Penguins Update: Things I Wonder

This is one of my “before I begin, I need to be crystal clear” rambles. You know, where I state that what I’m about to write is something strictly concocted in my noggin and has absolutely no basis in any type of factual report.

I also need to restate that I have absolutely no connections to the Penguins, nor am I privy to any type of inside scoop.

This is strictly a case of me emptying my brain pan and thinking out loud.

Okay, here goes. I wonder if the Pens and head coach Mike Sullivan might part ways, amicably, this summer? And I wonder if Baby Pens skipper Kirk MacDonald will be promoted in his stead?

Again, just a hunch, but I think the Rangers are going to part ways with their head coach, Peter Laviolette, who’s in the final season of his contract and for all the world appears to be a lame duck. And I think Rangers GM Chris Drury will come a knockin’ on Sullivan’s door.

I think Sully will answer, too.

If given a choice, I believe the two-time Cup winner would prefer to coach a competitive team and not one in the throes of a retool/rebuild that’s going to require a fair share of developing, coddling (and losing) before all is said and done.

Sully’s a win-now coach. Barring an extreme shift in direction, we aren’t liable to be in win-now mode for at least a couple of seasons. Extending through if not beyond the term of his current contract.

Rumors were circulating last summer that Drury had more than a passing interest in Sully.

There’s a New York connection, too. Sullivan served as an assistant coach with the Rangers for four seasons under John Tortorella and is most familiar with the Big Apple.

As for the black-and-gold side of the equation? By all accounts, MacDonald has done a terrific job at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. In his first season behind the Baby Pens’ bench, he has his youthful team in the thick of the AHL Atlantic Division playoff chase, and with the fifth-most points in the league (74) to boot.

Even better, virtually all the kids under his watch, from forwards Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty to rangy defenseman Owen Pickering and wunderkind goalie Sergei Murashov, are making genuine strides. It takes a special kind of coach to cultivate young talent, and MacDonald appears to possess the Midas touch. There’s a palpable esprit de corps developing among his young charges as well.

Contrast that with Sullivan, who at times metes out ice time to kids with an eye-dropper while wielding a quick hook should they make the inevitable youthful mistake. Given his track record, there’s little question he prefers veterans to kids.

Doesn’t seem to be a good fit for where we’re headed, does it?

Sully to the Rangers would allow him to coach the type of established team he’s most equipped to lead. And, yes, he’d probably have success.

None of this is meant to suggest he isn’t a good coach. Far from it. But as the old saying goes, horses for courses. With a youth movement on the horizon, promoting MacDonald would give us the type of coach we’ll need.

It all makes too much sense.

There is a potential fly in the ointment, however. How would our venerated core respond to a rookie coach with no prior NHL experience? While none of our big four have reputations as a coach killer, would they respond favorably or chew him up?

Would MacDonald be up to the tall task of coaching megastars? Or would he be in over his head?

Spencer Carbery had no prior NHL head coaching experience, and look at the job he’s done with Alex Ovechkin and the Caps. Admittedly it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison—Carbery served as an assistant with Toronto and had prior head coaching experience at the minor-league level.

This is MacDonald’s first job at the pro level. It wouldn’t be wrong at all to suggest he, like his youthful Baby Pens, would benefit from additional seasoning.

Perhaps the time isn’t quite now.

But soon?