Is Mike Sullivan Driving the Search for the Penguins’ Next GM?

I was reading an article by Dan Kingerski on Pittsburgh Hockey Now when I came across an item that sent a shiver down my spine. Namely, that Stan Bowman (pictured above) has popped up as a possible candidate to replace Ron Hextall.

Scion of former Penguins coach and hockey legend, Scotty Bowman, Stan served as the general manager in Chicago from 2009-2021 where he presided over three Stanley Cup winners. While not to demean his considerable contributions to the cause, I used the term “presided over” because much of the heavy lifting…i.e.; drafting franchise cornerstones Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith…was performed by his predecessor Dale Tallon. Similar to the way the Pens’ core was already in place when Ray Shero replaced Craig Patrick in 2006.

Once the Blackhawks began to slip, Bowman didn’t seem to have too many answers. He resigned from his dual post of President of Hockey Operations and General Manager in October 2021 in the wake of an investigation into an organizational mishandling of an alleged sexual assault by a former Hawks staff member.

However, that’s not the root cause of my concern. Rather, the very fact that Bowman’s name popped up hints to what for me is an even darker reality. Namely, that the Pens’ ownership group, FSG, is taking direction from coach Mike Sullivan.

Indeed, FSG exec David Beeston made it clear that ownership holds Sullivan in high regard and values his input.

“…we think Mike Sullivan is one of the best coaches in the NHL,” Beeston said. “He was extended last season, and then once we bring in a new hockey operations leader, he or she will be responsible for evaluating the coaching staff. And we think Mike is terrific.”

To digress, Sullivan served under Bowman during the 2014-15 season as a member of the Blackhawks’ player development staff before joining the Pens. When the latter was named general manager of the 2022 U.S. Olympic team, he appointed Sullivan as his coach.

It doesn’t take much to start connecting the dots.

The thought that Sullivan could be driving the decision-making process, if not hand-picking our next GM, is beyond disturbing. While it’s important to have a management staff and coach that’s on the same page, the last thing we need is a malleable GM who’s beholden to Sullivan and who’ll try to build the team in his image. We tried that before, and it failed.

Miserably.

After we were swept in the first-round of the 2019 playoffs with a hybrid club that combined size with skill, then-GM Jim Rutherford caved to his coach’s wishes and assembled a small, speedy team. Featuring a cadre of undersized Sully favorites such as Evan Rodrigues, Conor Sheary and Dominik Simon, we lost eight of our final 11 regular-season games before being literally shoved out of the qualifying round of the playoffs by the 24^th-seed (and infinitely larger) Canadiens.

I commented at the time that we’d invented the horseshoe offense. We’d dump the puck into the Canadiens’ zone along the wall and the Habs would win the ensuing puck battle and clear the puck up the other wall. The apex of perimeter hockey.

As for our two Cup winners? While Sullivan and his aggressive, speed-based forechecking game were certainly driving forces, there was some good fortune involved. In addition to boasting an uber-talented core in its prime that had something to prove, the Cup teams possessed considerable grit with battlers like Patric Hornqvist, Chris Kunitz and Ian Cole. Kind of a perfect storm.

However, Sullivan’s consistently de-empathized the need for this type of player during his tenure, not to mention anyone who plays a straight-up, physical game. Erik Gudbranson, Ryan Reaves and Jamie Oleksiak were all shown the door following incredibly brief stays.

Too, Sullivan doesn’t seem to like big personalities (Cole, Reaves and Phil Kessel). And his early work aside, he isn’t exactly kid friendly. A must as we begin to rebuild.

If he gets to pick his GM, my fear is he’ll continue to place restrictions on our roster construction.

If anything, we need the opposite…a GM who’ll hold our coach accountable. Frankly, I thought Sullivan did a poor job this season. Breakdowns and mistakes went unchecked and uncorrected. Some of his personnel decisions, the most egregious continuing to deploy Jeff Carter and Brian Dumoulin in key roles when it was clear both were struggling, almost defy logic.

It was suggested on another site that Sullivan at times almost seemed to be purposefully mismanaging his troops, perhaps in a thinly veiled attempt to undermine his bosses and regain control of the team.

While I hate to think he’d be that duplicitous…

Bottom line? Sullivan isn’t the one I want calling the shots.