You didn’t need to watch the end-of-season availability session between general manager Patrik Allvin and president Jim Rutherford to hear through the grapevine that a contract extension for head coach Bruce Boudreau is not yet in the making.  

Heck, even media members themselves were quick to ask clarifying questions. The revelation caught many people by surprise. Why wait to lock down Boudreau when he has taken the team leaps and bounds in half a season? Simple, you don’t put the cart before the horse.

“We would be willing to have him back under the contract he agreed to when he came here,” said Rutherford about Boudreau’s future. “That’s certainly not to say that at the end of next year we wouldn’t want him back.”  

Albeit an impressive season turnaround, Boudreau has yet to hold the reins for an entire year, and as we can imagine, a lot can change in a few months’ time. Fans have seen what Boudreau can make from a back-half of a season, but where can he take a team he started with from training camp? He deserves the opportunity to prove what he can do with a full season under his belt. 

It also isn’t typical for Rutherford to extend the contract of his coaches prematurely. During his availability, Rutherford made reference to Mike Sullivan’s contract which he didn’t extend until Sullivan’s final year, despite leading Pittsburgh to back-to-back Stanley Cups. So, certainly, this isn’t a performance-related reflection.