The Penguins are in one of the more unique situations. Their aging core isn’t bad enough to host a fire sale, or at least they shouldn’t host one. But that core is in its career twilight, to the point it’s long past due to thinking long and hard about how to replace legends like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.
Still, this isn’t a Chicago Blackhawks situation, in which the team hit rock bottom even when the likes of Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were still in town. They’re still capable of winning, and we know this because of the fight they showed last season and in 2023-24.
So, throwing in the towel would be an awful move if you’re the Penguins. And so would botching this coaching search. That’s why general manager Kyle Dubas is right to take his time and refrain from making any rash decisions. Finding a coach who can relate to aging veterans like Crosby is ideal, but so is one who also has a knack for developing young players.
Why not hire a coach for the short term and look for another in the long term?
Hire a coach to see the rest of Crosby’s career through, let them go either when Crosby hangs up the skates or the season after, when the Penguins likely go through some real growing pains, isn’t logical in terms of what the Penguins have been over the last 15-plus seasons. They’ve held on to a pair of coaches for a prolonged period, so that should and will be the case here.
Taking your time and making the best educated guess out there to bring in someone who can coach during the twilight seasons of Crosby’s career and start developing his and Malkin’s successors increases the odds that you’ll further bring in more stability. That’s not the case if you hire a coach on a glorified interim basis.
And yes, before you talk about how this would never happen, I have had fans of various teams insist on something like this to happen, but in a different way. Hire a coach to develop the players until they’re on the brink of a playoff run, fire them, then bring in another coach for the playoff run. The logic makes zero sense regardless of which way you look at it.
Kyle Dubas must take as much time as he possibly can
Kyle Dubas doesn’t need to rush this, and if anyone out there is criticizing him for it, it needs to be nothing more than background noise. Dubas needs to bring that level of stability back to the Penguins after three seasons ended without a playoff berth, and carefully vetting each candidate is the only way he’s increasing the odds of that happening.
The new head coach may not be a big name, but for the fans, that shouldn’t make a difference. Neither Dan Bylsma nor Mike Sullivan was a household name when they became the latest bench bosses in the Steel City, and they got a combined three Stanley Cups on their resumes.