To the surprise of no one the Pittsburgh Penguins have cleaned out their underperforming and very bad front office.
John Henry and Tom Werner issued the following statement: "We are grateful to Brian, Ron, and Chris for their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from new hockey operations leadership...
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) April 14, 2023
It was only a matter of time. This front office was that bad. The Penguins have missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006 and it was directly tied to how the roster was filled out by the front office group. They were laughably bad at their jobs.
I do have to give it to Brian Burke. Nobody over the course of his tenure with the Penguins could actually detail what he actually did with the team yet there he was getting a steady paycheck. Good work if you can find it.
A name that wasn’t thrown around a lot might have had quite the negative lasting impact on the team
It was Chris Pryor who pushed Hextall to acquire Granlund. FYI.
— Josh Yohe (@JoshYohe_PGH) April 14, 2023
It sounds like someone with Pryor experience watching hockey would have been a better fit for the assistant GM job.
I know there are some who think Mike Sullivan should be fired, too. I’m not there. I certainly have plenty to critique about him, but he still is a net positive for me. There’s this other little detail in regards to his contract extension. It hasn’t even started yet and won’t this upcoming year. His three-year extension will start in 2024-25. I would keep him. Something else to consider is that the front office looked like they almost went out of their way to acquire players not capable of playing the type of hockey he wanted the team to play. Some say people aren’t on the same page. The prior front office and Mike Sullivan weren’t in the same book.
As for the transition:
Until a new GM is hired, hockey operations duties will be handled among Alec Shall, Erik Heasley, Andy Saucier and Mike Sullivan.
— Danny Shirey (@DannyShireyPGH) April 14, 2023
The Penguins might have to let some things play out before making their next hire official. One name that has popped up is Kyle Dubas. His contract is expiring and we are all aware of the Maple Leafs recent history of first round exits. The Leafs have the Tampa Bay Lightning in round one continuing the streak of Toronto getting an Eastern Conference Finals caliber matchup in round one going. If they were to lose I could see a path to the Penguins. I don’t think Dubas is quite as progressive as his reputation (hello trading a 1st round pick for a Nick Foligno rental). I do think he would be light years better than what the Penguins have had in recent years, including Rutherford.
I’ve seen former Penguins director of hockey operations and hockey research Sam Ventura’s name pop up in some discourse. I certainly won’t speak for him, but I can’t imagine he would come back to Pittsburgh in a lateral move when his Buffalo Sabres are on the complete opposite end of the spectrum. They are on the rise and have a promising future. Pittsburgh is riding things out. If you want to be bold and offer him the big job… that would have the gravitas needed to be appealing.
Kyle Dubas as President of Hockey Operations and Sam Ventura as a GM sounds pretty close to a best case scenario, at least to me. The Penguins just went the old school retread route. It is the exact opposite of what they need regardless of the strategy in roster construction moving forward.
There will be other candidates to discuss. These are just some immediate thoughts in the direct aftermath of the news.
Thanks for reading!