3 Thoughts: Potential Penguins Assistant Coach, Rakell Trade Value

BUFFALO — Now, Dan Muse needs assistant coaches. Perhaps even an associate head coach.

Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas swerved everyone’s expectations and tabbed Muse, 42, as the franchise’s 23rd head coach. In retrospect, we should have seen it coming because of his extensive work with young players in the USHL and Team USA, followed by five years as an NHL assistant, but through the smoke surrounding perceived favorite Mitch Love, Muse slipped past, nearly undetected.

He appeared on a few lists as an interviewee, but on almost no one’s short list. That also speaks to how the Penguins make decisions–there is a small circle, and they don’t talk.

Now comes the next part of the restaffing process. Who will Muse and Dubas grab as assistant coaches?

Former Mike Sullivan assistants David Quinn and Ty Hennes are once again under Sullivan’s booming Boston voice with the New York Rangers. And Mike Vellucci landed with the Chicago Blackhawks.

One name that was mentioned to us was Phil Housley.

Housley and Muse worked together under Peter Laviolette in New York, and Housley preceded Muse with USA Hockey by a couple of years, but those circles are small. Housley was the associate coach under Laviolette and was the head coach of the Buffalo Sabres for two largely unsuccessful seasons from 2017-19.

Given Housley’s playing style as an offensive defenseman, one would also wonder if he and Erik Karlsson would have a quick kinship, or at least Housley would be able to grab Karlsson’s attention when needed in much the same way Rick Tocchet did with Phil Kessel.

The same for Housley and Kris Letang.

Just as the choice of head coach said a lot about the Penguins’ direction–they were willing to take a chance on someone they liked, who also needed his first big break–the assistant coaches will tell us a lot about what Muse perceives as his needs and the team’s needs.

Rickard Rakell Trade Value

The most recent PHN+ subscriber Q&A was heavy on two topics following Muse’s hiring. First was Karlsson’s future, but the second is the trade value that many affix to Rakell.

The Penguins winger set career highs with 35 goals and 70 points. However, 32-year-olds won’t fetch the price of a player who consistently achieves those numbers.

In the previous three seasons, Rakell has registered 37, 60, and 41 points, respectively. As much as Penguins fans may view this past season and the one two years ago as the appropriate value based on his talent, the roller coaster production and the hard 2023-24 season knock his value significantly.

He’s worth a later first-round pick, but not an earlier one. He’s worth a good pick and a ready prospect, or a softer pick (second-rounder) and a young NHLer (we’re looking your way, Buffalo Sabres, Detroit Red Wings).

Tommy Novak, Failed Trade?

Remember him?

He was the throw-in on the Luke Schenn deal (we kid, we kid). If you don’t, it’s quite easy to forget. As we lay out the potential Penguins lines and roster for next season, we sometimes have to go back and add him. He certainly didn’t make much of an impact after Dubas shipped Michael Bunting to Nashville for Novak and Schenn.

The Penguins acquired Novak and 35-year-old Schenn in a swap of draft picks and forward Michael Bunting. Dubas then flipped Schenn, who didn’t want to play for the Penguins because of their impending rebuild, into a second-round pick from the Winnipeg Jets.

However, the Penguins got little from Novak, who has one year left with a salary cap hit of $3.5 million.

Novak is a lanky forward that Dubas projected as a center, but Sullivan used him on the wing and at center before Novak suffered what became a season-ending injury after just two games with his new club.

Novak, 28, cannot be considered a young player. He is a skilled but softer perimeter player, as evidenced by just 24 hits over his four-year NHL career. Last season, as Nashville tried to elevate him in the lineup, his point production plummeted and he registered just 22 points in 54 games.

Playing lower in the lineup in the prior season, he notched 45 points with 18 goals. Consequently, Nashville GM Barry Trotz didn’t exactly praise Novak after the trade.

“When he was a fourth-line, league-minimum guy and scoring while getting some sheltered minutes, that fit him just fine … If you want to move up the lineup and get paid more, there’s more responsibility,” Trotz said. “There’s a reason that guys (higher in the lineup) get the higher salaries because most nights, they’re getting the harder matchups, and they’re expected to produce.”

Between Kevin Hayes and Novak, the Penguins will have over $7 million committed to a pair of players who figure to be third-line centers. Prospect Tristan Broz is also waiting in the wings. And based on our conversation Friday with Dubas, it is quite possible he adds more young centers via trade.

Read More: New Teams are Calling; Dubas on Penguins Trade Talks, Free Agency (+)

We remain a proponent of moving Evgeni Malkin to the wing (I think we’ve written that for about four years running), so there may be an open top-six slot for someone to claim, but even Dubas might question his trade if Novak doesn’t produce.

Certainly, still having Michael Bunting on the roster would make it easier to trade either Rakell or Bryan Rust, and those draft picks (a 2026 second and 2027 fourth) obtained in the series of deals that ended with flipping Schenn to Winnipeg will likely be inferior to Bunting.

One wonders if Dubas would have made the trade had he already decided to move on from Mike Sullivan. Bunting obviously frustrated the coach because of his sometimes sloppy defensive coverage and streaky offensive nature.

The 2025 NHL trade deadline remains somewhat of an enigma for Dubas. Not trading Matt Grzelcyk, thus likely losing him for nothing this summer via free agency, while acquiring Novak, Conor Timmins, and Connor Dewar might become a total washout with little gained and Bunting lost.