Official: Marco Sturm named head coach of the Boston Bruins

(Photo Credit: Alexander Hassenstein - Getty Images)

Last Tuesday afternoon, David Pagnotta, Editor-in-Chief of The Fourth Period, reported that the Boston Bruins were in the final stage of their head coaching search, and that former Bruin, Marco Sturm, and former Edmonton Oilers head coach, Jay Woodcroft were among remaining contenders.

Later that same the night, Cam Robinson, Content Director and Director of Film Scouting for Elite Prospects, reported that he has heard Sturm is set to become the next head coach of the Boston Bruins.

The news has now been made official on Thursday, June 5th.

As a player, Sturm came to Boston as a returning piece in the infamous Joe Thornton trade that sent the then Bruins MVP caliber captain to the San Jose Sharks back in November of 2005.

But while the trade wasn't great for the Bruins on paper, Sturm was ultimately one of the bright spots to come of it.

He along with Zdeno Chara, Glen Murray, P.J. Axelsson, Marc Savard, Tim Thomas, Shawn Thornton, Aaron Ward, Dennis Wideman, and Andrew Ference were tasked as veteran leaders on an otherwise young team (from let's call it 2006-2008) to try and re-establish a winning, and blue collar culture of hockey that the city of Boston would be proud to cheer for again.

Patrice Bergeron was always wise and experienced beyond his years, but he was still very young in his career.

Despite forming solid chemistry with Sturm during the 2005-2006, and 2006-2007 season, Bergeron's 2007-2008 campaign was short lived after suffering a season ending grade III concussion in October of 2007.

That meant that Sturm needed to step up even more, and he did.

Sturm, Savard, Murray, Chara, Wideman, and Thomas along with sophomore Phil Kessel, and rookies Milan Lucic, and David Krejci led Boston back to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four calendar years in the spring of 2008.

They were first round underdogs as the No. 8 seed taking on the No. 1 seed Montreal Canadiens - who they went 0-8 against in the regular season.

After going down 1-3 in the series, the Bruins forced Game 6 back in Boston, where Sturm's 3rd period game-winning goal would go down as one of the best non-championship winning moments in franchise history.

Boston would eventual fall to Montreal in seven games, but this series put the Bruins back on the map in the city of Boston - and Sturm was one of the major reasons why.

(Photo Credit: Steve Babineau - Getty Images)

Sturm was traded from Boston to Los Angeles almost 6 months to the day before the Bruins hoisted their first Stanley Cup in 39 years.

He may not have earned a championship ring, but from November 2005 - December 2010, Sturm was an important member in building the foundation of an eventual championship culture.

Fifteen years later, he now has another opportunity to help build a championship culture in Boston - this time, as their head coach.

Since Sturm's playing days he's put together an impressive coaching resume.

Sturm spent the majority of 2015-2018 general managing, and head coaching German international hockey and was instrumental in the development of their program.

Under his leadership, Germany won silver at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea - albeit without NHL player participation.

He was then an assistant coach for the Los Angeles kings for four seasons from 2018-2019 through 2022-2023 while spending the last three seasons head coaching the Ontario Reign - Los Angeles' AHL affiliate.

As head coach in Ontario, Sturm has compiled a record of 120-82-11-3.

Not only does Sturm have ties to Boston, but four of his former teammates in Patrice, Bergeron, Zdeno Chara, Tuukka Rask, and Adam McQuaid are all actively affiliated with the organization through ambassador, and or developmental roles and could have increased roles as time goes on.

If the Bruins are looking to re-establish a championship culture with their modern day players, who better to show them the way than recently retired players who did it once themselves in Boston?

Best of luck to Sturm, and the Bruins.