Penguins Coaching Search Ongoing, New Name to Consider?

There is no urgency, nor should there be, for the Pittsburgh Penguins to name their 23rd head coach. After all, perhaps the favorite is not who we thought it to be.

Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas succinctly laid out his timeline after terminating Mike Sullivan following the season. After most of 10 seasons behind the bench, Dubas subtly sounded the alarm in his postseason press conference and then made the bold decision in the following days when he determined that not only had the team stopped performing to optimal levels under Sullivan, but that the coach and GM disagreed on the rebuilding timeline.

And so the next Penguins coach can expect a longer rebuild than Sullivan wanted. This is Dubas’s ship, and he’s steering it in a new direction after a season or more of trying in vain to finish the previously charted voyage toward keeping Sidney Crosby and the championship core competitive.

In the first large-scale coaching search of his professional career, Dubas said the process would begin with Zoom meetings through much of May, then move to in-person interviews in late May, and finish wth finalists and a decision in early June. On June 2, Dubas’s timeline is still intact, but we’re getting to the end with a possible hitch in his best-laid plans.

Will it be Mitch Love? Jay Woodcroft? D.J. Smith? Or … a surprise?

The three aforementioned coaches are the reported finalists, but the delay in naming a coach suggests that Dubas has not finished the process. If Dubas had been certain about one of those three, it seems likely that it would have happened by now.

No, it seems more likely that Dubas could be waiting to speak to another coach before making his final call.

There has been some national chatter centering on the Dallas Stars, who have just finished their run. The Stars’ conclusion made both assistant coaches, Misha Donskov and Alain Nasreddine, available for interviews. Or, after three straight trips to the Western Conference Final with nothing to show for it but a hearty handshake line, could highly-regarded head coach Pete DeBoer become available, reshuffling everything?

It surely seemed that ESPN’s Kevin Weekes hinted at some news brewing in Dallas with one of his patented tweets featuring the eyeball emojis, and this time a picture of Dallas.

Dubas has also alluded to waiting for the AHL schedule to clear. At the time of Dubas’ comments a few weeks ago, we believed he meant Hershey Bears coach Todd Nelson, who was embroiled in the AHL playoffs, but that talk has abated. PHN has since reported that Nelson downplayed his candidacy for the Penguins job, and we do not believe he is a candidate.

Potential New Names?

There is one intriguing name still on the clock, as AHL playoffs are only into the semi-finals.

Former NHL player Manny Malhotra is still busy as his Abbotsford Canucks are leading their AHL semi-final series against the Texas Stars, 2-1. If you’re looking for Dubas connections, here is a big one. Malhotra was a Dubas hire as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 2020 through 2024.  The drawback is that this is Malhotra’s first season as a head coach, but being on the precipice of advancing to the Calder Trophy Final somewhat mitigates that fact.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now didn’t include him in initial lists because it was widely thought Malhotra would be in line for the Vancouver Canucks job that ultimately went to Adam Foote. Weeks later, the Penguins don’t have a coach, and Malhotra is still in the thick of the playoffs.

To further burnish his potential fit with the Penguins and Dubas, Malhotra is only 45, and if anyone knows if he is head coach material, it’s probably Dubas.

We’ve checked with those in coaching circles about Malhotra’s philosophy, and it fits very well with the Penguins’ long-held core competency and beliefs. Unlike Love, who has been more defensively oriented, our coaching industry sources report that Malhotra is an offense-minded coach.

“Skill. Creativity. Players expressing themselves. He’s a very good PP guy,” said one coach we spoke with via text.

There are obvious drawbacks to an inexperienced coach, and the AHL season being on pace to extend into late June does not help.

Dubas’s stated “deadline” of sorts was having a coach seated before the organization’s hockey operations meetings in the middle of this month, and bad timing might wreck the possibility. However, the timeline surely suggests there is more to Dubas’s delay than merely pondering the decision.