The Pittsburgh Penguins hired former head coach David Quinn to revamp their struggling power play. But is he the answer?

Last season, the Pittsburgh Penguins tumbled down the standings with the league's 30th-ranked power play, converting on just 15.1% of their opportunities with Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, and Erik Karlsson all on the ice at the same time.

Naturally, general manager Kyle Dubas had to make a change and brought in recently fired head coach David Quinn. In 2023-24, Quinn led the Sharks to the worst record in the NHL and the top pick in the draft, which turned into Macklin Celebrini. 

Yet somehow, the Sharks finished with the league's 21st-ranked man-advantage unit with a success rate of 20.2%. For perspective, the last time Pittsburgh's power play was over 20% was in 2021-22 when they finished the year at 20.2%.

As a head coach in the NHL, Quinn's teams have averaged a 20.3% success rate while ranking in the middle of the pack with an average ranking of 16th.

Luckily, Quinn will be reunited with Karlsson, who won the Norris Trophy in 2022-23 (with the Sharks) and became only the sixth defender to record 100 points in a single season.

After a rough campaign in the Bay Area last year, Quinn didn't remain unemployed for long once the Sharks fired him. Dubas acted quickly, bringing in a skilled coach to turn around a struggling power play with three future Hall of Famers on the first unit. 

Although Quinn's successes have come in the NCAA and international hockey, he's overseen some highly skilled players in today's game, including Mika Zibanejad, Adam Fox, Artemi Panarin, Chris Kreider, Logan Couture, Timo Meier, and Tomas Hertl. 

Quinn will now work with Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Karlsson, Michael Bunting, and possibly Rutger McGroarty. 

Any statistic over 15.1% would be considered an improvement. But for the Penguins to get into the playoffs, their man-advantage units must be firing on all cylinders. 

Pittsburgh's goal differential was just four goals last year, so one can only imagine their final record if they had tallied a few more goals on the power play.

Realistically, this part of the Penguins' game plan is one of a handful of problems that could continue to plague the team during the 2024-25 season. 

Considering the talent hopping over the boards every night, it shouldn't take a rocket scientist to get more from these players. 

In the end, to paraphrase the famous quote about bringing a horse to water, Quinn can only lay out a game plan and try to coach the players to adapt to a new system. It's up to them to execute. 

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