Character, Passion and Dedication Define Dan Muse's Path to Pittsburgh

Nick Bonino played for Dan Muse in both Nashville and New York, where the new Penguins head coach was an assistant under Peter Laviolette. “Love Muser,” said Bonino, a two-time Stanley Cup Champion with Pittsburgh.

Nick and his wife Lauren, who met playing college hockey at Boston University, were just showing some friends a few photos of a past Halloween costume inspired by Dan.

“I got hurt that year and was out for a stretch, and Muser was the guy who would bag skate me,” Nick said. “Since Lauren can skate so well, I just thought one day, like, man, it’d be pretty funny if we could do something like that.”

So, Lauren – “the real hero of the story” – put on a bald cap and dressed as Nick, who dressed as Dan. They wore rollerblades to reenact those sessions on the injured ice.

“I knew Muser’s a guy who would love that,” Nick said. “He would get asked for autographs, thinking that I was him. He'd come into the room and be like, it happened again, Bones! And everyone would laugh. So, it was just a perfect costume. He thought it was funny, too, which was the best part.”

That’s one example of Muse’s proven ability to connect with players at all stages of their careers. It will serve him well in this new chapter of his.

“He’s just a good person,” Bonino said. “I think that's always the most important thing. Like, you can tell he cares about you. He’s a great family man. In New York, we had our kids at the same hockey program, and we're talking about the PK and just talking about life. So, he's always there. I think it probably starts with that.

“And he just really cares about his job. You don't meet many guys who work harder than Dan Muse. He would be at the rink at crazy hours. Just really put everything he had into the team, and I think that's what's brought him so much success and made him so deserving of this opportunity.”

At just 42 years old, Muse joins the Penguins with 20 years of coaching experience. Muse started at the collegiate level, calling the six seasons at Yale University his key foundation, and naming Bulldogs bench boss Keith Allain as the person who has made the biggest impact on his coaching career.

Before that, Muse had been an assistant coach at Sacred Heart University, running the program for about a month after the head coach stepped down. Allain was impressed by how Muse, then 27, handled the situation. With Allain’s lead assistant ultimately taking the job at Sacred Heart, he brought Muse to Yale.

“We shared an office together here. We had good teams and good success. He put so much of his heart and soul into it that if we lost a game, I, as the head coach, felt bad for him,” Allain said. “That's a true story. Like, I looked him in the eye and I felt like I'd let him down somehow.”

Nearly everyone who has worked with or played for Muse mentioned his habit of sleeping at the arena, something that he’s done in every role to maximize his time. Muse did it at Yale so he could be the first one there in the morning. Not easy to do when Allain started his days at 6 AM.

“I mean, I didn't know it was a competition,” Allain chuckled. “I was doing my job, and he was doing his job. But I can tell you this: I've been in hockey my whole life, and nobody I’ve ever been around works as hard as Dan Muse. Nobody.”

The Bulldogs won the 2013 NCAA National Championship in Pittsburgh, with PPG Paints Arena hosting that year's Frozen Four.

Muse then got hired as head coach of the USHL’s Chicago Steel. He led the franchise to its first-ever Clark Cup Championship in 2017.

Marc Johnstone, who spent the last two seasons in the Penguins organization, was a captain on that squad. Muse’s ability to manage games, attention to detail, and utter dedication stood out. “I remember us being 18 or 19 and thinking it was funny how he would sometimes stay at the rink overnight just to prepare for our games," Johnstone said. "It was just a testament to how much he wanted to win and how much he cared, how much he loves the game."

At one point, Johnstone was on a point streak, and said he started cheating for offense and playing lazy. So, Muse brought Johnstone into a meeting and showed him clips of what he thought made hum successful. That centered around being a defensive forward who played a 200-foot, physical game.

“Honestly, he was spot on,” Johnstone said. “That was kind of a turning point for me, with him. Just kind of his belief, and all the positive things that he would say. I've continued that throughout my career thus far. It’s worked out pretty well.”

When Johnstone made his NHL debut with Pittsburgh on Dec. 8, 2023 in Florida, Muse texted him the next day.

“It was really nice to hear from him. It was a special moment,” Johnstone said. “He said congratulations, you worked really hard and you earned what you got. I'm proud that you stuck with it.”

Muse pushed the right buttons with Johnstone, and did the same with the young players at the United States National Team Development Program, where he served as a head coach from 2020-23. He coached the likes of forwards Rutger McGroarty, Ryan Leonard and Will Smith as well as defensemen Zeev Buium and Luke Hughes during their development stages.

“Throughout those three years, you saw progress with kids. That’s especially spoken to by the 2005 birth years,” said Scott Monoghan, assistant executive director of the USNTDP.

“Guys like Ryan Leonard and Will Smith were not those high, high-profile guys when they were 16, 17 years old. They really emerged in their second year with us and then going forward afterwards. So, I credit a lot of that to Dan. It's always the athlete, too. But he knew how to push the buttons on the kids.”

One of the biggest reason those players responded so well is because of Muse’s sincerity.

“I think kids, and especially Gen Z kids, can smell phoniness. Dan’s a really genuine person,” Monoghan said. “Those kids love him.”

That was evident after Muse led the Americans to a gold medal at the 2023 World Under-18 Championship.

“That was his final game with us, and we were down 2-0 almost the whole game. After the second period, he was very calm in the locker room. He was very focused,” Monoghan said. “He wasn't talking about; I hope we can win this game. He was talking about when we win this game, and how we’re going to do it.

“They scored twice in the last couple of minutes to tie it, and they had to kill a penalty going into overtime, and then we won it in the overtime. Those kids had more fun pouring buckets of water over his head in the locker room and goofing on him, I think, than any group ever had.”

Ryan Leonard celebrates with Dan Muse following the 2023 World Under-18 Championship (photo credit: Getty Images)

Muse winning at all levels where he has been a head coach helped separate him in the Pittsburgh’s search. So did his consistent success coaching special teams in the NHL.

In Nashville, Muse ran the penalty killing unit, which ranked fourth in the NHL over his two full seasons (2017-19) with the club.

“He's just so detailed, and for a player like me who wants to know everything, I loved it,” said Bonino, a key part of that group. But sometimes, it was almost too much information. So, one time, after a PK meeting that lasted 20-plus minutes ahead of a game against the Bruins, Bonino approached Muse.

“I went up to him and said, I almost forgot what you said at the beginning, because he had so much information to share with us after watching hours and hours of video,” Bonino said. “I think that does translate to success. I think even just telling him that as a player, he's like, okay. I get it. And he would tailor it more to a way that the guys could get the information, but in maybe a shorter time frame.”

While Muse was happy to do that, he was also happy to talk about the PK with Bonino at length on their own time.

“I always loved that about Muser,” Bonino said. “Because it's something I was really passionate about... and I liked his ability to want to talk about it. You run into some coaches where it's their way or the highway. And I felt with him, if something wasn't working, he wanted to know what we think.”

Now, in Pittsburgh, Muse won’t just be overseeing special teams – he’ll be running the whole show. It’s something Muse has been quietly working towards since moving into coaching following the end of his four-year playing career at Stonehill College, a Division III school.

“I know when he came to work for us (at USA Hockey), one of the questions was, what is your long-term goal? And it was to be a head coach in the NHL,” Monoghan said. “A lot of guys that are coming from a non-traditional background that didn't play in the NHL – hell, he didn't even play Division I college, right? – would not even try to set that goal, but he set it, and he had a confidence level with it.

“He's a self-made coach who has the utter respect of everybody he works with.”