Bruins Send Joe Sacco Message After Joining Eastern Conference Rival

Former Bruins interim head coach Joe Sacco is officially joining the New York Rangers coaching staff, the club announced Thursday.

Sacco joined the Bruins as an assistant coach on Claude Julien’s staff in 2014. He served as an assistant coach for 10 seasons before being elevated to associate coach at the start of the 2024-25 campaign under Jim Montgomery. He was elevated to interim head coach on Nov. 19 after the club stumbled out of the gate with an 8-9-3 record and relieved Montgomery of his duties.

The Bruins finished the season 25-30-7 under Sacco and, instead of removing the interim tag, hired Marco Sturm as the Original Six franchise’s 30th head coach.

The Black and Gold officially said goodbye to their longtime coach in a statement from general manager Don Sweeney in a social media post.

On behalf of the Boston Bruins, we want to thank Joe Sacco for his professionalism and dedication to our organization over the past 11 years. Joe always put the team first and took great pride in helping players improve and succeed. He’s a great hockey mind, but more importantly, he’s a terrific person.

We are all grateful for the memories we’ve shared with Joe during our time together in Boston. While this is a difficult part of business, we respect Joe’s decision to continue his coaching career in New York, and we wish him and his family all the best.

Boston will hold an introductory news conference next Tuesday beginning at 11 a.m., with live coverage on NESN.