The Penguins on Wednesday filled out their coaching staff by naming Todd Reirden and Mike Vellucci assistant coaches.
Reirden, who was fired by the Capitals in August after two years as head coach and four years as an assistant/associate coach, will focus on the Penguins' defensemen and power play unit. This is Reirden's second stint in the organization after previously serving as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach from 2008-10, and an assistant coach in Pittsburgh from 2010-14.
Vellucci, who was promoted from his role as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach after one season, will focus on the forwards and penalty killing unit. The search for his replacement behind the Wilkes-Barre bench is already underway.
"I am pleased to add Todd and Mike to our coaching staff, and believe they will complement Mike Sullivan's coaching style," Rutherford said in a press release. "Todd is a Stanley Cup winning coach with a decade of NHL experience as both an assistant and head coach. Mike brings championship experience at both the AHL and OHL level, and is very familiar with how we function as an organization."
"Jim and I went through a pretty extensive process to try to find the right fit for our staff," Sullivan said of the hirings in a video press conference on Wednesday. "We feel strongly that these guys are the right fit. They're really good coaches first and foremost, they have a wealth of experience in a lot of different capacities. They've won championships at different respective levels, so they know what it takes to win a championship. We felt through the interview process that these guys were a good fit for us."
Reirden and Vellucci replace the assistant coaching staff of Mark Recchi, Jacques Martin, and Sergei Gonchar, who were fired on Aug. 12. Even though just two assistant coaches were hired to replace the trio that was fired, the Penguins are not actively searching for a third assistant coach to join the staff.
"We're comfortable with what we have on the staff," Sullivan said. "We think we have a lot of experience, we have sufficient people to cover the responsibilities. I'm a pretty hands-on head coach, so I will be very much involved in a lot of this stuff. Right now we're comfortable with the staff that we've assembled."
Vellucci, 54, spent the previous season as general manager and head coach of the team in Wilkes-Barre, leading the team to a 29-26-3-5 record in the coronavirus-shortened season. Before joining Wilkes-Barre, Vellucci was head coach of the Hurricanes' AHL affiliate Charlotte Checkers as well as the organization's assistant general manager, and led the Checkers to a Calder Cup championship in the 2018-19 season.
Vellucci has a combined 20 years of experience coaching in the AHL, OHL, and NAHL levels, but only ever as a head coach, never an assistant. I asked him on Wednesday what he expects this transition to be like for him, moving into a role where for the first time he's not going to be the main voice in the locker room.
"I know I'm a good teammate myself," Vellucci said of his new role. "So I'm really excited to be a good teammate with the coaching staff, give my opinion when it's asked for, and to work with Sully and Todd and learn from them. They've both been NHL head coaches. It's a very exciting time for myself to make this move."
Vellucci said that he's had opportunities in the past to move into an NHL role like this, but didn't take them. He said that what made this opportunity different was the relationship he has with Sullivan, and the opportunity to learn from coaches who are Stanley Cup champions.
Vellucci's experience and track record at the various levels made him an appealing candidate for the job, and so did his experience with the Penguins' own prospects who are working their way up from Wilkes-Barre.
"He did a real good job with our team in Wilkes-Barre," Sullivan said. "One of the things that I'm excited about is Mike knows our young prospects. He knows really well these guys and where they're at as far as their potentiality to make the jump to the NHL. I think that will be really helpful for our staff. I think Mike's a good teacher, he's very articulate."
Vellucci pointed to Pierre-Oliver Joseph, Anthony Angello, Sam Lafferty, and Sam Miletic as examples of players he coached in Wilkes-Barre who could push for spots or more prominent spots in Pittsburgh's lineup last season.
Vellucci has primarily coached prospects throughout his 20-year coaching career, including future NHL stars like Tyler Seguin, Vince Trocheck and James Neal from his time in the OHL. Coaching veteran stars like Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, and Kris Letang is an opportunity that he's looking forward to.
"It's great," he said. "It's been exciting to watch them over the past year, I watched every Pens game this year. It's fun to watch the skill and will that those guys have. ... These guys are in the prime of their career, it's going to be exciting to work with those guys."
Reirden, 49, said that the Penguins reached out to speak to Reirden about the assistant coaching job "really quickly, right after" he was fired by the Capitals. Other teams also reached out to Reirden, but he said that the Penguins were "immediate, and extremely aggressive" in the interview process.
Sullivan pointed to Reirden's work with defensemen, attention to detail, work ethic, and work with video as qualities that made him a fitting candidate for the other assistant coaching job. Reirden's existing relationships with the core group of Crosby, Malkin and Letang from his first stint in the organization were also a factor in his hiring.
"I'm excited to work with Todd," Sullivan said. "I'm looking forward to his insights and ideas. I know he's very well liked within our organization with his prior coaching experience here in Pittsburgh. I think the fact that he has some established relationships with our core guys will be beneficial for us, it should make the transition more seamless."
Those prior relationships with core players also makes this an exciting opportunity for Reirden.
"I'm looking forward to reconnecting with those players," he said. "It's one of the real strong reasons why I wanted to come back and be a part of the Penguins organization again. The drive that those players have to win another Stanley Cup, I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of getting them back to where they are accustomed to being. I think we can do that here."
Goaltending coach Mike Buckley was also signed to a two-year contract extension on Wednesday. Buckley has been the Penguins' goaltending coach for the past three seasons and served as goaltending development coach from 2013-17.
