The Pittsburgh Penguins won’t be among the few teams looking for a new bench boss this summer. In an article from Wes Crosby of NHL.com, the Penguins will retain head coach Mike Sullivan through the 2025-26 NHL season.
Sullivan’s tenure as the longest-serving coach in franchise history is a story of two distinct coaching periods. He guided Pittsburgh to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2015 and 2016, and into the playoffs for another five years after.
Unfortunately, the dream ended in 2022-23, as the Penguins missed the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-06 season. Throughout his first 507 games behind the bench, he coached Pittsburgh to a 297-156-54 record. Since the start of the 2022-23 campaign, the Penguins have only mustered a 112-99-35 in the last 246 games under Sullivan’s tutelage.
Other notes from the Metropolitan Division:
- In a separate article from Michelle Crechiolo, General Manager Kyle Dubas indicated that netminders Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic would compete for the spot they wanted in training camp. Indirectly, that confirms that the Penguins intend to keep both netminders on the team throughout the summer, and that won’t be an area they’ll look to improve externally. Both goalies showed flashes of quality play throughout the 2024-25 season. Still, Pittsburgh finished the year with a 30th-ranked 3.50 GA/G and a 27th-ranked .884 SV%.
- Defenseman Martin Fehérváry isn’t in the lineup for the Washington Capitals in Game 1 of their opening-round matchup against the Montreal Canadiens, as alluded to by Sammi Silber of The Hockey News this morning. Fehérváry continues to recover from an ankle injury suffered in Washington’s penultimate game of the season. Still, it granted an opportunity for Alexander Alexeyev, who’s taken Fehérváry’s spot in the lineup for tonight’s contest.