Ex-Canucks coach Boudreau could coach Team Canada this month
Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Bruce Boudreau could be back behind the bench soon.
Boudreau is in the running to be named head coach for Team Canada at the annual Spengler Cup, per Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek.
Hearing Bruce Boudreau is in the mix to coach Team Canada at the Spengler Cup.
— Jeff Marek (@JeffMarek) December 13, 2023
The 2023 Spengler Cup will be held from December 26 to December 31 in Davos, Switzerland. The tournament was first held 100 years ago and has a rich history. It pits Team Canada, mostly composed of players playing in Europe, against a variety of club teams from the continent.
Boudreau coached the Canucks for parts of two seasons. He inherited a struggling club in the middle of the 2021-22 campaign and led them on a mad push for the playoffs, but they ultimately fell short. He was fired after an 18-25-3 start to the next season, leaving his position with a total record of 50-40-13 with the franchise.
The firing of Boudreau was turned into a long and drawn out process that included some emotional moments. The decision was finally made official in January 2022. Boudreau was replaced by Rick Tocchet who has the Canucks in the top-five of the NHL standings more than one-third of the way through his first full season as head coach.
Boudreau landed on his feet after getting fired, eventually joining NHL Network as an analyst. However, he has not yet joined another NHL coaching staff since being dismissed from the Canucks. He has a career 617-342-128 record as an NHL head coach and sits 21st all-time among NHL head coaches in wins.
Last year’s Team Canada Spengler Cup squad was led by another former-Canucks head coach, Travis Green. His team was eliminated after losing all three of their games. Prior to that, Team Canada had won four of the last five iterations of the tournament.
Canada leads the all-time Spengler Cup rankings with 16 championships, although HC Davos is not far behind with 15 titles.