Gulls coach Matt McIlvane joins Bruins as assistant under Marco Sturm

Boston turned to Matt McIlvane to fill Jay Leach’s vacancy, adding the San Diego Gulls coach to Marco Sturm’s first Bruins staff for 2026-27. The move, announced June 11, gave Boston a familiar voice on the bench alongside Chris Kelly, Steve Spott and goaltending coach Bob Essensa, and McIlvane said he was “humbled and honored” to join the Bruins and looked forward to helping the team.

McIlvane arrives with a San Diego record that reads more like a development case study than a headline-grabbing resume: 88-97-23-8 over three seasons, 216 games and 88 wins, second in Gulls history behind only Dallas Eakins. The Gulls reached the Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2021-22 during his run, and general manager Rick Paterson said McIlvane helped re-establish the club’s identity and improved the team in each of his three seasons. That is the kind of work NHL clubs value when they are hiring assistants. In the AHL, the job is not just to win on Tuesday night in front of 5,000 people. It is to get players ready for the next building, and McIlvane’s track record suggests he did that while keeping San Diego moving in the right direction.

Sturm already knows what that looks like up close. He and McIlvane worked together on Germany’s staff at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, where Germany won silver, and Sturm called McIlvane an outstanding coach, teacher and communicator. That matters in Boston’s room, especially with Leach gone after taking the head coaching job with the Hartford Wolf Pack. Sturm is not just replacing a body on the bench. He is bringing in someone he trusts to communicate, organize and keep the details clean.

McIlvane’s path explains why Boston is comfortable making that bet. The Naperville, Illinois native won back-to-back championships with EC Red Bull Salzburg in 2022 and 2023, then ran off three straight DEL titles with EHC München from 2016 through 2018. He also coached in the ECHL with the Orlando Solar Bears, served as GM and head coach of the Danville Dashers, and later helped Germany at the 2021 IIHF World Championship. Boston is hiring more than a replacement for Leach. It is tapping the AHL’s most important export: coaches who can turn development work into NHL value.