— ХК Авангард (@hcavangardomsk) November 27, 2024
Boucher and fellow assistant coach Mike Van Ryn joined the Leafs in the 2023 offseason to work under former bench boss Sheldon Keefe. While Van Ryn retained his position after Keefe was fired and replaced with current Leafs coach Craig Berube, Boucher parted ways with Toronto in June.
A key aspect of his responsibilities was managing the power play, which ranked seventh in the NHL last season with a 24% success rate.
Before that, the Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Quebec native coached the Ottawa Senators from 2016 to 2019, leading them to the Eastern Conference Final in 2017. He also coached the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2010 to 2013, guiding them to the Eastern Conference Final in 2011.
Boucher holds a 191-186-46 career coaching record in the NHL. He will soon join Traktor Chelyabinsk’s Benoit Groulx as one of only two Canadians coaching in Russia’s top league.