The Penguins promoted Ty Hennes from skating and skills development coach to assistant coach, Ron Hextall announced on Tuesday.
Hennes, 43, spent the last four seasons in his previous role, having joined the Penguins' development staff in 2018. He assisted in leading practices, worked with players during injury rehab, and worked with prospects during the season, and led the Penguins' informal skates over the summers. As his role has evolved, he's added the responsibility of pre-scouting opponents at five-on-five play. He started working behind the bench during games in the 2019-20 season.
Hennes has had the duties of an assistant coach for some time now. Now, he has the title to go along with it.
"Promoting Ty to an assistant coach was one of our top priorities heading into the season, as he is widely regarded as one of the best skills coaches in the NHL," Hextall said of the decision to promote Hennes. "Ty brings a unique skill set to our coaching staff and has gradually taken on more responsibility over the years as his role has evolved. He has been a big part of our team and will continue to be so moving forward."
Mike Sullivan made an appearance on the Penguins' Radio Network Tuesday evening and spoke with Josh Getzoff about the promotion, saying he "couldn't be happier" to see Hennes get rewarded that way.
"I think he's so deserving of it," Sullivan said. "He's a really, really intelligent guy. He's a great hockey coach and he loves the Penguins. He's totally invested in trying to help us have success, and he's willing to do anything to help us in any capacity on the coaching staff in order for us to have success."
Sullivan said that Hennes' role has evolved greatly over the past few seasons.
"He wears a lot of hats," Sullivan explained. "He's an integral part of the return-to-play process when players are coming off injuries. In my experience of being in this league, I've never been around a better skills coach than Ty, he just gets it. He understands the biology of motor skill development and how to train that type of stuff in a game-real environment. He's a chiropractor. He has his PhD in chiropractic. So he's a doctor first and foremost that happens to be a skills coach and a really good hockey coach on top of it. When you think about his skill set, there's no better guy that could be involved in a return-to-play process with players coming off of injuries than a guy like Ty because he could speak both languages, so to speak."
In speaking with players and coaches last season about Hennes' impact in his role, the word that kept popping up was "energy."
"He brings a lot of energy," Danton Heinen said. "He's always got a smile on his face."
"He brings a ton energy," Sidney Crosby reiterated. "We've kept him busy this year with the amount of guys that have been out and have to come back, especially with the virus and things like that. It's not easy getting guys ready to play in a day or two after sitting around for 10 days. He's so valuable for us as far as getting guys ready and the energy he brings."
"I think the guys really like Ty," Sullivan said. "He brings a lot of energy to the ice. He's just so enthusiastic, he brings so much passion to what he does. And he's really good at what he does."
Hennes, a 5-foot-9, 176-pound former forward, had a four-year minor-league hockey career from 2004-08. During his second minor league season he began attending the Parker College of Chiropractic Medicine, where he eventually earned his doctorate degree in 2011. Prior to his brief minor league hockey career, he was a pre-med student at Boston College and scored 16 goals and 26 assists in 152 games over four years, eventually serving as alternate captain in his senior year.
Hennes played with a number of future NHL players on those Boston College teams, including Stephen Gionta, Patrick Eaves, Ben Lovejoy, Brooks Orpik, Rob Scuderi and Brian Boyle. He was a co-captain in his senior season along with current Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach J.D. Forrest, who had high praise for his former teammate when I asked him about Hennes last season.
"I wouldn't have considered him a skilled player," Forrest recalled of Hennes' playing days. "But he just worked so hard. He's delved deep into it after he was done with school, on skill acquisition on the science about it. Not many people know that he's actually a doctor, he's a very intelligent man. From that perspective, it's not surprising to see him just pick something and become an expert at it. He is the best at his job that I've ever seen."
It's not difficult to see why the promotion of Hennes was one of the Penguins' "top priorities" this season.
