Bruins hire John Gruden as assistant coach

The Boston Bruins have hired John Gruden (no, not Jon Gruden) as an assistant coach for the upcoming season, adding to Jim Montgomery’s staff. He spent the last four seasons with the New York Islanders but was fired along with Jim Hiller (who joined the Los Angeles Kings staff yesterday) in June, after the team moved Lane Lambert into the head coaching position.

Gruden, 52, should be a familiar name to Bruins fans, who may remember his short stint with the team during his playing days. Drafted 168th overall by Boston in 1990, he played parts of three seasons with the team and was a star for the Providence Bruins of the AHL for a short period. Overall, his playing days resulted in just 92 regular-season NHL games.

His coaching career though has been much more successful. As head coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs of the OHL, Gruden won the league championship and took the club to the Memorial Cup, before falling to Sam Steel and the Regina Pats in the semifinal. He parlayed that junior success into a role with Barry Trotz, where he was partly responsible for the huge defensive turnaround the Islanders experienced.

Now, as the Bruins move forward with a different staff, Gruden joins Joe Sacco and Chris Kelly as assistants under Montgomery.