The Nashville Predators officially named Andrew Brunette as their new head coach on Wednesday.
The Tennessee team hinted at major changes behind their bench Tuesday when they fired John Hynes, who had served as driver since January 2020. This is the new manager’s first major decision. Preds General Secretary Barry Spites.
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“We want to become a more attacking side and Andrew specializes in that side of the game. He experienced that as a player and conveyed that vision as a coach.” He is one of the greatest attacking and power play specialists in the league today, said the man who led the Predators for the first 15 seasons of their history.
“He’ll be great with our young players and his experience will help him bond with our star players.” Ultimately, he’s a good person who looks forward to working with our players to make our team better.”
In fact, the 49-year-old brunette enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the National Hockey League before taking the plunge behind the bench. The former Ontario left winger has 268 goals and 733 points in 1,110 games. His best season came in 2006-07 when he scored 27 goals and had 83 points with the Colorado Avalanche.
A Nashville past
Brunette has also played for the Washington Capitals, Atlanta Thrashers, Minnesota Wild, Chicago Blackhawks… and Predators.
It was the Sudbury native who scored the club’s first goal on 13 October 1998.
“I’m very excited to be back in Nashville and in the Predators organization,” said Brunette. I feel like my career has come full circle. I come back 25 years later, having put on this uniform to do an unfinished job.
“I look forward to resuming the culture and heritage that Barry began cultivating in the inaugural season.”
Brunette began her coaching career in 2015-2016 when she signed on as an assistant with the Wild. Three years later he ended up with the Florida Panthers and even got the job as head coach in 2021. Despite leading the Florida team to a record of 51-18-6 and the Trophy of the Presidents, he was released after his loss and streamed into the second round of the playoffs.
Last season, Brunette was an associate coach with the New Jersey Devils. He got into trouble when he was arrested for drunk driving in early 2023, but that didn’t affect his candidacy.
For their part, the “Preds” narrowly missed out on the 2022-2023 playoffs on orders from Hynes, posting a record of 42-32-8.
“No other candidate could bring the team forward better than Andrew,” concludeddios.