Incredible coaching career of Paul Maurice still may have plenty of

It’s incredibly difficult to become an NHL head coach, and as many have realized, it’s even harder to remain one.

Florida Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice knows this well.

Maurice has been an NHL bench boss since November of 1995, when the then-28-year-old was promoted to head coach of the Hartford Whalers when they fired Paul Holmgren.

In the time since, he has almost exclusively coached in the NHL, from Hartford and the Carolina Hurricanes (1995-2003) to the Toronto Maples Leafs (2006-2008), back to Carolina (2008-2011) and then the Winnipeg Jets (2014-2021), with brief one-season stops with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies (2005-06) and KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk (2012-13).

To say he’s coached through bevy of different styles and phases of the game would be a gross understatement.

Even in just the NHL, Maurice has seen the game evolve from the clutch-and-grab times when he first began coaching to the attempts to clean it up and increase scoring to the integration of technology and now with a wider and more profound emphasis on player safety, recovery and longevity.

Considering he has found success everywhere he’s gone, and on so many differently comprised teams playing in different eras of the game, it’s very fitting that Maurice has been getting his flowers lately.

Sure, it probably wouldn’t be happening like this if not for the Stanley Cup success he’s had in recent years, but that’s all part of the journey.

As it currently stands, Maurice has coached 1,884 NHL games. Only the legendary Scotty Bowman has coached more: 2,141.

If Maurice, who just signed a new contract extension with the Panthers in October, remains behind the bench for another three-plus seasons, he’ll overtake Bowman for most games coached of all time.

Maurice is only 57 years old (he turns 58 in January).

So how far can he go?

2,500 games coached? How about 3,000?!

Taking into account the skills he possesses as both a hockey intellectual and a leader and motivator of men, it may be up…