NHL Next Coach Fired Odds: Who Will Be Next?

By Jim Tomlin

Jan 8th, 2026 3:48 PM EST

Only six NHL coaches have been in their current jobs for at least four seasons. (Jerome Miron-Imagn Images)

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The NHL season has had unusual coaching stability so far. In eight of the past 10 years, at least one team made a change during the first half of the season (within the first 22 games, in fact).

We’re a bit more than halfway into the 2025-26 season for NHL betting and no teams have sent their head coach packing yet.

Bookies.com has assembled this list of candidates to be the next coach fired, becoming the first leader behind the bench this season to be relieved of their duties.

NHL Next Coach Fired Odds

These odds are exclusive to Bookies.com and are not available at legal, regulated sports betting apps.

Why Has There Been No Movement?

Every team has played at least 41 games, meaning they are all halfway to the finish line of the 82-game regular season. In the Eastern Conference, no team is more than six points out of the last playoff spot. In the West, it’s an 11-point gap between the final postseason spot and the bottom of the conference.

So is 2025-26 the utmost season of NHL parity? Or have teams fooled themselves into thinking that they are in contention, thus making them hesitant to fire a coach, when they really have little postseason hope?

And will the Olympic break – a stoppage of about three weeks while many of the best NHL stars play at the Winter Games in Italy – be a time when teams reassess where they stand and whether they should move on from their current coaches? After all, in the NFL, bye weeks are infamous for being a dangerous time for coaches leading struggling teams.

NHL Next Coach Fired Top Candidates

The top two coaches on our board swap places, as these potential job openings get harder to predict with playoff races being so tight in both conferences.

The Calgary Flames are six points out of a playoff spot in the West and, as of Jan. 8, they have lost three in a row. The future looked promising last season, when the Flames missed out of the postseason on a tiebreaker after compiling 96 points.

But the arrow is pointing down again for coach Ryan Huska, who is our new favorite to be the next NHL coach fired, with a 45.5% chance. That would translate to +120 odds at sportsbook sites.

The Nashville Predators have shown resilience with a 13-7-0 run since Nov. 26. They are four points out of a playoff spot as veteran forward Steven Stamkos has come to life along with the team. Stamkos has 10 goals – including four in one game against St. Louis – and 17 points in a 13-game stretch since Dec. 11.

Is that recent boost enough for us to consider Predators coach Andrew Burnette’s job safe? No, but he has fallen to second on our board with +160 odds. At DraftKings Sportsbook, Nashville has +230 odds to make the playoffs, as opposed to -280 odds to miss out.

Lindy Ruff Making Magic in Buffalo

One coach who has fallen way down on our board, and almost totally off, is Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff (+3000). A 10-game winning streak will do that for you.

On the morning of Dec. 9, hours after a 7-4 loss to Calgary, the Sabres were 11-14-4 and had the second-fewest points (26) in the NHL. But that night, they defeated the Oilers 4-3 in overtime at Edmonton to embark on that winning streak, pulling them into serious playoff contention. Going into Thursday’s games, Buffalo was one point out of the last wild-card spot in the East, with a young roster that looks capable of finally ending the franchise’s league-record 14-year playoff drought.

Folks using the bet365 promo code can get nearly even odds on Buffalo to make the postseason, at -105 to get in vs. the -115 line for the Sabres to miss out again.

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Historic Trends For NHL Coaching Changes

Again, it’s unusual for there to be no coaching movement this deep into a season.

In 2024-25, the Boston Bruins fired Jim Montgomery on Nov. 19, just 20 games into the season. But he waited just five days for his next assignment because the St. Louis Blues jettisoned Drew Bannister on Nov. 24 and hired Montgomery. In the 2018-19 season, four coaches were fired in November. In 2015-16, the Columbus Blue Jackets dismissed Todd Richards after an 0-7 start.

There was one outlier. In 2017-18, no coaches were fired during the season. That was the first firing-free full season in the NHL since 1966-67.

We don’t foresee that happening again. In any case, stick with Bookies.com for the best sports betting promos around.

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