That should be the biggest priority for the Penguins as they enter this next phase.
The Pittsburgh Penguins are trending through some relatively uncharted waters right now. At least for them and their fans.
Not only is it the early stages of a rebuild, but now for the first time in a decade the Penguins have to enter the head coaching market and try to find somebody to usher in a new era for the franchise.
It is probably a very safe assumption that the next head coach is not going to stick around for a decade the way Mike Sullivan did. That sort of thing just simply does not happen in the NHL.
Even when you are talking about a coach that has had success and won championships.
The shelf life of an NHL head coach is laughably short, and seems to be getting shorter by the year.
On average coaches are only sticking around with teams for about 2.5 years before they get replaced, whether it is a contender or a rebuilding team. Some might last a little longer, but the average is what it is.
Because of that, and because there is a reasonable expectation that next year or two will be filled with losing, whoever the Penguins hire over the next several weeks probably shouldn’t be counted on to still be behind the bench the next time the Penguins are competing for a Stanley Cup.
That’s just not how these things work for rebuilding teams.
Look around the NHL at every team going through a rebuild and the head coach that started the process.
Greg Cronin was out in Anaheim after two years.
Derek LaLonde did not last in Detroit
Chicago has already cycled through Jeremy Colliton and Luke Richardson.
San Jose’s rebuild is already on its third head coach.
Philadelphia moved on from John Tortorella.
Seattle is on its third coach in four years as it tries to build up.
D.J. Smith did not stick around in Ottawa long enough to see the team make the playoffs.
We can go on like this.
Even going back through the Penguins’ last rebuild, Eddie Olczyk got things started before Michel Therrien took over. Even in that case Therrien was the guy that helped establish the culture and the identity, but was not the guy to get them over the hump to a championship. Dan Bylsma had to come in and do that.
There is a saying in pro sports that coaches are hired so they can be fired. Unless you are one of the small handful of coaches across sports that transcend that (and you can count those guys on one hand with fingers left over) it is a very true statement.
That is also likely to be true for the next Penguins coach.
That does not mean it is a meaningless or irrelevant hire. Or that it is not important.
It just might have a different priority.
Player development has to be the priority.
Starting next season you are going to see an influx of young players, both in the organization and yet to be added to the organization, that are going to be getting their first real taste of NHL action.
Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty are a given. As is Owen Pickering (probably). Harrison Brunicke is not far behind them. Sergei Murashov might be next after that. You could have two top-12 picks entering the organization this season (depending on what the New York Rangers want to do with their pick) and who knows what other additions that could come via trades involving players like Erik Karlsson and/or Rickard Rakell in the coming seasons. There are 30 draft picks over the next three years that will either get used, or flipped for younger NHL players.
Turning all of them into impact NHL players and productive NHL players is going to be the primary objective of the next coach, with everything else being of secondary importance from a big picture standpoint. Yeah, they will still be trying to win, and the coach will still be trying to win, but even if that does not happen often you still need players that can help build the next foundation.
I just do not know who that coach is, or even what it looks like. I am also not tasked with that responsibility. I’m just here to talk about it when it happens. But that priority has to be the one that stands out above everything else. Develop players first. And if you need to bring in somebody else to take them to the next level, then that is just simply how rebuilds typically work.