A shake up for the Pittsburgh Penguins that affects a Kamloops native.
The NHL team says it will not renewing the contract of assistant coach Mark Recchi, along with that of Sergei Gonchar and Jacques Martin.
“We want to thank Sergei, Jacques, and Mark for their many contributions to the Penguins over the years, and wish them well in their future endeavours,” Penguins General Manager Jim Rutherford said in a statement.
The trio’s contracts had expired at the end of June, but it was temporarily extended for the playoffs. The announcement comes days after the Penguins were beaten in four games by the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup qualifying round.
Head Coach Mike Sullivan remains in his role.
“We are in the process of conducting a review of our organization because we have under-performed in the playoffs the last few years,” Rutherford added.
“We just thought we needed to change the dynamic of our coaching staff. We have very high standards here in Pittsburgh, and we want to continue competing for Stanley Cups. The message to our fans is that ‘We are not rebuilding, we’re re-tooling.'”
Drafted my Pittsburgh after two seasons in the WHL with the Blazers, a team he now co-owns, Recchi joined the Penguins coaching staff in 2014, and was named assistant coach in 2017.
He won Stanley Cups in 1991 with Pittsburgh, Carolina in 2006, Boston in 2011, and two more as a coach with the Penguins in 2016 and 2017, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2017.
The Penguins will not renew the contracts of assistant coaches Sergei Gonchar, Jacques Martin, and Mark Recchi.
Details: https://t.co/ThlvwkT4yG pic.twitter.com/Lu68YHmZvY
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) August 12, 2020
