The Pittsburgh Penguins shocked the hockey world by hiring Dan Muse to be their next head coach.
Muse served as the New York Rangers assistant coach for the past two seasons, but he remained relatively under the radar as it wasn’t necessarily expected that he would land a head coaching gig.
While the hire left some people surprised, it was the way he conducted himself with the Rangers that helped him secure this job.
Penguins Hire Dan Muse As Head Coach Causing Rangers To Lose Another Assistant Coach
The Pittsburgh Penguins have named Dan Muse as their next head coach, taking him away from the New York <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/new-york-rangers" target="_blank">Rangers</a>.
“When I heard it was Dan Muse I was shocked,” Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman said. “What I learned is I have to put some respect on his name… The right people are always watching. If you do a good job, and I’ll tell you something, one thing I heard about him in New York was he was consistently the first guy to arrive every day and the last guy to leave. If you are doing the right things, the right people are always watching.”
Muse is also a coach who’s known to be good with younger players and the Penguins are in a position where a rebuild is on the horizon.
According to Friedman, Muse’s impressive track record developing young talent was a factor in Penguins president and general manager Kyle Dubas hiring him.
“What this also does is says a lot about where Pittsburgh is going,” Friedman said about the Penguins’ hire of Muse. “Kyle Dubas had made it clear that the rebuild was coming in Pittsburgh. If anyone didn’t believe him, if anyone thought Dubas wasn’t serious then now what do you think?
“You don’t hire Dan Muse at this time unless you are simply saying we are going to have a lot of young players here, we are going to be introducing a lot of youthful faces, and we need someone that knows how to connect with them. If you look at Muse, his history of development… His strength is young players and development.”
Now we’ll have to see if Muse is the right coach to lead the Penguins into this next chapter.