CRANBERRY, Pa. — The Pittsburgh Penguins and coach Mike Sullivan agreed to part ways Monday, with general manager Kyle Dubas saying it was “time for change.”
“There were times throughout the year where I started to think that it may just be time, for a number of reasons,” Dubas said Monday. “It’s a lot to ask of somebody when they’ve done such a long, successful job here to be managing that and continuing to transition the team through.”
Sullivan was 409-255-89 in 10 seasons and was the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL, behind Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning (13 seasons). The 57-year-old is the Penguins’ all-time leader in coaching wins in the regular season and Stanley Cup Playoffs (44).
Sullivan, who replaced Mike Johnston on Dec. 12, 2015, led the Penguins to a Stanley Cup championship in each of his first two seasons and qualified the team for the postseason in each of his first seven. He is one of seven coaches in League history to win the Stanley Cup after getting hired midseason.
However, Pittsburgh has missed the playoffs in each of the past three seasons, its longest drought since four in a row from 2001-02 to 2005-06, and hasn’t won a series in 2018.
“Two things can be true, that someone can be a great head coach and that they’ll move on to become a great head coach on their next stop,” Dubas said. “And it can also be time for change here. That was the conclusion that I had come to.”
Sullivan is 479-311-112 with 15 ties in the regular season and 47-42 in the playoffs for Pittsburgh and the Boston Bruins. He will coach the United States at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics after leading the country to a second-place finish to Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016.
The Penguins (34-36-12) were seventh in the Metropolitan Division with this season with 80 points, the fewest they’d had in a full 82-game season since 2005-06 (22-46-14; 58 points).
Sullivan said he intended to remain the coach on April 18, the day after the regular season ended. On April 21, Dubas described Sullivan as elite and said they would meet the following day.
The meeting was amicable, Dubas said, but each concluded it would be best to part.
“For me, part of the reaffirmation of where we’re at is, is he still up for this? Does he want to go through this? Where does he sense it’s at? What’s his energy and passion for it?” Dubas said. “I think, in a perfect world, he would love to grind and see it all the way through with the Penguins. But I think, in my mind, after my conversation with him last week and more contemplation in the week, there’s not any one thing that I look at and say, ‘We had a mass disagreement in these two areas.’
“I think it was just, in general, the feeling that the demands of this and what we’re asking is just, to me, time for him to go elsewhere to apply it and for us to move on as well. So, sometimes it’s just, not even really a cumulation, just a general feeling that we have.”
A search will begin immediately. The Penguins will prioritize candidates with experience in player development, Dubas said.
“We’re looking to hire a great head coach,” he said. “Someone that could come in, continue to partner with us on all that we’re undertaking and understands that the job ahead is going to be a time of transition.”
The Penguins prospect pool has been retooled since Dubas was hired on June 1, 2023. They have 30 picks in the next three years at the NHL Draft, including four in the first round and 18 in the first three.
But centers Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, and defenseman Kris Letang, remain the core.
Malkin, who will turn 39 on July 31, is entering the final season of a four-year, $24.4 million contract ($6.1 million average annual value) he signed on July 12, 2022. Letang, who turned 38 last week, had surgery in mid-April to close a small hole in the wall of his heart. He’s signed for three more seasons at $6.1 million per season.
Crosby, the longtime Penguins captain, led them with 91 points (33 goals, 58 assists) in his 20th season. He will turn 38 on Aug. 7. The two-year, $17.4 million contract ($8.7 AAV) he signed with Pittsburgh on Sept. 16, 2024, begins next season.
“It’s difficult when you’re cleaning out your locker and stall and you’re just thinking (about) how fun it is to play in the playoffs,” Crosby said on April 18. “How important that is and how much work everyone puts into trying to make that happen. It’s not a fun feeling when other teams are playing and you’re going home.”
That day, Sullivan said he and Dubas shared a goal of contending with Crosby still producing.
“I know those are Kyle’s intentions,” Sullivan said. “Would we like to return this team to contention when that window still exists, when we still have, in particular, our captain that’s still playing at such an elite level? I know those are Kyle’s intentions. They’re certainly his aspirations.”
Dubas said he spoke with Crosby on Sunday. There was no indication Crosby would want to leave, he said.
“I had a five-minute conversation about the fact that we were going through this to make a change. We didn’t get into the ins and outs of it,” Dubas said. “I have to do what I think is best for the organization. … I think polling the players on their feeling of the coaches is not always the greatest thing to do when you’re trying to make that change. I had to take all the information from the last two years and do what I think is best.”
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