The Boston Bruins could be close to finding their next head coach.
Ontario Reign head coach Marco Sturm and Washington Capitals assistant Mitch Love are two finalists for the position, Fluto Shinzawa of The Athletic reported on Tuesday.
Germany’s Sturm, 46, has the led the Reign – the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings – for the past three seasons.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on the 32 Thoughts Podcast earlier this month that Sturm was “very interested” in making the jump to the NHL.
“A guy who’s ambitious, a guy who understands players, a guy who has respect. People respect Sturm. He’s got a good reputation,” Friedman said.
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The Vancouver Canucks reportedly spoke with Sturm about their own bench opening before turning to assistant Adam Foote instead.
Sturm also coached his native Germany to a men’s hockey silver medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.
As a player, Sturm had 438 points in 938 career games with the San Jose Sharks, Bruins, Kings, Canucks (six games), Capitals and Florida Panthers.
Love, 40, has spent the past two seasons under head coach Spencer Carbery with the Capitals, working mainly with defencemen and helping lead the team to the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
He was the head coach of Calgary’s AHL affiliate for two years prior to joining the Capitals, and led the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades during the three preceding years.
Love, of Quesnel, B.C., spent parts of five seasons from 2005 to 2010 as an AHL player but never reached the NHL.
Both Sturm and Love progressed past Zoom meetings and onto in-person interviews with the Bruins, Shinzawa reported.
Boston fired head coach Jim Montgomery 20 games into the season, elevating assistant Joe Sacco into the interim role.
Sacco finished with a 25-30-7 record after replacing Montgomery on Nov. 19, presiding over a team that was further depleted by a trade deadline purge of captain Brad Marchand and a handful of other players from the roster.
The Bruins were 33-39-10 in all, tied for the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
–with files from The Associated Press