Jay Leach, who is now on his third stint with the Boston Bruins, will rejoin the team in 2024–25 as an assistant coach. The Bruins declared that they had hired Leach and promoted Joe Sacco to associate coach.
Leach joined the Original Six organization in 2003–04, playing for the team’s AHL affiliate, the Providence Bruins, in three games. It wouldn’t be until 2005–06 when Leach saw NHL action, playing two points-less games with Boston.
Leach played for four more clubs over the course of the following five years, retiring from the Albany Devils after the 2013–14 AHL season. Leach started working as an assistant coach for Adler Mannheim of the DEL shortly after, and the following year he had a brief stint in the same capacity with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Prior to the AHL season in 2016–17, Leach rejoined the Bruins as an assistant coach for a second time, serving as Providence’s head coach until his appointment as head coach in 2017–18.
After a four-year stint in Providence, where the team finished with a 136-77-26 record under the then-rookie head coach, Leach was granted his first NHL opportunity. Leach joined Dave Hakstol’s staff at the Seattle Kraken shortly after the team was established as the 32nd club in the league. After a poor 2023–24 season, the Kraken were planning to rebuild their coaching staff, thus Leach was given permission to explore other alternatives.
Conversely, Sacco is receiving a promotion that he earned after serving as the Bruins’ assistant coach for the previous ten years. Boston has won two Presidents’ Trophies as the best regular season club and advanced to one Stanley Cup Final during his leadership.
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