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*UPDATED* Bruins To Hire Jim Montgomery As Next Head Coach

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The Boston Bruins will hire Jim Montgomery as their next head coach.

A team source confirmed to Boston Hockey Now Thursday evening that the reports here were true and that the job was Montgomery’s if he wanted it. This source was all but certain that would be the case and an announcement could come as early as Friday morning.

Per Kevin Weekes of ESPN, the Montgomery contract will be in the neighborhood of a three-year deal at $2 million per season.

The Montgomery buzz on Twitter Thursday after Matt Murley of Barstool Sports tweeted the following regarding Montgomery and the Boston Bruins late Thursday morning:

A few hours later, 98.5 The Sports Hub talk show host Tony Massarotti tweeted this:

 

As of 6 PM ET, Montgomery – who turned 53 on Thursday – and the Boston Bruins had not put pen to paper on a new contract for him to become the 29th head coach of the Original 6 franchise. One of the holdups might have been that the two parties were simply waiting for Montgomery’s contract as assistant coach of the St. Louis Blues to expire at Midnight Friday. Per numerous NHL sources, two close to Montgomery, all signs were pointing towards a contract happening Friday.

“It’s really close, that’s all I can say right now,” one of the sources close to Montgomery said late Thursday afternoon.

As reported here on Wednesday night, Jim Montgomery and former Boston University Quinn had emerged as the frontrunners to become the next head coach of the Boston Bruins. Ironically though, numerous Boston sports media said a deal with Quinn was all but done, as early as this past weekend. Even the NHL Betting odds had the former Boston University and Rhode Island native as the favorite to land the gig. However, sources told BHN, that Montgomery’s second interview last Friday sealed the deal.

As also reported here on Thursday morning, former Northeastern University head coach and current Colorado Eagles head coach Greg Cronin had been told he was out of the running for to become the next bench boss of the Bruins. On Thursday morning Boston Hockey Now and Pittsburgh Hockey Now also confirmed that Pittsburgh assistant coach Mike Vellucci was out as well.

The common belief amongst the NHL sources BHN spoke to throughout the day Thursday was that the job very likely was Montgomery’s if he wanted it. If so, the contract would likely be signed with the Bruins on Friday morning, but there was speculation of whether the Bruins wanted to make that announcement on the Friday of Fourth of July weekend? Then again, when have the Boston Bruins ever cared about when they drop major news? They are the king of news dumps, but given this is a positive story, why dump it when plenty of Bruins fans were heading on vacation?

 

 

 

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