Confirmed with Link: Velluci parting ways

[Unsustainable]

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[NotOpie]

There's some chatter about how, because Ron Francis is up for the Seattle GM job, Vellucci might be his potential choice as head coach.

 

[TheBigKahuna]

Good luck to him. He was great to this organization.

 

[My Special Purpose]

There's some chatter about how, because Ron Francis is up for the Seattle GM job, Vellucci might be his potential choice as head coach.

It's two years before this team gets its first player. I hope they have other things lined up.

 

[sctvman]

Already signed for the Penguins AHL affiliate...

 

[spockBokk]

Vellucci named HC of Penguins AHL tram...GMJR reunion...

 

[GoldiFox]

Lateral move to the Pens. That sucks.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Lateral move to the Pens. That sucks.

Positionally, it's a lateral move. But in terms of how the future may play out, you've got to assume there's a better shot for Sullivan to be fired than Brindamour.

 

[MinJaBen]

Probably just an issue of compensation.

 

[Bunch of Jurcos]

Positionally, it's a lateral move. But in terms of how the future may play out, you've got to assume there's a better shot for Sullivan to be fired than Brindamour.

I agree and you have to think if the Pens miss the post season next year Sullivan is gone. The possibility of coaching Sydney must be pretty appealing. Their prospect pipeline is pretty poor so he will have his hands full no matter when they hire him as HC.

 

[Roboturner913]

Positionally, it's a lateral move. But in terms of how the future may play out, you've got to assume there's a better shot for Sullivan to be fired than Brindamour.

That was my first thought. Penguins probably have Sullivan on a short leash. It might be one of those situations where they have a bad first month and he gets canned to jump-start things.

 

[Novacane]

We just got Barry Trotz’d

 

[A Star is Burns]

Pens seem to have a garbage stretch early every year. I'm sure his old buddy JR let him know the job would be his if it comes to that.

 

[My Special Purpose]

Pens seem to have a garbage stretch early every year. I'm sure his old buddy JR let him know the job would be his if it comes to that.

But no, we should have offered him a NHL job as our power-play coach, in charge of making sure Roddy has his whiteboard within arms reach at all times. I'm sure he'd have *jumped* at that. Who would want to move to an organization where you're likely to wait *at most* one season before you get to be Sidney Crosby's head coach, when you could just as easily be background noise in photos of RBA for the next decade.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Positionally, it's a lateral move. But in terms of how the future may play out, you've got to assume there's a better shot for Sullivan to be fired than Brindamour.

Very true. Plus Vellucci has come from relationships with Karmanos/ JR.

 

[Lempo]

I don't think coaching baby Penguins is the sense-making opportunity he explicitly mentioned.

 

[Canes]

Rutherford should be fired before Sullivan. Sullivan can't help that Rutherford's strategy for making up a roster is throwing shit at a wall to see what sticks. Rutherford's gamble to hire Sullivan is one of his gambles that paid off after his disaster of a hire in Mike Johnston. Sullivan can't overcome JR making horrible roster moves like Jack Johnson for eleventy billion years.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Rutherford was hired to get them the right pieces to win cups in Crosby and Malkin’s prime. Mission accomplished. Any future ramifications are secondary to that goal.

 

[My Special Purpose]

Rutherford was hired to get them the right pieces to win cups in Crosby and Malkin’s prime. Mission accomplished. Any future ramifications are secondary to that goal.

Yeah, but that's literally the *only* club in his bag. He's not a planner. Period. He's not a rebuilder. All he knows how to do is fill in gaps by spending money and draft capital. When he tries to do anything that's not "on brand," it usually backfires.

 

[Canes]

Rutherford was hired to get them the right pieces to win cups in Crosby and Malkin’s prime. Mission accomplished. Any future ramifications are secondary to that goal.

Mission definitely accomplished but now he seems to be actively going in the wrong direction at the end of their window, so I hope Mario lets him run the thing into the ground. One less team to worry about in a few years. At least until they draft two more generational players.

 

[Peat]

I agree and you have to think if the Pens miss the post season next year Sullivan is gone. The possibility of coaching Sydney must be pretty appealing. Their prospect pipeline is pretty poor so he will have his hands full no matter when they hire him as HC.

Pens fan here - this is what most of us are thinking, particularly since Sullivan has one year left on his contract and while Rutherford's talked about wanting to renew it, he hasn't actually done so.

What sort of style does Vellucci coach?

 

[Canes]

Pens fan here - this is what most of us are thinking, particularly since Sullivan has one year left on his contract and while Rutherford's talked about wanting to renew it, he hasn't actually done so.

What sort of style does Vellucci coach?

@WreckingCrew is probably your best bet to answer. Most of us only watched a handful of regular season games, then the playoffs. But I want to say the organization was very much on the same page coaching wise, so Brindy and him are/were very similar: skating, skating and more skating with hard forechecking/backchecking based around puck possession/puck support. Vellucci might change it up a bit more to his liking in a new organization though.

That said, that seemed to be what Sullivan was all about during the back to back Cups, so I'm not sure how much Vellucci would change given the same players. Granted, some coaches have a short shelf life so who knows.

 

[Svechhammer]

Looking at it longer term. Pittsburgh will be entering a serious rebuild within the next few years. We are just coming out of ours. Vel probably has a better opportunity to contribute more over there than he would have here over the long haul. Sucks, but I can't fault him for going elsewhere.

 

[WreckingCrew]

@WreckingCrew is probably your best bet to answer. Most of us only watched a handful of regular season games, then the playoffs. But I want to say the organization was very much on the same page coaching wise, so Brindy and him are/were very similar: skating, skating and more skating with hard forechecking/backchecking based around puck possession/puck support. Vellucci might change it up a bit more to his liking in a new organization though.

That said, that seemed to be what Sullivan was all about during the back to back Cups, so I'm not sure how much Vellucci would change given the same players. Granted, some coaches have a short shelf life so who knows.

I think that's a pretty solid description, the team really thrived most at counter-attacking I think. They'd prevent as many high-danger scoring chances as possible, force shots to the outside then use their speed to break out up ice to try and get an odd-man rush. It definitely helped that we had a pretty vet defense and fast forwards like Necas, and Geekie in the playoffs was just relentless creating chances. Once in the zone, keep it there at all costs...plenty of nights we'd just cycle the puck for extended periods of time hoping they'd tire or get out of position while changing up 1-2 of our own at a time.

There were plenty of nights where the team overall kinda played like garbage (had trouble connecting on simple passes), BUT when they did connect it would often lead to a scoring chance...so they could seemingly get outplayed and still win. Also, one thing under Velluci I haven't really seen before (Canes this year were similar), was the ability to come back in games...even down a couple goals the team was rarely completely out of the game. Sometimes it was too little, too late, but they'd sure be swarming. He was pretty good at keeping them in most games and helping them shake goals off.

I think our PP was pretty average (but in all fairness we were one of the worst at home for a long time), but the PK was stifling! We had like 5 SHG against TOR and CHI (maybe 6) in the playoffs, and TOR was 0 for 8 I think in game 6. No matter how talented the players are, the system he had for our PK was excellent (86.6% regular season, 2nd was 85.1% for reference).

We've definitely a number of guys unexpectedly develop that many had doubts about (Gauthier & Bean have noticeably grown while he was HC). I have no doubt he's a part of the reason so many guys on the Checkers look like they could have a future in the NHL.

 

[bleedgreen]

This sucks. I feel like the best coach in the organization just left. I love what Rod did this year as much as any of you did, but I’m not convinced of the longevity.

I hope it is purely because of the opportunity to rise and not because he didn’t want to work for the new regime. Or didn’t like the paycheck.

Anyways, thank you for the good work and all the best in PA.