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Dan’s Daily: Coaching Rumors; Playoff Wars; Penguins Trade Talk
It does not take more than a few minutes of viewing to understand why Sidney Crosby badly wants to get back to the playoffs. The amplified intensity, physicality, and pressure make for great hockey. We’ll begin the Daily with the Pittsburgh Penguins Q&A, which was heavy on Erik Karlsson and subsequent trade talk, but also included a good bit about my eyes on the prospects. Elsewhere, the Stanley Cup Playoffs were epic Saturday night, with Tampa Bay asserting itself in that series, Gabriel Landeskog bringing down the house with a beaut, and Vegas surviving, barely. There’s also more NHL trade chatter, and big-time coaching rumors in two cities.
The stories are not rumors in Chicago and Anaheim; they are firmly sourced reports, but hockey fans call them rumors, and I’m a man of the people.
My all-night drive home from Allentown Saturday, with a little nap at a truck stop somewhere near Huntingdon, put the capper on the 2024-25 season for me. Unless called into emergency service on the NHN network, I’m done. I covered 84 straight games in person. That’s it. Fin. 86’d. –30–Â No mas.
I didn’t cover the locker room Friday night or drive back to Wilkes-Barre for clean-out day. I felt no need to document or share in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins locker room pain. It was intense, that much I could see, and intrinsically knew. The kids didn’t need to answer questions in that situation, nor did I feel the need to ask them big-picture questions following a crushing defeat. They’ll lick their wounds for a few weeks because they truly believed they could win it all, but it was so rudely over quickly. They really enjoy each other and bought into a team concept and had something special brewing, but bad injury luck, bad veteran play, and a terrible format conspired against them.
We’re in full offseason mode today. Maybe a cheap round of golf on Monday (until I have more time and get better, I refuse to pay weekend fees!), and we’ll begin more trade talk, draft coverage, and a thorough examination of the NHL club’s failure.
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Hockey Now: It was a good one! The Q&A was heavy on Erik Karlsson talk, and I’m going to remind everyone, you can’t just trade a player because you want to move on, especially a player with a $10 million salary cap hit. Teams don’t accept trades based on fair market offers; teams complete trades when each team fills a need or want for the other. And with that in mind, we discussed the Karlsson trade possibilities, rebuilding the team’s defense, as well as which prospects you will see next fall on the Penguins roster.
Dave Molinari picked up the column pen Saturday. The NHL put itself in a losing position for June. Dave explains and tees them up for the new NHL Draft format.
Steelers Now: The Steelers passed on Shedeur Sanders. In fact, everyone did until the Cleveland Browns selected him in the FIFTH round. Yes, he fell that far. The Steelers finally went quarterback when they snagged Ohio State’s Will Howard. There’s so much going down in Steeler-land that I can’t possibly link to it all. The draft picks, the analysis, the undrafted free agent kicker, and everything else–visit our sister site for all of the Steelers news.
Pittsburgh Baseball Now: There are a lot of people who get their jollies on bagging the Pirates players, but as our Danny Demilio writes, one guy fans have mocked personally deserves far better. In fact, he deserves quite a bit of respect and to see what he’s accomplishing. I won’t spoil the surprise, but Demilio brings a big bat for his Pirates column.
NHL Rumors, News, & National Hockey Now
How’s this for a coaching rumor?
— BucciOT.Com (@Buccigross) April 26, 2025
Multiple outlets have since reported that the Anaheim Ducks and Joel Quenneville are talking.
Quenneville received a big ovation when he was at the St. Louis Blues-Penguins game in March. Perhaps the timing is right for a return, though there will be a public furor. So, I’ll bring it up now. The most troubling part of Quenneville’s involvement in the Blackhawks sexual assault scandal of 15 years ago, and what I remain most shocked by, is his letter of recommendation that led to Brad Aldrich–the accused–getting a High School coaching job where Aldrich assaulted multiple players.
Quenneville did not commit or cover up any crimes, as is sometimes intimated on the interwebs. It might come down to our ability to forgive vs. our desire to forget. Of course, Stan Bowman got the Oilers GM job last year.
Colorado Hockey Now: You can visit Aarif Deen’s full coverage of the Avalanche’s 4-0 beatdown of Dallas on the website. Aarif has plenty of analysis on the site, but here’s what you want to see–Gabriel Landeskog scores!
That was an awesome moment.
Montreal Hockey Now: Oh boy. It’s been a wild series against the Capitals, especially for the goalies. Now, Sam Montembeault is injured, so what are the options for the Montreal Canadiens?
Vegas Hockey Now: Living on the edge. The VGK were figuratively bungee jumping off the Stratosphere. Their coach called them out for living in the past, and Karill Karprizov has been otherworldly good. It came down to overtime Saturday, and this time the heroics belonged to the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Ottawa Senators pulled off a hard-fought win in Game 4 to avoid the sweep against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but that series doesn’t seem to be in doubt, yet. If Ottawa wins Game 5, then we’ll talk.
Florida Hockey Now: Tampa Bay has life. They took it to the Florida Panthers in Game 3, winning 5-1. However, Tampa Bay’s Brandon Hagel was suspended for a late hit on Aleksander Barkov, and now the NHL is looking at a hit by Matthew Tkachuk.
The Athletic ($): The Columbus Blue Jackets. Goaltending issues. Free agents. Who is staying, who will they dump, and who will they trade? It was a good season for Columbus, but now they have to repair, patch, and add. So, who goes?
