Kristen J Shilton

USATODAY

On Tuesday, the St. Louis Blues ended any speculation about their coaching job by announcing Ken Hitchcock would be back behind the bench for one final season in 2016-17. While that position is filled, the Anaheim Ducks and Calgary Flames still require a new bench boss before the new campaign begins.

Here's a look at the field:

Top Candidates

Randy Carlyle

Carlyle last coached the Toronto Maple Leafs, being relieved of his duties in January 2015. He has used his downtime to attend contests as a visitor, particularly those in Orange County, Calif. Carlyle was the orchestrator of the only Stanley Cup championship in Anaheim Ducks history in 2007. He stayed with them until the 2011-12 season, when a 7-13-4 record to open it sent him packing and ushered the Bruce Boudreau era. Carlyle still has ties to the area; according to TSN's Darren Dreger, he met with the Ducks about the coaching vacancy left by Boudreau’s firing. According to the Toronto Sun's Steve Simmons, he has also met with the Calgary Flames, another team in search of a coach since Bob Hartley was fired.

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Best fit: Anaheim Ducks. How do you reignite a veteran leadership group, invigorate a young core and put fans in the seats? You hire the coach that took your team to the promised land. It almost seems comical to imagine Carlyle back with the Ducks, as if they would be trying too hard to recapture the glory days. But Anaheim just let go of a great coach who hasn't been able to win a Stanley Cup. Captain Ryan Getzlaf and winger Corey Perry were on that ’07 Cup team and they are paramount to getting the room to buy in to a new coach’s philosophy. Carlyle has the best chance of making that happen quickly.

Travis Green

During his player days, Green was a member of the Ducks from 1997-99 and again for a brief stint during that 2006-07 Cup run season. He's now the head coach of the Vancouver Canucks’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Utica Comets. He said at the beginning of May he felt he was ready to make the jump to the NHL. The Ducks seem to agree – Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman said the Ducks were interested in him. Utica made the playoffs last season, but were ousted in the first round this season, giving Green plenty of time to ponder his future – and NHL teams plenty of time to look at how he might fit into theirs.

Best fit: Calgary Flames. Hartley’s firing after the Flames season ended without a playoff berth was surprising. One year ago, Hartley was a Jack Adams Award winner who had taken his team to the second round of the playoffs. Flames management felt that was as far as he was capable of going, a not-so-subtle way of saying they want someone who could do a better job maximizing their young talent. Enter Green, a coach not so far removed from his own days as a player. He’s a smart, tough coach, but he’s creative too. He has experience working with younger players.

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Dark Horses

Mike Yeo

Let go by the Minnesota Wild as they struggled to generate offense, Yeo met with the Ottawa Senators about their coaching job before it went to Guy Boucher. Despite his Wild losing 13 of the 14 games prior to his firing, Yeo has always been a winner, as a player and coach. He’s a solid hockey mind who could find himself fielding offers mid-season.

John Torchetti

Taking over for Yeo, Torchetti, with the interim tag, lit a fire under the Wild that propelled them to a 15-11-1 record and a playoff spot. They lost to the Dallas Stars in six games of their first-round series, with Zach Parise out with an injury. How players responded to Torchetti's leadership shouldn’t go unnoticed for long.

Dave Cameron

Cameron's 2014-16 stint with the Senators was his first coaching gig in the NHL after a career spent mostly in the minors (he started with the Sens in 2011 as an assistant). A small sample size (70-50-17 record), coupled with the Senators missing the playoff last year, doesn’t bode well for his immediate head coaching future. He'll likely be an assistant or back with an AHL club.

Paul MacLean

An assistant under Boudreau in Anaheim since 2015, MacLean was a coach with the Senators from 2011-14 and before that was an assistant to Mike Babcock in Anaheim and Detroit, where he won a Cup in 2008. There were rumblings that he would get the chance to coach the Ducks.

Mike Johnston

When you’re fired midway through the season and then your team (the Pittsburgh Penguins) get to the Cup Final, there’s an unfortunate “it’s-not-us-it’s-you” stigma attached to the departing coach that’s not easy to shake. Johnston is currently head coach and general manager of the Western Hockey League’s Portland Winterhawks.