Penguins
Former Penguins Assistant Lands on His Feet, Gets New Job
The Pittsburgh Penguins fired assistant coach Mike Vellucci, along with head coach Mike Sullivan in April following the club’s third straight disappointing season and playoff miss. Sullivan quickly landed a new job with the New York Rangers with a reportedly market-setting contract.
Tuesday, Vellucci landed on his feet, as well. The Chicago Blackhawks and new coach Jeff Blashill hired both Michael Peca and Vellucci as assistants. The former Penguins assistant has an impressive record in the AHL (winning the Calder Cup with the Charlotte Checkers) before joining the Penguins staff and improving what was a weak penalty kill.
Vellucci, 58, also spent one season as the head coach of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins before joining coach Mike Sullivan’s NHL staff. Vellucci was an assistant coach to David Warsofsky on the Team USA gold medal-winning squad at the World Championships last month. On Team USA were a couple of the Blackhawks’ young stars, too.
“I’m looking forward to working alongside Mike, who has excelled behind the bench at every level, as both a head and assistant coach,” Blashill said via the Blackhawks’ team press release. “Serving as an assistant coach at the World Championship this summer and winning a gold medal for our country alongside Frank Nazar and Alex Vlasic will bring such valuable experience to this group. That kind of championship-caliber background only makes our team better, and I’m excited to get to work.”
Vellucci also won the OHL championship with the Plymouth Whalers in 2007 and was named coach of the year.
Wow. (1) First I heard he was fired. Thought his contract only expired. (2) One of the writers from The Hockey News said that the Blackhawks “hit a home run” with this hire. Still think this was a mistake not to consider him for Pens HC position. (3) Something Mike doesn’t like to talk about much. In 1984, he was involved in a terrible car accident. Former NHL dman Al Iafrate was driving and fell asleep. Car rolled about 25x. Several Drs said Mike would never play hockey again. Proved them wrong.