Even when Jewish participation in elite professional sports leagues was at its nadir, we could always count on quality Jewish coaches. Sid Gillman and Marv Levy (NFL), Red Auerbach and Red Holzman (NBA)... Not so for the NHL.

To our knowledge, there have been a total of TWO Jewish NHL coaches. The league is over 100 years old.

One is previously-profiled Cecil Hart, who won two Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens in the 1930s. The other is less heralded: former St. Louis Blues defenseman Bob Plager, who was an interim coach for that team in 1993. Plager converted to Judaism, so he counts, even though he coached all of 11 games.

Today, when the contingent of quality Jewish NHL players is growing, with stars (Jack Hughes, Zach Hyman) and award winners (Quinn Hughes, Adam Fox, Jeremy Swayman) among them, will a coach finally break through? He has: Ryan Warsofsky, who, at the age of 36, became the youngest coach in the league when he was hired by the San Jose Sharks.

Warsofsky never played in the NHL; his younger brother David had a journeyman career with four teams.

Clearly, Jewish participation in the NHL is no longer at its nadir.