Getting to Know: Marco Sturm, the 30th Head Coach of the Boston Bruins

BOSTON – The Bruins’ 30^th head coach is a familiar face.

General manager Don Sweeney announced last week that Marco Sturm, who spent five seasons with Boston as a player, will take over behind the bench, replacing interim head coach Joe Sacco. And on Tuesday morning inside the Bruins offices high above TD Garden, Sturm was introduced and laid out his vision for what he believes the Black & Gold will look like under his command.

"I'm extremely proud and excited to be here to get named the 30th Head Coach of the Boston Bruins. I mean, that alone, just to say it really gets me excited," said Sturm. "I'm going to tell you this. When I saw Don Sweeney's name on my text, it was pretty special. It got me really excited. And, of course, I [wanted] to be an NHL coach, but this means more.

"I know we’ve got work to do. We have lots of work to do. I know that. We know I'm not going to fix it overnight, but we're going to prepare starting Day 1 at training camp, because I believe in teams winning championship, not one coach, not one player."

Here’s a look at everything you need to know about the 46-year-old Germany native:

Birthday

September 8, 1978 (46 years old)

Hometown

Dingolfing, Germany

Last Team

Head Coach, Ontario Reign (AHL)

NHL Playing Experience

• San Jose Sharks (1997-2005)
• Boston Bruins (2005-10)
• Los Angeles Kings (2010-11)
• Washington Capitals (2011)
• Vancouver Canucks (2011)
• Florida Panthers (2011-12)

NHL Coaching Experience

Assistant Coach, Los Angeles Kings (2018-22)

Head Coaching Record

2022-23 | Ontario Reign – 34-32-6 (Lost in qualifying round)

2023-24 | Ontario Reign – 42-23-7 (Lost in Round 2)

2024-25 | Ontario Reign – 43-25-4 (Lost in Round 1)

Career Timeline

June 22, 1996: Selected 21^st Overall by San Jose Sharks 21^st

October 4, 1997: Made NHL Debut and Scored First NHL Goal

January 24, 1999: Made Lone All-Star Appearance

November 30, 2005: Traded to Boston as part of Joe Thornton deal

2007-08: Led Bruins with 27 goals

April 19, 2008: Scored Winner in Memorable First Round Game 6 vs. Montreal

Jan. 1, 2010: Scored OT Winner in Winter Classic at Fenway Park

2009-10: Led Bruins with 22 goals

December 2010: Traded to Los Angeles Kings

July 10, 2015: Named Head Coach and GM of German National Team

February 25, 2018: Captured Silver Medal at 2018 Winter Olympics

November 4, 2018: Named Assistant Coach with Los Angeles Kings

June 17, 2022: Named Head Coach of AHL’s Ontario Reign

June 5, 2025: Named 30^th Head Coach of Boston Bruins

Wait, There’s More

• Has two children, Mason and Kaydie, with wife, Astrid
• Hit the 20-goal mark seven times in his NHL career
• Participated in three Olympic Games as a player (1998, 2002, 2010)
  • Was Captain of Team Germany in 2010
  • Also participated in four World Championships (1997, 2001, 2006, 2008) and one World Cup (2004)
• Was Bruins alternate captain (2007-10)
• First German Head Coach in NHL History
• First European Head Coach in Bruins History
• 14^th person in Bruins history to both play and serve as head coach for the club

They Said It

Here’s a look at some of the best quotes from Tuesday's press conference:

Sturm on the excitement of his family: "A lot of people don't know I was by myself in L.A. for the last six years because I was chasing my dream, right? And without my family, I couldn't have done it. Quick story, they've been bugging me for a while to get a place in Boston...they grew up here, my kids grew up here. They always wanted to come back, and here I am right now. They got their wish."

Sturm on addressing challenges with the current roster: “I'm not going to lie, I think that the process already started last season at the trade deadline. There will be some changes, but what I like is, and I told Don and Cam [Neely] that I still love our team, even without any addition. Because I think we have good goaltending. I think when everyone stays healthy, we have a really good D corps. I think we, hopefully, want to add a few pieces up front, but overall, I do like our core. But having said that, I think that we just probably need a little bit more. And I think in our DNA, in the Bruins DNA, playing good defensively, it's not going to change, but we have to find a way to be more productive offensively. I think that's going to be our goal...but that's what we're going to address from from Day 1. And obviously special teams will be a big part, too.”

Sturm on now being both a Bruins player and a Bruins coach: “When I got traded, Joe Thornton trade...I mean, it was not my fault," Sturm said with a chuckle. "But I got here, and it was difficult. I'm not going to lie, it was difficult because everyone loved Joe, and it was a big trade, but I understood really quickly why did it happen...that year or two, it was a little painful. It was not easy...when Claude [Julien] took over, you could see the process. You could see every year how we got better, and all of a sudden, I see a big change here in the city of Boston, because [the fans are] behind you. And that feeling alone, it still feels like yesterday to me, and that's exactly what I want to bring back. Forget about winning and losing. Yes, we have to win. I know that. But even when there were tough stretches, tough games, [there was] that feeling, and hopefully the fans in the city of Boston will feel it every time they going to watch us play. We've got to compete. We're going to be structured, I can tell you that, but we also got to compete and make everyone proud.”

Sturm on his approach to dealing with young players: "Of course, we're all going to make mistakes. Old, young, it doesn't matter. As long as you're going to support him...you’ve got to be very honest and direct with him. You’ve got to work with him...I feel like they're going to learn from our core group, from the older guys. And that's why the whole thing, it's so important. It's not just me, it's the team, right? And they've got to see it every day in practice...there shouldn't be any excuses, all right? And again, it's an easy way out, and a lot of guys take that route. And I'm just not one of them. And that's why I just address things very directly because of, again, Claude Julien, Darryl Sutter, those are guys I learned from. And by being honest, I think you’ve come a long way. But those young guys, and Don said it, they've got to earn it too. I'm going to do everything in my power to get them better, but they also...it’s got to come from them to jump on that wagon and show me that they're willing to do all those things we wanted them to do.”

Sturm on the challenges of being a first-time NHL head coach: “Every job, it doesn't matter if you're in Boston or not, it will be a challenge, but it's a good challenge. I love challenges. And again, that goes back to my playing days, and nothing really changed, coaching wise, too. I approached things the same way, and I want to get challenged. I want to get challenged from Don every day, from my coaches, from my players, because I know that will make me better...I know the expectation here. I know how it is...you've got to be mentally strong, and that's what I try to do through these years, and that's what I will try to give to my players."

Sturm on building a culture: “I always called it the heartbeat of the locker room. And that has to come from the guys inside. And again, I've been through it. I've been through it because I was part of it. And having guys like Bergy [Patrice Bergeron] and Zee [Zdeno Chara] and myself, and we added pieces, pieces, and pieces after that changed everything. And for me, it started right at practice, little things like the way we prepared, the way we competed every day. It doesn't matter whether it's practice or a game, that for me changed the whole thing right away just by doing that...it just trickled down...I already talked to a bunch of guys, my veterans on the current team right now, and I can tell right away they learn from Bergeron, they learn from Chara, because they already have it in there and that really got me excited, too. And I know we've just got to guide them again and again. We've got to re-establish the whole thing because these guys are not here anymore. So, now it's going to be up to us and the new group to lead this group to a new era.”

Sweeney on what stood out about Sturm during the interview process: “As we were going through the process, you could see that Marco would get more passionate, not just because he was a player here – really, that that drifted off into the background pretty quickly. It was about passion for coaching and the path that he has taken, the sacrifices he's made, and the structure he not just lives his life with, but how he coaches, talking to his players, talking to his staff that he interacted with on a daily basis at the NHL level, at the American League level, and realizing that this was his path that he had chosen and wanted to be a head coach, and that kept resonating in terms of how we are, where we are now, and him being part of re-establishing what we want to be.

"I think they go hand in hand. As I said, there's structure, there's communication, there's a re-establishment of culture...he was an offensive player trying to convince an offensive player that has gaps in his games that you can't get to the NHL until you do both sides of the ledger. You know there's a reward there. And knowing a player going through that, to convincing a player to go through that, and then seeing him at the NHL level have success, that's rewarding to Marco because he's been on that path."

Sweeney on the number of people interviewed for the head coaching position: “I believe the process started out, I think the number was 14 that I started with. Again, some of them were initial conversations, but there was always one or two. So probably about 14.”

Sweeney on the departure of Joe Sacco and the status of the rest of the coaching staff: “I want to congratulate Joe and thank Joe. Eleven years is a long time to be with an organization and work with several different head coaches, and he did a fabulous job with us, and wish him and Tammy and his family well in New York. A lot of conversations about staff between Marco and myself, he's excited that [Jay Leach] and Chris Kelly, Bob Essensa are all returning to be part of that. We are in a search for another assistant coach that can complement and fill in the gaps that we may currently have. So, we're aggressively looking for somebody to help in an area that we feel we need to complement Marco and the current staff.”

Sweeney on the upcoming NHL Draft: "We're in a unique position this year drafting in the top 10 that we haven't been there for a significant amount of time. We're excited about that. We have two second-round picks. You have two firsts next year, the following year, two firsts. We've been an aggressive organization, whether or not you want to point out fault in regard to trying to win and accomplish the ultimate goal. That's what we're here for. So, we will use the draft capital and try and improve our hockey club this year, moving forward in every capacity possible. It might be making the selection, but it won't mean that we aren't having conversations that says, ‘how do we improve our hockey club today and moving forward?’”

Sweeney on how to improve the power play: "A lot of it was entries, a lot of it was some of the injuries that we did have. But those are no excuses. We have to find a way to be more connected, more predictable, and understand what our strengths are as a group, and we spent a lot of time on it. Now, the personnel could change between now and Opening Night, but there are some guys that are going to go in and have to execute that are currently on our roster, and we're going to attack that, and it's something that Marco spent time on and has an understanding of what we need to do...entries were a big problem for us execution wise. And we had [David Pastrnak] on the elbow and then moved more to the downhill. So, he's explaining to me how that's going to go, and putting personnel in situations that we can succeed as a result of that. So, there was a lot of time spent on addressing special teams overall, because it had been the strength of our hockey club for a lot of years, and we took a step back this year.”

Sweeney on feeback he got from candidates during the coaching search: "The process, in that sense, it can be uncomfortable in terms of the critical eye that other people are watching your team and breaking down your team and the changes they want to make. You have to be open to all of it. You have to understand that the position we're in, we didn't execute both at the management level and the coaching level and the player level, so we have to be open to that and the tweaks that coaches want to make. It wasn't about coming in to say, 'well, they're selling me on how they're going to coach' But if they oversell in terms of how the team was previously constructed, or any of those things, then it doesn't really have its value.

"And thankfully, coaches came in and gave their honest opinion of how they wanted to see things. The things you had done well, the things you hadn't done well, the outside perspective that teams have had of the Bruins organization over the years, the changes that have gone well and haven't gone well during those years, and success or not having success. So those are eye-opening at times, and it's constructive. You have to take it to heart and make adjustments.

"We're not currently playing right now, so you have to accept the failures that we have. And coaches were honest in pointing that out. Marco went through some of the things that he felt that we had done well, but things that we had gotten away from, and where the league is at and where the league is headed to. It's all important parts of it, and the player development part of it was certainly a big part of those conversations, and how you do integrate the players and when they're going to be ready and having connectivity with your minor league program, and how that relates to the development they're doing there.

"There were some very constructive things that took place during the process that I'm grateful for.”

Sturm on what he's looking for in an assistant coach: “I'm looking at everything right now. The experience, old or young, it doesn't matter. At the end of the day, it's got to be the right fit for me and also for the team. Yes, we want somebody who has some power play experience. But again, I'm looking at everything right now. We are in that process right now. There's a lot of coaches out there, but I think I'm very confident that we're going to find the right one who checks all those kinds of boxes we needed. But again, it's not just one area. It's got to be a good fit too. I think it's going to be very, very important that I got to be comfortable. The team got to be comfortable. Because we're going to set the tone, and we got to come out very strong and very prepared. And the coaching staff, we're going to be together every day. It's a big hire for me. But again, we're going to take our time a little bit, and hopefully the right one will come.”