By: Jack Studley | Follow me on Twitter/X @jackstudley13
The faces behind the Bruins bench will look slightly different as the 2025-26 season approaches this fall. As the coaching carousel settled down, Marco Sturm was hired as the 30th head coach in Boston Bruins history. Following the announcement, the Bruins decided that assistants Jay Leach, Chris Kelly, and goaltending coach Bob Essensa would stay on Sturm’s staff.
Former interim head coach Joe Sacco departed Boston for a new job on Mike Sullivan’s staff in New York. With that, one spot was open on the Bruins bench. At Sturm’s introductory press conference, he and Don Sweeney emphasized hiring an assistant coach with “some power play experience.” On June 20, the Bruins announced the hire of Steve Spott, an assistant with the qualities that the Bruins were looking for.
The significant change behind the bench comes with the new head coach, Marco Sturm. The first-time NHL head coach starts with the team he spent five seasons with as a player. BNG writer Ryan Bosworth wrote an article on why Sturm was the right choice for the Bruins, diving into his versatile coaching style and history of developing players.
Sturm is an outside voice with a fresh perspective. His coaching experience includes time with the Ontario Reign, Los Angeles Kings, and German National Team, most notably winning a silver medal at the 2018 Olympics. As an NHL coach for the first time, Sturm will make mistakes and grow as we go. Fortunately, there is a bench full of experienced assistant coaches who can help guide Sturm throughout his first NHL job.
Steve Spott will be the other new face behind the Boston bench next season. For the last ten seasons, he has been an assistant coach on Pete DeBoer’s staff, with stops in San Jose, Vegas, and Dallas. He spent two years in his hometown of Toronto, one as the head coach of the AHL Marlies and the second as an assistant with the Maple Leafs.
While in Dallas, Spott oversaw the powerplay, a responsibility he will continue to work on here in Boston. In three seasons, the Stars’ powerplay produced at a rate of 23.7%, which was the seventh highest in the NHL in that span. The Stars advanced to the Western Conference Final in each of the three seasons that Spott worked on the bench, and the Stars’ powerplay connected at a 28% rate over the three straight playoff runs.
Steve Spott described the Bruins as “the best fit professionally and personally” when he joined NESN’s Sophia Jurksztowicz and Kasey Hudson on “The Hockey Hub” podcast. He added that he is excited to work with players like David Pastrnak and Charlie McAvoy. Spott prioritizes individual skill development with special teams players and spoke about providing fresh ideas and a new message to the powerplay. One of the goals is to get back into being a top ten powerplay in the league.
Spott joins the Bruins bench and will work with the forward group and the power play units. According to New England Hockey Journal’s Mark Divver, Spott had a say in the signing of Matej Blumel. He isn’t the only one either; fellow countryman David Pastrnak also called Blumel. The Bruins have some roster decisions to make with the forward group at training camp. Spott, like Sturm, understands that young players are crucial to the game and will get an opportunity to succeed; ultimately, they need to contribute when given the chance and help the team win games.
This season will be Spott’s 12th behind an NHL bench, all as an assistant coach. Spott has made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs nine times, with a finals appearance and five more trips to the conference finals. His experience with Pete DeBoer, an extremely successful coach, makes him a great addition to the Bruins’ bench. The way Spott analyzes the game does not need to change from how he did it on DeBoer’s bench, especially considering this is Sturm’s first head coaching job in the NHL.
Jay Leach was brought onto the Bruins bench in June 2024, joining Jim Montgomery’s staff as an assistant focusing on the defensemen. Leach spent three seasons on Dave Hakstol’s bench in Seattle working on the defense and helping build the expansion team from nothing into something. Throughout Leach’s tenure, the Kraken made the playoffs once and finished with an average of 28.3 shots allowed per game, the third lowest number in the NHL. Leach spent the four seasons before that as the head coach of the Providence Bruins, qualifying for the playoffs twice and finishing at the top of the Atlantic Division in the two seasons when the pandemic cancelled the AHL playoffs.
Last season, however, Leach handled a Bruins defense corps that battled injury and underwent change. Hampus Lindholm suffered an injury in November that ultimately sidelined him for the season, and Charlie McAvoy got hurt during the Four Nations Faceoff in February. Brandon Carlo got traded out, and Henri Jokiharju arrived at the trade deadline. The Bruins allowed an average of 28.6 shots per game, ranking 18th in the NHL – a significant difference from Leach’s rank throughout his time with Seattle.
Leach garnered interest this summer as a head coach, interviewing with Boston and Pittsburgh. He stayed put on the Bruins bench, but now enters a new era of Bruins hockey alongside Marco Sturm. He provides familiarity to the bench, as the six projected starting defensemen are all returning from last season. With McAvoy and Lindholm healthy, Leach can utilize the whole artillery of the Bruins’ defense.
Chris Kelly was hired by the Bruins in 2019 as a player development coach. He was promoted to assistant coach ahead of the 2021-22 season. This season will be his fifth as an assistant, and his fourth bench boss – he worked with Bruce Cassidy, Jim Montgomery, Joe Sacco, and now will work with Marco Sturm.
Chris Kelly oversaw the powerplay this season, and to keep it simple, it was brutal. The Bruins’ power play finished 29th in the league at a rate of 15.2%, the lowest since the 2012-13 lockout season when the power play connected at a 14.8% rate. However, Chris Kelly stepped into a role on the penalty kill throughout this season, which saw an improvement as the season continued. Before the Four Nations break, the Bruins’ penalty kill was at a 75.4% rate; after the break, the Bruins’ penalty kill improved to a 79.0% rate.
Chris Kelly was a solid and trustworthy penalty killer throughout his playing career. He played 91 games in the black and gold with penalty-kill architect Joe Sacco on the bench as an assistant coach, and worked behind the bench with Sacco for the last four years. He has seen Sacco’s work up close, but with his departure to New York, this can be Kelly’s opportunity to mold the penalty kill into a system he sees fit, using his playing experience to help drive the system he runs.
Bob Essensa, hired in 2003, is entering his 23rd season with the Bruins. He has been a mainstay on the Bruins bench, and Marco Sturm will be the seventh different head coach he has worked with during his tenure. Essensa has worked with a variety of goaltenders within the Bruins organization, including Tim Thomas, Tuukka Rask, Linus Ullmark, and Jeremy Swayman, and helped spur impressive backup seasons out of Chad Johnson and Jaroslav Halak when they were here.
BNG Founder and CEO Mark Allred wrote a piece on how the Bruins’ goaltending depth currently shapes up and how Bruins goaltending coaches Bob Essensa and Mike Dunham have continued to put goaltenders in the best position to succeed.
By keeping Essensa on, Sturm can focus on other things rather than who is playing goalie. It can be a game plan and pre-scout tactic to hide your starting goalie from your opponent, and Jim Montgomery loved to do it come April. The Bruins’ goaltending room is also in a different spot from where it was when Montgomery was coaching in the playoffs, so the decision is not as challenging to make for Sturm or Essensa.
Marco Sturm has surrounded himself with a staff that will put him in a position to do well as a first-time head coach in the NHL. Sturm comes with experience and success at other levels, so watching him translate that into NHL success will be intriguing. He has surrounded himself with assistant coaches who provide familiarity with the Bruins organization and league-wide experience.
Adding Steve Spott as a reliable assistant with high-level experience to Sturm’s bench suits the Bruins. His experience in the league has shaped how he coaches, and he understands his role as an assistant. Jay Leach started working with the core of the defense group last season, and now will have the ability to continue working with the returning group at full health. Ideally, Chris Kelly will be able to work in an area where he excelled as a player, and Essensa has proven to be a solid and reliable goaltending coach throughout his tenure in Boston.
I think Spott will really help revitalize a struggling B’s PP