Expected Roles & Analysis: What Penguins are Getting with New Assistants

The Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff was announced en masse on Friday, and experience wasn’t a prerequisite.

The Penguins filled the vacancies around new head coach Dan Muse when they tabbed Nick Bonino, Richard Clune, and Todd Nelson as assistant coaches, and somewhat surprisingly rehired Andy Chiodo as the organization’s goaltending coach.

The Penguins’ release did not indicate a division of labor, but Nelson was a defenseman as a player, and Clune managed the Anaheim Ducks forwards and power play last season.

Read More: Penguins Fill Out Dan Muse’s Coaching Staff

Chiodo’s rehire is somewhat surprising because Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas made a point to say Chiodo and former assistant coach Mike Vellucci were free agents when he terminated coach Mike Sullivan following the regular season. While Chicago picked up Vellucci as an assistant, Chiodo will bring his familiarity and success with the Penguins’ crop of goaltenders back to a new staff.

Numbers won’t tell the story with Penguins’ goalies, who have not been popular figures over the last couple of seasons. Tristan Jarry has both surged and swooned, leading to the organization waiving him last January. But Chiodo should also get a little credit for the improvement of the other goalies on his watch, including Sergei Murashov, and it might be a stretch, but Chiodo also played a role in helping Jarry’s comeback later in the season.

Goalie Alex Nedeljkovic arrived in Pittsburgh, a castoff from the Detroit Red Wings, who waived him and kept him in the AHL for a significant chunk of the 2022-23 season. In two seasons with the Penguins, he’s largely resurrected his career, including an impressive run to end the 2023-24 season in which the Penguins nearly completed a historic comeback in the standings, just missing the playoffs.

No, the Penguins’ NHL goalies have not posted good numbers over the past 18 months, but judging the Penguins’ goalies by numbers is to punt the myriad of mitigating factors, especially the porous defense and the team’s overall laissez-faire defensive commitment. If there were such a stat, the goalies likely would have led the league in being hung out to dry.

Murashov set winning streak records in the ECHL and AHL. Filip Larsson outperformed expectations, and Taylor Gauthier was the ECHL goalie of the year. As a philosophy, Chiodo applies a special emphasis on the goalies’ mental habits while drilling fundamentals.

Todd Nelson

Despite the publicly undefined assistant role, it might be a good guess that Nelson manages the defensemen, as he was a defenseman for his 12-year playing career.

The big hire Friday was Hershey Bears coach Todd Nelson, 56, who has a lengthy professional resume both in the minors and the NHL. Nelson followed Spencer Cerbery as the Hershey coach and has drawn rave reviews in three seasons, winning a pair of AHL Calder Cups.

During the Penguins’ coaching search, there was some chatter that the organization was high on Nelson, but he privately downplayed his candidacy for the Penguins job. With input from coaching colleagues and some in the Hershey organization, PHN profiled Nelson. His colleagues spoke glowingly.

“Very experienced. Very calm. Very simple,” said one source.

Read More: Penguins Coaching Search: Chatter Indicates Team High on Nelson

Nelson was adept at creating a tight-knit locker room, including his annual pig roast for the players, staff, and their families. He’s also been a winner at every stop, including a total of three Calder Cups and a couple of Colonial Cups at his first stop with Muskegon of the UHL.

Rich Clune & Nick Bonino

Clune has ties to Dubas going back to when Dubas was the GM of the Toronto Marlies and Clune a player on the Dubas-built team that won the Calder Cup in 2018. In 2021, Clune was named captain of the team. Later, he joined the Maple Leafs organization in Player Development.

As a coach, he has a bit to prove.

His base is development, but this season with Anaheim was his first behind the bench. Unfortunately, his resume might not spark optimism, as he was the leader of Anaheim’s power play under since-fired head coach Greg Cronin. The power play was at best abysmal and ranked last in the league at 11.8%. Anaheim industry sources said the man advantage was even worse than the numbers indicate.

Despite just one year behind a bench, Clune won’t be the least experienced coach on the Penguins staff, as former Penguins center Nick Bonino will also join the assistant coaches. The popular Bonino, affectionately nicknamed Bones, was a cerebral player, but as for his coaching strengths or philosophies, perhaps everyone will find out together just what the Penguins have gotten.

Bonino’s great strength would seem to be his connection to the championship core from his couple of years with the team, helping to win two of those championships.