Sullivan to return as Penguins coach, three assistants won't be back

Mike Sullivan will return as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins for a sixth season, but three of his assistants will not be back.

The Penguins announced Wednesday that Mark Recchi, Sergei Gonchar and Jacques Martin will not have their contracts renewed. The contracts expired at the end of June but were temporarily extended for the Stanley Cup Qualifiers.

Sullivan, who coached the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in his first two seasons (2016, 2017), said he deserves the blame after Pittsburgh was eliminated in its first postseason series for the second straight season.

"Obviously, this is a difficult day for me. More difficult than you guys can imagine," Sullivan said. "I know how hard these guys work. These guys are good coaches, and they're my friends. We've been through a lot together as a group. But when teams with high expectations, such as ours, don't have success, then change is inevitable.

"We all have to take responsibility for it. It starts with me."

The changes come one day after general manager Jim Rutherford said he was considering altering the coaching staff after the Penguins were eliminated in four games by the No. 12-seeded Montreal Canadiens in a best-of-5 qualifier series. Pittsburgh, the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference after finishing with a .623 points percentage in the regular season, was eliminated after losing 2-0 in Game 4 and blowing a two-goal lead in a 4-3 loss in Game 3 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the East hub city.

The Penguins have lost nine of their past 10 postseason games since defeating the Washington Capitals 3-1 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Second Round on May 3, 2018. They were swept by the New York Islanders in the best-of-7 Eastern Conference First Round last season.

"I also have to review what's happened here at the end of the last two seasons," Rutherford said Tuesday. "There's been a pattern in both seasons. … My concern is when things don't go our way, then we start to fizzle out. We don't have that same drive and determination that we should have and that we need to have."

That will only change if the Penguins are open to constructive criticism, Sullivan said.

"The only way to address it is to see it for what it is," he said. "And to have a discussion about it and figure out how to get better at it. That's been my approach in trying to solve all the problems with the team and trying to have a candid approach, and an honest assessment of where everybody's at and how we move forward as a group. That's what we'll continue to do."

Sullivan said he has not considered how much he might be involved in hiring assistants or what qualities he would look for in a hire. The Penguins said the search for those assistants would begin immediately.

"We are in the process of conducting a review of our organization because we have underperformed in the playoffs the last few years," Rutherford said in a statement. "We just thought we needed to change the dynamic of our coaching staff. We have very high standards here in Pittsburgh, and we want to continue competing for Stanley Cups. The message to our fans is that 'We are not rebuilding, we're retooling.'"

Recchi was hired as player development coach July 18, 2014, before being named assistant July 11, 2017. Gonchar accepted a development coaching position Oct. 27, 2015, and was named an assistant July 12, 2017.

Martin became an assistant when Sullivan was hired as coach Dec. 12, 2015, after he was an assistant under former Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma; Martin was hired for that job Aug. 9, 2013.

Recchi, who was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on June 26, 2017, won the Stanley Cup three times with Pittsburgh, as a player in 1991 and as development coach in 2016 and 2017. Gonchar also won the Cup three times with the Penguins, as a player in 2009 and as development coach in 2016 and 2017.

As for possible player changes, Sullivan said it's difficult to analyze so soon after being eliminated. But he did say he thinks his coaching style continues to have a positive impact.

"I felt as though the message was fairly clear for a lot of the season," Sullivan said. "So that would suggest to me that I think what the coaching staff is preaching is resonating with guys because for a lot of the year, I think we had fairly decent success. So that doesn't make the result any easier.

"We understand when a team, such as ours, has the expectations that it has, and we don't meet those expectations, then all of us have to take ownership for that. But I believe I have a good relationship with our core guys. It's always been a very transparent, candid relationship."