One would need both hands to count the number of coaching candidates linked to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the lone NHL club still searching to fill its void behind the bench.
So what’s one more?
New Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford spent the weekend reevaluating his options after two of his top candidates joined the competition. Willie Desjardins turned down a two-year offer from Pittsburgh to join the Vancouver Canucks (one report out of Pittsburgh cited the short term of the deal and Desjardins’ inability to select his own assistants as the root of his decision), and ex-Red Wings assistant Bill Peters signed on with the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I’ll work off the same list I had, but it will be expanded by two or three names that for whatever reason weren’t considered for interviews the last time,” Rutherford told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Friday.
On Tuesday, Sportsnet’s John Shannon reported that Portland Winterhawks coach Mike Johnston, who also interviewed for the Canucks job, will meet with Rutherford to discuss the opening this week in Philadelphia, in advance of Friday’s NHL Draft.
A career coach who worked his way up from Canada’s college and university ranks and has plenty of international experience, Johnston has maintained that he will only leave his Western Hockey League team for an NHL head coaching job. The Dartmouth, N.S., native is not interested in assistant or associate job, according to Shannon.
Johnston has previously served as an associate coach with the Los Angeles Kings (2006-08) and the Canucks (1999-2006).
The reported list of candidates to replace the fired Dan Bylsma as the next head coach of the Penguins includes Marc Crawford, Ron Wilson, Ulf Samuelsson, John Hynes, Tom Renney, and Sportsnet’s own Doug MacLean.
