Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach named team's general manager

The last three men to hold the position of general manager of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins – Bill Guerin, Jason Botterill and Chuck Fletcher – have left the job to become a GM in the NHL.

Mike Vellucci does not intend to run that streak to four.

The Penguins announced Thursday that Vellucci, who was named head coach of the AHL club in June, will also act as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s general manager, filling the position held by Guerin until he left to join the Minnesota Wild last week.

The 52-year-old Vellucci said he aspires to be a coach, not a GM, at the NHL level.

“I came here as a coach,” Vellucci said. “I came to work for Billy. I won a championship in the American League. I want to do it again, but eventually, I want to coach in the National Hockey League. This wasn’t a thing that I sought out or wanted or was a must. It was an opportunity that came up with (general manager Jim Rutherford) the last day or two here.”

Vellucci said Guerin found out he got the Minnesota job while the organization was holding coaching meetings at Nemacolin Woodlands last week. Vellucci and Rutherford had preliminary discussions about taking over AHL GM duties then before finalizing the arrangement on Thursday.

When Guerin left, Rutherford said he could afford to take his time in choosing a new full-time assistant GM for the Penguins. The Wilkes-Barre GM role was a little more of a pressing matter, with NHL training camp set to open in about two weeks.

“Mike has experience and success in being a general manager and coach,” Rutherford said in a release. “We are fortunate to have someone that can handle both duties.”

The dual role is nothing new for Vellucci. He performed both tasks with the Carolina Hurricanes the last two seasons, acting as coach and general manager of the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers. He led the team to the Calder Cup last season. Vellucci was also a dual coach and GM with the Plymouth Whalers of the Ontario Hockey League from 2001-14.

He said handling both jobs helps him have a better feel when the time comes to call a player up to the NHL.

“I’m going know how they act and react on the bench,” Vellucci said. “I’m going to know how they play in tight moments, loose moments and what kind of character they have. I’m going to know inside and out from being on the bench. That’ll give me a foot up in that aspect, and I’ll be able to communicate that to Jim and the rest of the staff.”

He said the greatest challenge of being coach and GM is handling the delicate balancing act between trying to win at the AHL level and trying to develop prospects for NHL duty. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton saw its streak of 16 consecutive playoff berths end last season, and in northeastern Pennsylvania, Vellucci will be expected to start a new one post haste.

“Sometimes, when you’re coaching, all you worry about is wins and you don’t really care about anything else, but when you’re doing a dual role, my job is both, so I have to go to bed at night, I may be mad at a player, but I know the next morning I have to develop him and stay on it,” Vellucci said.

When it comes to Xs and Os, Vellucci said he won’t have to worry about playing a dual rule. His systems will essentially be Mike Sullivan’s systems.

“We’re going to mimic our NHL style of play, so when the players get called up into Pitt, it’s going to be a smooth transition,” Vellucci said. “We just had meetings with Sully there and he told us what kind of systems they’re going to play. The majority of it is going to be the same systems.”

The Penguins made one other personnel change Thursday, promoting Wilkes-Barre/Scranton video coach Madison Nikkel to assistant video coach in Pittsburgh, where he will work with video coach Andy Saucier.

Nikkel, a 25-year-old Boston College grad, was in Wilkes-Barre for three seasons.

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