A familiar face is returning to the San Jose Sharks bench.
Former assistant coach Bob Boughner will be back in the same position on Pete DeBoer’s staff, the team announced Wednesday morning. In his prior stint with the Sharks, he coached the defensemen, his former position in his 10-year NHL career.
Boughner spent the last two seasons as the head coach of the Florida Panthers, who fired him in April after missing the playoffs for the second straight year. In 2017-18 the Panthers fell just one win point shy of the playoffs, but they dropped from 96 points that season to 86 last year, prompting the change.