The San Jose Sharks fired head coach David Quinn after two campaigns at the helm, the team announced Wednesday.

The Sharks finished in last place in the league this season with an abysmal 19-54-9 record.

"David is a good coach and an even better person," general manager Mike Grier said in a statement. "I would like to personally thank him for his hard work over these past two seasons. He and his staff did an admirable job under some difficult circumstances, and I sincerely appreciate how they handled the situation."

Grier added that there's no timeline to hire a new bench boss, per San Jose Hockey Now's Sheng Peng. The executive hired Quinn to replace Bob Boughner in July 2022.

San Jose also parted ways with head athletic trainer Ray Tufts, who had been with the franchise since 1997-98.

Quinn had one season left on his contract, according to TSN's Pierre LeBrun.

His second year behind the Sharks' bench was marred by two separate double-digit losing streaks, including an 11-game slump to start the campaign. San Jose then dropped 12 straight games in the winter.

Sandwiched between those two skids was an admirable 9-7-2 run.

The Sharks suffered through another horrendous stretch after the All-Star break in which they won just one game in 19 outings.

San Jose also became the first team to surrender 10 goals in back-to-back games since the 1965-66 Boston Bruins after being outscored 20-3 by the Vancouver Canucks and Pittsburgh Penguins across two contests in early November.

The Sharks' .287 points percentage is the second-worst mark of the salary-cap era, beating just the 2019-20 Detroit Red Wings (.275).

The last time a team posted fewer than 20 wins in a full 82-game season was in 2001-02 when the Atlanta Thrashers went 19-47-11-5.

San Jose only had one 20-goal-scorer on its roster this season (Fabian Zetterlund), and only one player eclipsed the 50-point mark (Mikael Granlund).

"The roster was what it was," Grier told reporters Wednesday, including NBC Sports. "It wasn't a playoff team by any means. ... There were some things that I don't really want to get into too much that we would have liked to see (be) better. ... I just felt it was what we needed to do."

The rebuilding Sharks went 41-98-25 under Quinn's leadership and traded away several star players during his tenure, including Brent Burns, Timo Meier, Erik Karlsson, and Tomas Hertl.

The 57-year-old coached the New York Rangers for three seasons (2018-21) prior to being hired by San Jose. The Rangers made the qualifying round in the 2020 playoff bubble but were eliminated by the Carolina Hurricanes.

The Sharks have missed the playoffs for five straight campaigns.

With Quinn's dismissal, there have been 16 NHL head coaching changes since the end of last season, per LeBrun.

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There are three games scheduled Wednesday night with no shortage of value in the player prop markets. Let's take a closer look.

Morgan Rielly: Over 0.5 assists

Rielly is coming off an impressive offensive season where he produced 51 assists over 72 games played. He was far more productive at home: Rielly recorded an assist in 44% of his road games, a far cry from the 68% hit rate he posted when playing in Toronto.

He tends to skate behind the Auston Matthews line a lot at five-on-five. That's invaluable when playing at home because head coach Sheldon Keefe can control the matchups and get his best players extra shifts away from the opposition's best defensive personnel.

That should lead to less time against stingy Hampus Lindholm, who the Bruins tried to attach at the hip of Matthews over the first two games of the series.

Rielly will share the ice with Matthews a lot at even strength, he'll quarterback the power play, and he'll likely see upwards of 25 minutes.

Look for him to pick up an assist along the way.

Odds: -105 (playable to -125)

Noah Hanifin: Over 0.5 points

Hanifin is playing some of the best offensive hockey of his career. He has eight points over the last six games and found the scoresheet in five of them.

The production comes after a role change: Hanifin was moved up to the top power-play unit in place of Shea Theodore, and is now running point alongside stars like Jack Eichel, Tomas Hertl, and Jonathan Marchessault, providing plenty of opportunity to help facilitate a goal.

The Stars are a very strong defensive team but Jake Oettinger isn't getting it done in the playoffs of late. He posted a putrid .895 save percentage last year and allowed four goals on only 15 shots in the series opener.

Vegas has more than enough weapons to be opportunistic with its finishing. If it is, Hanifin stands a good chance of hitting the scoresheet.

Odds: +115 (playable to -115)

Wyatt Johnston: Over 2.5 shots

Johnston recorded only one shot against Vegas in Game 1 but it wasn't for a lack of chances. He attempted seven shots during five-on-five play, which tied him for the team lead, but he couldn't hit the net.

Generally speaking, that kind of volume is going to lead to success. Johnston averaged 4.3 shots per game and went over his total in 18 of 20 tries during the regular season when attempting seven shots or more.

Johnston enjoyed success against the Golden Knights in last year's playoffs, recording 21 shots over six games. That's 3.5 per contest while playing about 15 minutes.

Johnston has a much bigger role on this version of the Stars - he logged more than 19 minutes in Game 1 - so it stands to reason he can maintain that sort of production.

Odds: -130 (playable to -145)

Adrian Kempe: Over 2.5 shots

Kempe is a certified Oilers killer. He's faced them 26 times over the past few seasons and gone over his total all but three times. Kempe isn't just grinding his way to three shots, either, he's consistently soaring over the number.

He's averaged 4.7 shots over the 26 meetings and recorded at least four in 10 of the past 11, including a five-shot performance in Game 1 of the series.

With 55 shots on goal and 13 points over his last 11 games against Edmonton, Kempe's clearly shown he's the Kings' best option to try and keep up with the high-powered Oilers.

He should see 18-20 minutes in Game 2 and generate at least a few shots along the way.

Odds: -140 (playable to -160)

Todd Cordell is a sports betting writer at theScore. You can follow him on X at @ToddCordell.

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Florida Panthers forward Sam Bennett will miss seven days or more after absorbing teammate Brandon Montour's shot with his hand Tuesday night, head coach Paul Maurice said Wednesday.

Maurice likened Bennett's relatively short recovery timetable to hearing his car was in an accident but discovering it was only a fender bender, according to team reporter Jameson Olive.

“Got to the rink and got great news,” the bench boss added.

Montour's shot hit Bennett in the left hand in the second period of Game 2 of the Panthers' first-round playoff matchup against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Bennett immediately departed and didn't return.

The Panthers referred to Bennett's ailment as an upper-body injury.

Bennett had been centering the Panthers' second line between Carter Verhaeghe and Matthew Tkachuk.

The injured center opened the scoring and then drew the primary assist on Vladimir Tarasenko's goal that gave Florida a 2-0 lead in a 3-2 overtime victory.

Bennett produced 20 goals and 21 assists over 69 games during the regular season. He's in his third full campaign (and fourth in total) with the Panthers, who acquired him in a trade with the Calgary Flames in April 2021.

The Ontario-born pivot, who'll turn 28 on June 20, also racked up 173 hits in 2023-24.

Florida holds a 2-0 series lead. Game 3 is scheduled for Thursday at Tampa's Amalie Arena.

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