Report: Bruins negotiating big money deal with head coach Bruce Cassidy

According to a report from Boston Bruins insider Joe McDonald of The Athletic, the Bruins are negotiating a contract extension for head coach Bruce Cassidy.

Bruins president Cam Neely said he would recommend to CEO Charlie Jacobs an extension for Cassidy earlier this offseason saying, “Everyone recognizes the job he’s done and how successful the team has been, so we’ll see where it ends up.”

“He’s done a very good job for us, obviously,” Neely said at the time. “Coming in when he did and getting us to the playoffs and then almost having two, back-to-back 50-win seasons — pretty impressive. He learned from our playoff losses and how to maybe coach a little bit differently in the playoffs.”

NHL coaching salaries have gone absolutely bonkers the past few years with veteran coaches like Mike Babcock, Joel Quenneville and Alain Vigneault all earning more than $5 million per season. McDonald predicts that Cassidy’s salary should be somewhere in the $3 million range which seems low considering the Buffalo Sabres recently signed Ralph Kreuger, who hasn’t coached in the NHL since 2012-13, to a contract worth nearly $4 million per season.