Bruins reportedly moving on from one of their assistant coaches

The Boston Bruins are reportedly making a change on Marco Sturm’s teaching employees.

In line with David Pagnotta of The Fourth Interval, the Bruins are shifting on from assistant coach Jay Leach, with Boston selecting not to renew Leach’s contract this offseason now that his current deal is up.

This marked Leach’s second tenure inside the Bruins’ group.​

The 46-year-old coach rejoined Boston in June 2024 as an assistant coach for Jim Montgomery earlier than remaining on Sturm’s employees in the course of the 2025-26 marketing campaign.

Leach beforehand served as head coach of the Windfall Bruins for 5 seasons from 2017-21 earlier than making the bounce to the NHL as an assistant coach for the Seattle Kraken.

Leach was considered as a rising star within the teaching ranks throughout each his time with Windfall and later in Seattle, with the previous NHL D-man tasked with operating Boston’s protection throughout his newest stint in Boston from 2024-26. He additionally took a larger position in operating the membership’s penalty kill in 2025-26.

However Boston’s defensive construction struggled throughout every of the final two seasons beneath Leach’s watch.

Throughout a depressing 2024-25 marketing campaign, the Bruins ranked twenty sixth within the NHL in targets allowed per sport at 3.30.  

A few of these struggles will be chalked as much as Jeremy Swayman’s regression and the personnel put in place on Boston’s blue line throughout this retooling stretch for the Unique Six franchise.

However regardless that Swayman bounced again in 2025-26, the underlying numbers of Boston’s protection have been nonetheless unpleasant this previous yr.

Although Boston was largely pedestrian this yr on protection so far as targets allowed per sport at 3.01 (14th general), most of that was a direct results of Swayman bailing them out.

When it got here to expected goals against per 60 minutes of play last season, solely the Islanders had a worse displaying than the Bruins, who have been tied for second-to-last within the NHL with the Maple Leafs at 3.57.

The Bruins additionally ranked thirtieth within the league in high-danger scoring possibilities allowed per 60 minutes at 13.52 — tied with arguably the worst staff within the league, the Vancouver Canucks.

Boston’s penalty kill additionally labored during the last two seasons — rating twenty fourth general in each 2024-25 (76.3 p.c) and 2025-26 (77.0 p.c).

With Boston reportedly shifting on from Leach, Sturm may have a possibility to decide on a brand new voice to assist run his D corps. The Bruins solely added one new coach after Sturm was named as Boston’s bench boss in June 2025, with the membership ultimately hiring Steve Spott last summer to help fix the team’s ailing power-play unit. 

Even with a late lull down the stretch, Boston’s man benefit did reply beneath Spott’s watch, rating ninth within the league with a 23.4 p.c success fee.

 

Conor Ryan is a employees author masking the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Purple Sox for Boston.com, a job he has held since 2023.