Longtime NHL coach Alain Vigneault has officially retired

Longtime NHL head coach Alain Vigneault has officially retired from coaching professional hockey, he tells Journal de Québec.

After 19 seasons as a head coach for four different teams, AV is finally packing it in.

The 62 year old Quebec City native leaves behind an illustrious resume with over 700 wins in 1,363 games coached. He ranks 15th all-time in NHL history in terms on games coached. He never quite reached the pinnacle of the sport though, having reached the Stanley Cup Finals twice and losing both times. He led the 2011 Vancouver Canucks and the 2014 New York Rangers both to the Cup Final, only to lose to the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings, respectively.

He broke into the NHL as a head coach with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1997-98 season. Prior to that he had been an assistant coach with the expansion Ottawa Senators under his long-time friend Rick Bowness.

He won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach in 2006-07 after leading the upstart Canucks on an unprobable playoff run. He probably had most of his success with the Canucks, a team that he coached to back to back President's Trophies in 2010-11 and 2011-12. He's the Canucks' all-time leader in wins and games coached in team history.

With the Canucks in transition following a few lacklustre playoff performances, Vigneault was dismissed in favor of John Tortorella. Ironically then, Vigneault was hired by Tortorella's former team the New York Rangers. While the two veteran coaches swapped locales and while Tortorella may have been the higher profile coach at the time, it was Vigneault who experienced greater success as a result of the swap. He led the Rangers to the Stanley Cup Final in his first season with the team and qualified for the playoffs in four out of five seasons with the club.

He finished up his career with the Flyers, a team who is still paying him a handsome $5 million annual salary after firing him back in 2021. His results were mixed in Philly, to say the least.

A "players' coach" who endeared himself to veteran players, AV was a darling of the media, as well. He rode his top players hard and asked a lot of rookies and role players if they wanted to work their way up the lineup. He adapted with the times and was a very flexible coach in the way that he employed offensive and defensive strategies. His detractors may say that he relied on his star players like Roberto Luongo, Henrik Sedin, Daniel Sedin, Rick Nash, Henrik Lundqvist, etc. too heavily but... well... wouldn't you too? 

Happy retirement, AV. You've earned it, Coach.