The Boston Bruins coaching staff will not remain the same following their first-round exit against the Buffalo Sabres.
Roughly three weeks after the end of the season, the Bruins are moving on from assistant coach Jay Leach, per David Pagnotta.
This marked Leach’s third tenure with the Bruins’ organization.
Leach played over 200 AHL games with the Providence Bruins and 2 NHL games with the Boston Bruins from 2004 through 2007.
Leach returned to Boston roughly a decade later, spending five seasons as head coach of the Providence Bruins (2017-21) with one prior as an assistant coach before making the jump to the NHL as an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken.
Leach then rejoined the organization in June 2024 as an assistant coach for Jim Montgomery's staff, before current Bruins Head Coach Marco Sturm retained Leach for the 2025-26 season.
Now, after a season in which Boston's team defense struggled mightily at times, the Bruins will move on from Leach.
Leach has received NHL Head Coaching looks in the past, but has yet to land a gig.
Elsewhere, news broke this morning that the New York Islanders will be in the market for a new assistant coach to run their power play.
That's potentially relevant to Boston, as the Bruins current powerplay coach Steve Spott has a very long history with Islanders' Head Coach Peter DeBoer.
The two have coached together for 22 seasons out of the last 29 hockey seasons, beginning all the way back in 1997-98 in the OHL.
While there's been no word on whether Spott is available or is out of contract, it's something worth keeping an eye on now that the Islanders have the vacancy.
Stefen Rosner, Islanders beat reporter at THN and The Elmonters, has reported deeper on DeBoer and Spott's relationship:
The Bruins and Sturm will be working on filling Leach's spot on the bench, while also monitoring what the Islanders and DeBoer do with their vacancy.