Penguins’ Mike Sullivan Confirms Desire To Stay In Pittsburgh

The Pittsburgh Penguins have 12 games remaining in what can only be described as a disappointing season for the five-time Stanley Cup winning franchise.

After making the playoffs consistently and a trio of championships from 2007 to 2022, the Penguins are seven-points out of the second wild-card spot and in danger of missing the postseason for the third straight season.

Despite the struggles over the last three campaigns, head coach Mike Sullivan expressed his desire about being a part of the Penguins‘ present and future.

“I have incredible loyalty to this organization,” Sullivan told The Athletic’s Josh Yohe. “I’m grateful for the opportunity to coach this team. It’s been a privilege to coach this team, to be a part of this organization. I have a certain loyalty to all the people who are part of it here.”

Sullivan continued: “This is an organization that has enjoyed its share of success. Lately, we’ve hit some bumps in the road. But that doesn’t deter me from wanting to do my job. Just because it gets hard, that doesn’t make you want to quit.

“Where we are as an organization, I don’t think it’s caught anybody by surprise. It’s an inevitable evolution. We’re doing everything in our power to try and navigate this as best we can, to be as competitive as we can as quickly as possible. And all I want is to help this organization win.”

The Marshfield, Mass. native in his 10th season behind the bench in Pittsburgh, making him the longest tenured Penguins coach of all time. Sullivan won back-to-back Stanley Cup titles with the Pens in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 campaigns, and he wants to stay at the helm when the team returns to contention, according to Yohe.

“There’s a certain standard that’s been established here for a long period of time that has brought this organization a lot of success,” Sullivan said. “There are a lot of people who have been responsible for that, specifically our Big Three (Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang). I know what it means to those guys to win. There’s an expectation with those guys to play the game a certain way, with a competitive spirit. And there’s an expectation that we’re going out to win every night, no matter what it takes. That’s always been the message. It still is.”

The Penguins are in a great position to build for the future — no other NHL team has more draft picks or selections in the first three rounds over the next three NHL drafts than Pittsburgh.

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