Penguins Announce New Coaching Staff

Moss doesn’t grow on a rolling stone.

In keeping with the old saying, Penguins POHO/GM Kyle Dubas continued to move with a purpose through the early stages of what promises to be a very eventful off-season.

Two weeks and change after hiring first-timer Dan Muse to succeed Mike Sullivan, Dubas fleshed out the Pens’ coaching staff with a quartet of new hires.

Joining Muse behind the black-and-gold bench will be Todd Nelson (pictured), Nick Bonino and Rich Clune. Troy Paquette becomes the new assistant video coach.

In somewhat of an eyebrow raiser given the porous nature of our netminding, Andy Chiodo has been retained as goaltending coach.

Nelson, 56, a former fourth-round pick of the Pens in 1989 (he played one game for us), has been viewed as a rising star and is highly regarded. The Prince Albert, Saskatchewan native was rumored to be a dark-horse candidate to replace Sullivan. He has 24 years of minor-league and NHL coaching experience, both as an assistant and head coach.

His very impressive head coaching resume includes five championships, including back-to-back titles with the Muskegon Fury of the UHL in ’04 and ’05, a Calder Cup with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins in ’17, and back-to-back Calder Cups with Hershey in ’23 and ’24. The latter triumph earning Nelson AHL Coach of the Year honors.

He also coached the Oilers for 46 games back in 2014-15 to a record of 17-22-7 (pre-Connor McDavid) after replacing Dallas Eakins.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Bonino and Clune, both 37, are comparative novices. In fact, this will be “Bones” first professional coaching gig. Shades of Ed Olczyk for our former Cup hero and HBK standout?

Clune, a battler during his playing career in the mold of Capitals assistant Mitch Love, played in the Toronto organization from ’15 through ’22 under Dubas.

After retiring, he served first as a player development coach and then as an assistant with the AHL Toronto Marlies. Last season he was an assistant under Greg Cronin (since replaced by Joel Quenneville) in Anaheim, where he got to work with a number of talented, young players including Cutter Gauthier and Leo Carlsson.

Paquette, 29, was the video coach of the Marlies the past four seasons. He’ll assist Pens’ video coach Madison Nikkel.

It will be interesting to see how this relatively green staff in terms of NHL experience performs, especially since they’ll be tasked with the sacred duty of developing the team’s stars of tomorrow.

Here’s hoping for the best.

Rick Buker

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View Comments

the Other Rick says:

June 21, 2025 at 12:24 pm

Hey Rick,

For me, Nelson was the guy I wanted to be HC, so I am glad he is on the staff.

I don't have a problem with Bonino. We really can't get much worse than we are now In fact, even though I would rather not bottom out, crashing at this point in time could be a benefit with McKenna and Dupont about to come out of the Jrs. I am not saying that they really are going to be the second coming of Lemieux and Orr, but eventually, the hype masters will be right. After blowing the Nolan Patrick, Alexis Lafreniere, Shane Wright, Conor Bedard anointing s, this time it might be true.

Chiodo, I would have moved on from. I wouldn't say that all of the Penguins were porous, most of Blomqvist's and Ned's problems came down to the pathetic defensive schemes of our former regime. However, even though I don't hold two thirds of the Goalies accountable, Chiodo is far less than impressive.

he only pathetic Goaltending was turned in by Tristan Jarry. am hoping that Edmonton, after their pathetic Goaltending performances will be fooled into thinking that Jarry would be an upgrade.