Rick Bowness, Andrew Brunette and Rick Tocchet are finalists for this year’s Jack Adams Award, the NHL announced on Friday.

The distinction is given annually to the coach who is “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”

Bowness spent his second season in Winnipeg guiding the Jets to a 52-24-6 record good for second in the Central Division and fourth overall in the league standings with 114 points. The Jets dominated defensively, tying for the fewest goals-against in the league (2.41 per game) while sitting 15th overall in offense (averaging 3.16 goals per game). Winnipeg also posted an eight-game win streak for the first time ever, as part of a larger 14-game run when the Jets earned at least one point. Bowness balanced his coaching responsibilities with handling personal matters as well, including when he stepped away from the team to care for his wife following a seizure.

Brunette took on his first full-time head-coaching job with Nashville this season, after previously being the interim bench boss in Florida. The Predators started slowly under Brunette but ignited halfway through the season to hit a 47-30-5 record that placed them 11th overall in league standings (with 99 points) while earning Nashville a late postseason berth. The Predators established a strong structure and consistency under Brunette’s guidance, ranking 14th in defense (3.02 GA) and 10th in offense (3.24 GF/G).

Tocchet is coming off his first full season as Vancouver’s head coach, where he led the Canucks atop the Pacific Division with a 50-23-9 record to place them sixth overall in the league (109 points). That was a major gain from the season prior, when the Canucks finished 22nd overall. Vancouver was top-10 in key categories through the 2023-24 campaign, including offense (sixth overall) and defense (sixth overall), and it generated the 11th-best power play (22.7%). Under Tocchet, the Canucks returned to the postseason after failing to qualify since 2019-20.