The 2018-19 NHL season is only a quarter complete and four coaches have been fired, including two in a 12-hour span this week. Is your head spinning after all this movement? Here's what you need to know about the coaching carousel, including who else is on the hot seat, rising head-coach candidates, intel on the new bench bosses and more.

The 2017-18 season presented a perfect storm for stability. The season before there had been five in-season firings, the most since 2011-12, therefore there were fewer teams in the mix. Three of the worst teams in the league last season -- the Buffalo Sabres, Vancouver Canucks and Arizona Coyotes -- all had rookie head coaches, so it would have been rash to cut ties without seeing what the new guys could do while fully implementing their systems.

The Montreal Canadiens championship rings paid big bucks for Claude Julien -- with a term that runs through 2020-21 -- so they weren't going to say goodbye so quickly (another team that turned around; as of this writing, the Habs were sixth in the league in points percentage). The Ottawa Senators, another bottom-dweller, were believed to not want to pay two coaches at once, one of the reasons Guy Boucher got a pass. The Chicago Blackhawks championship rings for sale took a big step back, but management felt they owed it to three-time Cup winner Joel Quenneville to see the season through, considering he was without his starting goaltender, Corey Crawford, for much of it (and the Marian Hossa loss was significant.)

The Edmonton Oilers championship rings for sale regressed quickly, but perhaps management didn't know who would be better than Todd McLellan at the time. After all, the team's AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, California, was just as bad, so there was no obvious in-house choice. The Detroit Red Wings reportedly considered cutting ties with Jeff Blashill but gave him more time as they continued the rebuild.

But last season's rare stability -- it was the first time since expansion from the Original Six that no coaches were dismissed in-season -- forecast trouble ahead. On average, in the previous eight seasons, nearly four coaches were let go during each. We were bound to regress toward the mean.

Oh, and just because coaches weren't fired in-season doesn't mean there wasn't any turnover. After the season, six coaches ended up leaving their current jobs, for reasons varying from contract disputes to straight-up dismissals to "a change in direction" -- and plenty of excuses in between.

Last season, many folks I talked to predicted that the stability on the coaching front might mean a big turnover among management. Some team's struggles weren't due to coaching but rather roster construction or a lack of development through the system. Then there were four general-manager changes over the summer. Also in September, the Tampa Bay Lightning promoted Julien BriseBois to replace Steve Yzerman, but Yzerman stepped away for personal reasons.

Could or should the number have been higher? Perhaps. But GMs tend to have a lot more job security than coaches do. Consider there are two general managers (Detroit's Ken Holland and Nashville's David Poile) who have been at their post since the 1990s. Doug Wilson has been on the job in San Jose since 2003, Bob Murray in Anaheim since 2008, Stan Bowman in Chicago since 2009.

As for coaches? The longest-tenured coach right now is Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper ... who was hired in 2013. "If you get four, five years with a good team, you feel like you're a fortunate one," Ken Hitchcock told me last year. "The only way it changes is if you give us 100-year deals." custom championship rings

GMs often get more leeway from ownership than coaches do. And a lot of time they can fire a coach to buy more time. It seems notable that this is now the third coach firing Doug Armstrong has made in St. Louis without winning a Stanley Cup. The Chicago and Edmonton firings could also be viewed as a GM stalling before he can make wholesale fixes; the Los Angeles and St. Louis firings occurred because a season with great expectations spiraled too fast and there was still time to remedy it.

The Detroit Red Wings championship rings have played terrific recently but looked dreadful to start the season. Depending on which version of the team has more staying power, Blashill's name could resurface as a hot-seat candidate.

The Senators have also been streaky, and Boucher is in the final year of his contract. The team now has a strong in-house candidate if it chooses to switch directions: Ottawa's new AHL coach is Troy Mann, the former Hershey Bears coach who helped develop many players on the Capitals' stanley cup championship rings. Of course, it seems likely Ottawa ownership will let Boucher ride it out until the end of his contract.

There was some speculation Bruce Boudreau might not last long in Minnesota with a new GM, Paul Fenton, likely wanting to make his own hire. But the Wild are off to a great start, and Boudreau is not fazed. As he told the ESPN on Ice podcast this fall: "It's not like I haven't been fired before. Just roll with it. I've just got to do my job, and hopefully I do it well, but listen -- I was in the minors for 33 years, so I'm sort of used to anything now."

Despite having his roster barraged by injuries the past two seasons, Anaheim Ducks coach Randy Carlyle could be on the outs if the team is looking for a change of direction.

When it comes to hirings, NHL general managers tend not to be terribly creative, but many in the league believe there could be a shift soon.

For example, it was a promising sign that Jim Montgomery (cheap Dallas Stars championship rings) and David Quinn (custom New York Rangers championship rings) were hired from college hockey last season; in the first 97 years of the NHL, only two NCAA coaches got their first NHL jobs directly from college.

Meanwhile, Swedish national team coach Rikard Gronborg got some serious looks last summer, including in Dallas, and should resurface as a hot name during the next hiring cycle. Quenneville is the biggest name on the market right now, but reports indicate he might be patient in picking the right spot, even if that means sitting out this season. Don't forget about Alain Vigneault, dismissed by the Rangers last season. Since he's still being paid a hefty salary, he gets the luxury of time.