The Pittsburgh Penguins will have a new head coach for the 2025-26 National Hockey League regular season. On Monday, the Penguins announced that they have “parted ways” with head coach Mike Sullivan of Marshfield, Massachusetts. Penguins General Manager Kyle Dubas believed it was time for “change.” According to the Associated Press, this does not appear to be a firing, but a realization on all parties involved that a coaching change was necessary.
Great initial success with the Penguins
Sullivan had a magical start to his tenure as Penguins head coach. That is because he led the Penguins to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017. In 2016, the Penguins beat the San Jose Sharks in six games. Then, in 2017, the Penguins defeated the Nashville Predators in six games. He became the first American born hockey head coach to win two Stanley Cup titles.
In the regular season, Sullivan coached 753 games with Pittsburgh. He had a record of 409 wins, 255 regulation losses, and 89 losses in extra time for a winning percentage of .602.
Not much success lately
After helping the Penguins make the playoffs seven straight seasons from 2016 to 2022, the Penguins have struggled lately. Pittsburgh has missed the playoffs three straight seasons. In 2024-25, Pittsburgh was the second worst team in the Metropolitan Division. They only had 80 points (34 wins, 36 regulation losses and 12 losses in extra time). The only team worse were the Philadelphia Flyers. This past season Philadelphia only had 76 points, and they fired their head coach, John Tortorella of Boston, Massachusetts, and replaced him with Brad Shaw of Cambridge, Ontario during the season.
The Penguins also had the worst goals for and and against ratio in the Eastern Conference. At -50, they were tied with the Boston Bruins. The Penguins scored 243 goals and gave up 293 goals. The Bruins scored 222 goals and gave up 272 goals.
Keeping the puck out of the net was a serious problem for the Penguins this season. Their 293 goals against was the third most in the NHL. The only two teams that gave up more goals were the San Jose Sharks (315), and the Chicago Blackhawks (296).
