The end of an era is upon the Pittsburgh Penguins, as the team announced a mutual parting of ways with two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Mike Sullivan on Monday afternoon.
Behind the bench in Pittsburgh since December 2015, Sullivan’s 409 wins with the Penguins are a franchise record (Dan Bylsma is next with 252).
Sullivan’s departure constitutes a titanic change for a team that is shaking off a third consecutive non-playoff campaign.
Additionally, it treks onward in attempting to retool into a Stanley Cup contender again around aging franchise icons Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang.
But are additional seismic alterations to the Penguins on the horizon, notably the continued employment of longtime veteran players?
EJ Hradek, former senior writer for ESPN Magazine and current analyst at NHL Network, believes that could be the case.
“I think everything’s on the table,” Hradek told TribLive. “I think it is a harbinger of things to come because now’s the time. These guys are not getting younger, they’re not advancing in their careers and getting better than they did earlier. They need more support at this stage of their career. They needed less support when they were the players they were earlier in their careers. It’s hard to find those types of players.
“Outside of (Crosby), the rest of those guys are just not the same players and (the Penguins) haven’t been able to add the pieces that you need to take it to another level.”
Of the Penguins’ Big Three, Letang, who turned 38 on April 24, is signed the longest, through 2027-28 at an average annual value of $6.1 million.
Malkin will be 39 at the end of July and has one more year remaining on his contract, valued at $6.1 million through 2025-26.
Then there is defenseman Erik Karlsson, the Penguins’ highest-paid player ($10 million annually, of which the San Jose Sharks are paying roughly $1.3 million per year, via Puck Pedia), with his contract running through 2026-27.
Crosby’s $8.7 million deal runs through 2026-27.
Crosby has on repeated occasions made his intentions clear about wanting to remain a Penguin for the remainder of his career.
But how he feels about Sullivan leaving isn’t clear at the moment.
President of hockey operations and general manager Kyle Dubas was asked about that Monday when meeting with reporters in Cranberry after the news about Sullivan was announced.
He offered the following:
“I’m not going to speak for Sid. … When we go through and make coaching changes, or any changes in the organization, I have to do what I think is best for the organization,” Dubas said. “I called Sid yesterday morning before I met with (Sullivan) to give him the heads up. He’s been through (coaching changes) before.
“But in terms of how he feels about it, I had a five-minute conversation with him before about the fact that we were going through this to make a change, and we didn’t get into the ins and outs of it.”
Dubas also provided a blunt “no” when asked if was concerned that, because of the coaching change, Crosby wouldn’t want to play for the Penguins moving forward.
If Sullivan being let go is the first of several offseason changes, Crosby likely won’t be among them unless he wants to play elsewhere.
However, Letang, Malkin and Karlsson could face more uncertain futures although they each have full no-movement clauses in their contracts.
“You never know that for sure when you’re on the outside looking in, but the potential for something like that to happen clearly is there,” said Sportsnet analyst Pierre McGuire, a former scout and Stanley Cup champion (1992) assistant with the Penguins.
Sullivan in demand
Sullivan, 57, guided the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017, making them the first team in the salary cap era (starting in 2005-06) to do so.
While he also has been at the helm for the club’s reversal in fortunes since then, Sullivan successfully coached star players for a decade and left an imprint on the game with his high-tempo, speed-oriented system that helped produce two championships.
With a robust reputation in the NHL, he should enter the coaching market with significant leverage to sort through offers and opportunities as he sees fit.
“Great coach, great legacy with the Penguins,” said TSN analyst Craig Button. “He will work whenever he is ready to do so, and any team would be lucky to have him. Every coach and team intersects at a point of expiry. Nothing diminishes his incredible impact on the Penguins.”
The New York Rangers are prominent within the teams currently in need of a head coach, along with the Anaheim Ducks and Seattle Kraken.
Sullivan, a native of Marshfield, Mass., will undoubtedly be in the conversation for the Bruins’ coaching gig, with Boston currently led by interim coach Joe Sacco.
Not to mention, Sullivan’s son-in-law, Charlie McAvoy, is a defenseman for the Bruins.
The Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers are other clubs being led by interim coaches.
With plenty of potential destinations, Sullivan’s entry into the coaching candidate pool significantly alters the market.
“To me, Mike’s in the driver’s seat,” McGuire said. “I think it’s going to be a battle between (former Chicago coach and three-time Stanley Cup champion Joel) Quenneville and Sullivan to see goes to the top of the food chain for who’s going to get hired first.”
Added Hradek: “I would suggest that it won’t take that long. If you want Mike Sullivan, you know who he is and it’s just a matter of how much do you want to pay him and how do you work out a contract.”
Who’s next in Pittsburgh?
Dubas said Monday he plans to cast a wide net in searching for the Penguins’ next coach, considering those with NHL experience, from Europe and from the junior hockey ranks.
As far as who could succeed Sullivan in Pittsburgh, University of Denver coach David Carle might intrigue Dubas.
Carle, 35, has gone 179-74-17 over seven seasons at Denver, leading the Pioneers to two national championships.
Recently, Carle took himself out of the mix for the Blackhawks vacancy and has no prior NHL experience as a head coach or assistant.
To whatever extent Dubas does or does not consider him, Carle can negotiate with any NHL club from a position of strength.
“I know that he just had a third child, he has a really good situation at the University of Denver and speaking to him in the past, he is someone who is only going to go to a place where he feels he has the real backing of everybody there and that he’s got a chance to be successful,” Hradek said. “I don’t know if that is Pittsburgh right now, being in transition. … I just don’t know how appealing that job is for someone.”
Were McGuire in Dubas’ shoes, Carle would represent an interesting option.
But McGuire also was complimentary of Penguins assistant David Quinn, a close friend of Sullivan’s and a former coach of the Rangers and San Jose Sharks.
Quinn, whom Sullivan brought in as an assistant for 2024-25, helped orchestrate a major turnaround on the power play by the Penguins and oversaw the team’s defensemen.
Along with Carle and Quinn, McGuire named Vancouver Canucks coach Rick Tocchet, a four-time Stanley Cup winner with the Penguins (1991, 1992, 2016, 2017) as a player and later, assistant.
Tocchet, 61, has 638 games’ worth of coaching experience with the Tampa Bay Lightning (2008-2010), Arizona Coyotes (2017-2021) and Canucks (2022-present).
Additionally, McGuire offered two dark-horse candidates: UMass coach Greg Carvel, 54, who led the Minutemen to a national championship in 2021 and was a 1991 NHL Supplemental Draft pick by the Penguins.
Carvel, an NCAA runner-up with UMass in 2018-19, is 221-182-35 over 12 total seasons as a college coach.
Finally, McGuire championed 45-year-old Toronto Maple Leafs assistant Mike Van Ryn, a Stanley Cup champion as a an assistant with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.
Whereas Hradek envisioned prospective candidates approaching the Pittsburgh job with some trepidation, McGuire viewed it as a chance that’d magnetize the right coach.
“I think it’s a hugely interesting opportunity for a lot of reasons,” McGuire said. “The draft collateral that they have — that’s No. 1. No. 2, ownership that’s clearly invigorated. They care, so I think that’s important. No. 3, and I think this is really important — Pittsburgh’s a tremendous hockey market. … I think Pittsburgh’s a tremendous job opportunity, I really do.”
Note: Katerina Wu, who served as a senior data scientist in the Penguins’ research and development operations and had a role in scouting and evaluation, left the organization last week. She had been with the team since March of 2021.
Categories: Penguins/NHL | Sports
