With the hockey world’s attention being on Toronto and the all star break there was a piece of news that dropped in the background that pertains to the Penguins. Theo Esptein is back as an employee of the Fenway Sports Group. You may think, well he’s a baseball guy, why should I care? He’s not back in a baseball only role. He is going to oversee a lot of different things with FSG, including the Pittsburgh Penguins.

According to Kennedy, Epstein will also act as a “sounding board and executive coach” for Penguins GM Kyle Dubas and new Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.

Epstein has strong connections to both. After Epstein led the Cubs to the 2016 World Series championship, the franchise was viewed as such a progressive organization that executives from teams in other professional sports often checked in to compare notes and brainstorm ideas. One of those executives was Dubas, who was working with the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs when he struck up a friendship with Cubs officials, including Epstein. In 2019, Epstein hired Breslow, a former Red Sox reliever, for his first front-office job with the Cubs, all before giving him a strong recommendation this fall for the Red Sox job.

Theo Epstein is a front office legend. The Red Sox and the Cubs were both the longest running punchlines in baseball for their historically long championship droughts. He broke both “curses” through process based management and delivered tangible and historically significant results.

Baseball and hockey are not a one to one comparison, like at all, but to have someone like Epstein providing a direct line to Kyle Dubas this can only be viewed as a positive. It is still Dubas’ show and he will obviously be taking care of all of the hockey specific details. It’s just now he has one of the best in the business as far as being able to organize the functionality of a huge operation like a professional sports franchise.

I don’t expect Epstein to be heavily involved with the Penguins. He has many different roles and tasks to tend to under the FSG umbrella. It’s just nice to have someone like that to lean on if need be for feedback and questions.

Thanks for reading!

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