Did the Penguins hire assistants for Mike Sullivan? Or potential replacements?
With the Steelers underway, some have pushed Penguins talk to the back burner until free agency or when the offseason trade market truly kicks into gear.
But not for those of us here at “Breakfast With Benz.” General manager Jim Rutherford got a head start, so we feel the need to keep pace.
GMJR acquired former Toronto Maple Leafs winger Kasperi Kapanen. He managed to ditch Nick Bjugstad. And he shuffled the assistant coaches on Mike Sullivan’s staff.
Brian Metzer of the Penguins Radio Network joins me for our weekly hockey podcast to examine which paths Rutherford may take next and if any of them involve a trade of defenseman Kris Letang.
“(Letang) is always worried about it more than he probably should (be),” Metzer said. “He’s probably a piece that could be moved if they want to break up that core. But everything that you hear is that Kris shouldn’t worry too much about it.
“I don’t personally believe something is going to happen in terms of him moving.”
However, Metzer can foresee a trade when it comes to dealing goaltender Matt Murray. Should that happen, Metzer thinks an interested team may need to overlook what has become a flaw in Murray’s game.
“When he has been on, he has always been a very good ‘first-save’ goaltender,” Metzer said. “It’s when he has scramble plays, and a lot of rebounds, and things get chaotic in front of him, when teammates (are) not doing what he anticipates them to do, that he gets himself in trouble.”
Metzer also had some interesting comments about the reconfigured bench support of Sullivan. Were assistant coaches Todd Reirden or Mike Vellucci actually hired to be Sullivan’s eventual replacement if the team gets off to a bad start next season?
Firing the coach mid-season and hiring the Wilkes-Barre Scranton coach has worked with Michel Therrien, Dan Bylsma and Sullivan in the past. Reirden and Vellucci have held that title previously. Could Jim Rutherford have that same thought in mind now?
“Everybody who looked at those hirings thought the same thing,” Metzer said. “The potential replacement could be right there on the bench. There’s probably a better chance of that being Reirden than Vellucci, even though the moment Jim Rutherford brought Vellucci to the organization I anticipated him getting promoted to the Pittsburgh portion of the organization.”
Between those two new hires and J.D. Forrest (the new WSB coach), Metzer says, “They are now looking at three potential, future candidates to at least be NHL coaches—in terms of assistants and head coaches. And two of them are looking over Mike Sullivan’s shoulder right now.”
Metzer and I also preview Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final. If the Tampa Bay Lightning win, they advance to the Cup Final against the Dallas Stars. We get into what has clicked for Tampa Bay this year, where the New York Islanders have run out of steam and what the Isles may do next year to get even better.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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