Three Potential Penguins Head Coach Candidates

The Penguins announced they were moving on from head coach Mike Sullivan on Monday, and a new era for Pittsburgh will begin soon.

However, Kyle Dubas’ search for the new bench boss to lead the Penguins for the first time in a decade is not expected to move quickly. The Penguins president and general manager will be in Sweden for most of May, overseeing Team Canada at the World Championship.

Some big names will certainly attract fans and garner a lot of interest, but given that the Penguins have missed the playoffs for the past three seasons — not every potential coach (John Tortorella) will be willing to sign with a team in the middle of a rebuild. Dubas will be competing with two Original Six franchises — the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks, as well as the Anaheim Ducks, Seattle Kraken and Philadelphia Flyers to fill vacancies at the helm.

Here are three candidates for Pittsburgh:

RICK TOCCHET
Tocchet not only won the 1992 Stanley Cup as a player with the Penguins but was also an assistant coach for the franchise, first under Mike Johnston, then Sullivan, from 2014-2017.

In two seasons at the helm in Vancouver, Tocchet had a .608 winning percentage with an overall record of 108-65-27 in 200 games. The only slight with Tocchet is that he has one playoff series win in nine seasons as a head coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Arizona Coyotes and Canucks. Tocchet won the Jack Adams award last season after coaching Vancouver to a first-place Pacific Division finish in the 2023-24 campaign.

JAY WOODCROFT
The former Edmonton Oilers coach has coached two of the best players on the planet — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Taking the bench in Pittsburgh would allow Woodcroft to lead two other legends — Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

In his two full seasons in Edmonton, the Oilers finished second in the Pacific Division and led the team to the conference finals in 2021-22. In his final season, he struggled to create a balanced lineup with a porous defense and shoddy goaltending. He left Edmonton with a .643 points percentage over 133 games and three playoff series wins, which is solid work considering the mediocrity the Oilers were entrenched in before his arrival. Woodcroft could be primed for a comeback at the NHL level.

DAVID CARLE
Carle is the only candidate on the list who does not have any NHL experience, but that could actually bode well in Pittsburgh. He has been behind the bench for Denver since 2018, leading the Pioneers to National Championships in 2022 and 2024. Carle also coached the United States to back-to-back gold medals at the 2024 and 2025 IIHF World Junior Championships.

With the Penguins having the draft capital it has, Carle is the perfect coach for young prospects finding their way into the lineup. He did withdraw from the Blackhawks coaching search, but Pittsburgh could be a bit more attractive to Carle if Dubas makes the perfect pitch.

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