Mailbag: Brind’Amour’s chances to win Jack Adams; Ovechkin’s future in NHL

NHL.com's weekly Over the Boards mailbag is in full swing this season. Every week during the regular season, senior writer Dan Rosen sifts through your questions sent to him on X and answers them.

To participate in future mailbags, send your questions to @drosennhl on X and use #OvertheBoards.

If a team finished with the best record in their conference despite their top goal-scorer and defenseman missing significant time and not having a Hart or Vezina finalist on their roster, shouldn't that team's coach be given some consideration for Coach of the Year? -- @IronCaniac

Rod Brind'Amour should be given plenty of consideration for the Jack Adams Award as the League's top coach this season. Brind'Amour, the Carolina Hurricanes coach, should be given plenty of consideration most seasons; he's been that good for the Hurricanes since being hired prior to the 2018-19 season. 

Brind'Amour won the Jack Adams Award in 2020-21, which was the shortened 56-game season because of scheduling complications in 2020 caused by the pandemic. But he hasn't been one of the top three finalists for the award at any other time, even though the Hurricanes have been arguably the most consistent team in the League in his eight seasons as coach, qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs each season with the second-most points behind the Colorado Avalanche. Carolina has been remarkably consistent despite its only postseason award winners being Jaccob Slavin getting the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct twice (2020-21, 2023-24), and Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta sharing the William M. Jennings Award for fewest goals allowed in 2021-22.

The Hurricanes are no different this season than they've been in the past -- aggressive, offensive-minded, dominant with the puck, strong on special teams, suffocating defensively. It's almost as if their consistency has led to Brind'Amour being overlooked for the Jack Adams Award. It's not fair to him, but that's just the way it has been, and I don't expect him to be a finalist this season either with Lindy Ruff (Buffalo Sabres), Dan Muse (Pittsburgh Penguins) and Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning), Joel Quenneville (Anaheim Ducks), Jared Bednar (Avalanche), Marco Sturm (Boston Bruins) and Martin St. Louis (Montreal Canadiens) receiving more buzz for the award. 

Ruff is the favorite this season, according to a vote of 16 NHL.com writers and editors. But the members of the NHL Broadcasters' Association who vote on the award should not forget about Brind'Amour when submitting their ballots.

Alex Ovechkin leads the Capitals in points, goals and is one of three who will play all 82 games. But he's clearly lost a couple of steps. What do non-Capitals fans want? -- @Alexmax43

Everybody should want Ovechkin in the NHL for as long as possible, because it would mean people who have never had a chance to see the legendary forward play in-person will get that chance. It's unrealistic, I know, but the longer legends are around the better it is for everyone to get the chance to appreciate them.

Beyond that, there's no debate after this season Ovechkin can still be an impact player in the NHL. He proved that this season as one of 44 players to score at least 30 goals, finishing with 32, including 27 at even strength. He led the Washington Capitals with 64 points. He isn't fast or elusive, but he can still drive the puck past a goalie. He can still make plays. He can still keep up. 

If he retires, it won't be because he can't play in the League anymore; it will be because he wants to move back to Russia, perhaps play one season in the Kontinental Hockey League as he has mentioned, and because he doesn't want to train the way he needs to in the offseason to get ready for another full NHL season. 

But everybody should want to see Ovechkin back in the NHL. The time will come that he won't be and we may have reached that point, but that doesn't mean we should wish it to be true.

Personally, I don't know the NHL without Alex Ovechkin. For many fans, certain players become so synonymous with the league that it's hard to imagine the NHL without them. Was there a player whose retirement made you feel that way? Who was it and why? -- @Ms_NYRangers

Easy -- Wayne Gretzky. He's probably that guy for anybody who was alive and a hockey fan during his playing career. Nobody dominated the game in the way Gretzky did. Mario Lemieux did it in a different way, just like Ovechkin is different from Sidney Crosby. Gretzky's retirement in 1999 was the end of arguably the greatest career NHL fans will ever witness. Still the most amazing stat to me in all of sports is that if Gretzky never scored a goal, he would still have more points than any other player in League history, and until last season he was the NHL's all-time leader with 894 goals. He finished with 1,963 assists; Jaromir Jagr is second all-time with 1,921 points. Connor McDavid would have to play almost 1,100 more games and score at his current pace through it all to catch Gretzky in points. Gretzky's career will never be matched, which is why it took a long time to fully understand the NHL without him in it.

Are we at the point where the honeymoon is officially over in Detroit for Steve Yzerman and does he deserve another year to try and figure it out? -- @MatthewWil5345

The honeymoon ended long before this season, but with the Detroit Red Wings missing the playoffs for a 10th straight season, it's fair to question everything in the organization, top to bottom, including Yzerman's role as general manager, and even his desire to want to stay in the role after yet another tough ending.

The concerning part for the Red Wings is it's been the same problem for three consecutive seasons. They’ve entered March in position to be the first wild card in the Eastern Conference, but were outside the playoff picture by April 1 each time. 

In 2023-24, they had a .600 points percentage in 60 games through Feb. 28 (33-21-6). They went 3-9-2 in March (.286 points percentage) and missed the playoffs by the regulation wins tiebreaker, losing out to the Washington Capitals.

Last season, they had a .559 points percentage in 59 games through Feb. 28 (30-23-6). They went 4-10-0 in March (.286) and missed the playoffs by five points.

This season, Detroit was better through Feb. 28, a .617 points percentage in 60 games (34-20-6). It went 5-7-2 in March (.286) and again missed the playoffs.

Go back to 2022-23, the Red Wings were five points out of a playoff spot entering March, then went 5-9-1 that month and missed out by 12 points.

Could all of that be enough to force change at the top in Detroit? Yes. 

Will it? Possibly, and it's fair to wonder if that will be Yzerman himself making that decision.

Each year he has put together a team that for three quarters of the season looks and plays like a playoff team, only to falter in March. Perhaps even Yzerman will say enough is enough. Or perhaps he won't be given the choice.