The Jack Adams Award is awarded annually to the National Hockey League coach "adjudged to have contributed the most to his team's success." It has been awarded 37 times to 32 different coaches. The winner is selected by a poll of the National Hockey League Broadcasters Association at the end of the regular season. Four coaches have won the award two times, while Pat Burns has won three times, the most of any coach.

The Jack Adams Award is named in honour of Jack Adams, Hall of Fame player for Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa, and long-time coach and general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. It was first awarded at the conclusion of the 1973–74 regular season.

Jacques Demers is the only coach who has won the award in consecutive seasons. Four coaches in history have won the award with 2 different teams. Jacques Lemaire, Pat Quinn, and Scotty Bowman have won the award twice, while Pat Burns is the only coach to win the award three times. The franchises with the most Jack Adams Award winners are the Philadelphia Flyers and Detroit Red Wings, with four winners, followed by the St. Louis Blues and Phoenix Coyotes with three, although the Coyotes had two winners in Winnipeg before they moved to Arizona. Bill Barber and Bruce Boudreau are the only coaches to win the award after replacing the head coach who started the season. Barber took over for Craig Ramsay during the 2000–01 season, while Boudreau replaced Glen Hanlon, a month into the 2007–08 season. The closest vote ever occurred in 2006, when the winner Lindy Ruff edged out Peter Laviolette by a single point.

Ken Hitchcock (born December 17, 1951 in Edmonton, Alberta) also known as "Hitch" is an NHL hockey coach and pro scout, currently coaching the St. Louis Blues.

Ken Hitchcock was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada on December 17, 1951. While growing up in western Canada, Hitchcock played hockey. Hitchcock found he could motivate players. This mind led him to coaching, first at various levels in the Edmonton area, and later a ten-year stint at the helm of the midget AAA Sherwood Park Chain Gang. Hitchcock led Sherwood Park (an Edmonton suburb) to an outstanding record of 575–69. In his spare time, "Hitch" taught hockey fundamentals to girls at a local hockey school.

Taking a chance, Hitchcock submitted his credentials to the new owners of the WHL's Kamloops Blazers, Gary Cooper and Colin Day. Hitchcock assumed his position behind the bench for the 1984–85 season, and had an immediate effect on the Blazers, leading them to four consecutive division titles and two league titles (in 1985–86 and 1989–90). In both of the seasons he guided the Blazers to the league title, Hitchcock was named the WHL Coach of the Year, and he was named the top coach in Canadian major junior hockey in 1990. Hitch's team appeared in the Memorial Cup tournament twice, never advancing beyond the semi-finals. In six seasons in Kamloops, Hitchcock recorded a 291–125–15 record, which stands as the second best in WHL history.

Dan Bylsma (pronounced /ˈbaɪlzmə/ BYLZ-mə; born September 19, 1970) is the head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League (NHL) as of February 15, 2009, replacing Michel Therrien. Prior to coaching the Penguins, he played as a forward in the NHL and coached in the American Hockey League (AHL). He was drafted in the sixth round (109th Overall) of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, by the Winnipeg Jets. On June 12, 2009, four months after becoming head coach in Pittsburgh, Dan Bylsma coached the Penguins to their third Stanley Cup Championship in 7 games over the Detroit Red Wings.

During his high-school days, Bylsma was a standout in many sports, including golf, baseball, and ice hockey. Bylsma graduated from Western Michigan Christian High School where he won the Class D golf individual championship as a freshman. He also played baseball and was the starting left fielder as a freshman on Christian's 1985 State championship team. In his senior year, he was a member of the all-state all-class "Dream Team" (the best player at each position in the state – all classes), and won many regional baseball honors.

Robert Blake Theodore “Terrible Ted" Lindsay (born July 29, 1925) is a former professional ice hockey player, a forward for the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). He scored over 800 points in his Hockey Hall of Fame career, won the Art Ross Trophy in 1950, and won the Stanley Cup four times. Often referred to as "Terrible Ted", Lindsay helped to organize the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) in the late 1950s, an action which led to his trade to Chicago.

Lindsay was born in Renfrew, Ontario. His father, Bert Lindsay, had been a professional player himself, playing goaltender for the Renfrew Millionaires, Victoria Aristocrats, and Toronto Arenas. Lindsay played amateur hockey in Kirkland Lake before joining the St. Michael's Majors in Toronto. In 1944 he played for the Memorial Cup champion Oshawa Generals.

Lindsay's performance in the Ontario Hockey Association Junior A League (now the Ontario Hockey League) earned him an invitation to try out with the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL and he made his big league debut in 1944 at the age of 19. Lindsay played only one game in the AHL, with the Indianapolis Capitals, during the 1944–45 AHL season.

Shane Albert Doan (born October 10, 1976) is a Canadian professional ice hockey forward and captain of the Phoenix Coyotes of the National Hockey League (NHL). Doan is the longest tenured player on the club, having played all seventeen of his NHL seasons with the original Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes franchise. He is also the last remaining Coyote to have played for the original Jets.

Competing internationally for Team Canada, he has won two gold medals and two silvers at the World Championships, as well as one World Cup championship in 2004. He was also a member of Canada's 2006 Winter Olympic team.

After winning the Memorial Cup and Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP with the Kamloops Blazers in 1995, Doan was drafted by the Winnipeg Jets in the first round, seventh overall, in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. He was the Jets' final first-round pick to play in the NHL prior to the franchise moving to Phoenix. He immediately made the transition from major junior to the NHL in 1995–96 and tallied 17 points in his rookie season with the Jets. After the Jets relocated to Phoenix and became the Coyotes the following season, his points total did not improve greatly until the 1999–2000 season when he scored 26 goals (the first of nine consecutive 20-goal campaigns for Doan).