If he is not fired, I will leave the Golden Knights head coach…

If he is not fired, I will leave the Golden Knights head coach…

If he stays on as head coach of the Golden Knights, I’ll quit.
The Vegas Golden Knights announced on Tuesday that Bruce Cassidy will take over as head coach.

Longtime Bruins coach Cassidy takes over in Las Vegas for fired Peter DeBoer, who was unexpectedly let go by the team this month.

Cassidy turned out to be a popular commodity in the NHL job market, as was to be expected. His deal with the Golden Knights was reached a little more than a week after Boston fired him on June 6.

He had guided the Bruins to the playoffs in each of his six seasons as coach, going 245-108-46 and making a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2019. This season, the Carolina Hurricanes eliminated Boston in the opening round.

Midway through May, as the team struggled down the stretch and missed the playoffs for the first time since joining the league in the 2017–18 campaign, Vegas dismissed DeBoer.

With a 98-50-12 record over three seasons, he guided the Golden Knights to the 2020 conference finals and the 2021 playoffs’ last round.

Preseason Stanley Cup favorites, the Golden Knights finished with a 43-31-8 (94 points) record, missing the playoffs by four points due to injuries and salary-cap-related lineup issues. A shootout loss to the Dallas Stars served as a de facto playoff game during their late-season run of only one victory in six pivotal games.