Penguins Add To Coaching Stable; Lose Pesonen

Yesterday, Pittsburgh Penguins' GM Ray Shero announced that one of the 2 assistant coaching vacancies within the organization had been filled.

Not at the NHL level next to HCDB (Head Coach Dan Bylsma), but instead at the minor league AHL level assisting Todd Rierden.

34-year old John Hynes signed on to the organization after six years leading the USA Hockey National Development Program. That team was 216-113-19-9 during that time and captured 3 World Under-18 medals. Hynes also coached the Under-17 team this past year, and managed several appearances on the staff of the U.S. World Junior Championship team dating back to 2004, including the one that one the gold medal that year.

By all accounts, Hynes is a bright coaching talent with a proven knack for developing young players. In that regard, while there is sure to be an adjustment to coaching at the pro level, there's no reason to think he won't serve the Baby Penguins well.

I imagine that sometime in the next 2-3 weeks, Shero will announce who will get the assistant job at the big-league level -- a decision that Bylsma is sure to have a lot of input on. Shero has shown the propensity to select and groom several young coaching an executive prospects in his 3 years of running the Penguins, so I'm anxious to see who he brings into the organization next.

Meanwhile, word surfaced that Janne Pesonen signed with the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) for the coming season, leaving the organization that brought him over after dominating the Finnish Elite League, but only let him play -- and sparingly, at that -- in 7 NHL games last season.

Pesonen dominated at the AHL level, setting a Baby Penguins' franchise record for points in a season with 82, but in this writer's opinion, never got a fair shake in Pittsburgh. He wasn't a favorite of former coach Michel Therrein it seems, and the grass was no greener when Bylsma -- the guy who coached him most of the season at Wilkes Barre - took over.

And that was perhaps the most telling circumstance at all.

Pesonen obviously has talent, but he certainly wouldn't be the only player to either dominate in Europe or at the AHL level, but not be able to do the same against the best players in the world in the NHL. And it's probably especially harder for smaller players -- like Pesonen -- to do.

Bringing in Pesonen last year was, I felt at the time, an exciting move by Shero. It clearly was a low-risk/high-reward type signing. Unfortunatley, it didn't work out for Pesonen and the team. Wilkes Barre will be worse off without him, but the big club certainly won't miss him.

As I mentioned last week, I will soon be putting up a series of posts which breaks down the question of which of the Penguins' three (3) Stanley Cup Championships is the franchise's greatest. I hoped to do that this week -- and still may, later in the week, but if not, then next week for sure. Personally, I look forward to devouring this issue.

More then.