Dump ‘n Chase: Sullivan’s friendly USA assistants

Best places for the Pens play overseas? And Crosby’s spot on the top-20 center list on today’s collection of random thoughts

Welcome back to the conversational feature about Penguins and Penguin-related happenings. Not too much as we crawl into late August, but a few interesting topics abound.

Q: What to make of Team USA’s newly named assistant coaches under Mike Sullivan in the upcoming international events?

It would be foolish to round out Sullivan’s staff with people he is unfamiliar with for very short tournaments, and the connections are obvious being as it’s a small hockey world in the first place — smaller still when rounding out a coaching staff for the Americans. All candidates are going to be people Sullivan is familiar, and most likely friendly with, and boy were they. It was John Tortorella, David Quinn and John Hynes named to join Sullivan’s crew.

Tortorella always draws an emotional, negative reaction from Pens’ fans, arguably too much of one to cloud his actual inputs. He has a lot of experience, he won a Stanley Cup in the dark ages (2004), has two Jack Adams awards and he was also in charge of the best years the Columbus has ever had from 2016-20 with two playoff series wins and a 50-win season. Might not sound like much until seeing the rest of their franchise history. His personality is what it is, but he’s also responsible for keeping Sullvan’s coaching career alive with assistant gigs in Tampa, New York and Vancouver and has Team USA experience. No-brainer coach to add.

And what Tortorella did for Sullivan, ol’ Mikey is arguably re-paying that favor with his good friend David Quinn. Quinn’s coaching career is at something of a crossroads itself after recent firings by the Rangers and Sharks, but his association with Sullivan has been great for him professionally getting hired by the Penguins and now joining Team USA. A long-time collegiate coach and former NHL bench boss, Quinn is qualified for the gig.

John Hynes is an interesting choice, he and Sullivan never directly crossed paths for a year of hockey, but have a lot of connective tissue. Hynes played at Boston University a few years after Sullivan graduated. Sullivan replaced Hynes in 2015 as Wilkes-Barre’s coach. Hynes has worked extensively with Team USA GM Bill Guerin in Pittsburgh and Minnesota’s organizations, with Guerin being no stranger to Sullivan himself.

Short of naming Peter Laviolette to the staff, this group of USA coaches represents the top names from active American coaches. It sure does help that they all have a lot of inter-connected roots, many of which tie them together through Pittsburgh, interestingly enough.

From Badger Bob Johnson to Herb Brooks and Craig Patrick, and now the next wave like Guerin, Sullivan (and who could forget Amanda Kessel!), there’s long been a proud and special lineage that has tied USA Hockey to the Penguins.

Q: The NHL is expanding their international and European footprint, where would be a good place for the Penguins to play next across the pond?

Deputy commissioner Bill Daly talked about the upcoming NHL games in Germany (preseason), Czechia and Finland this year, with more venues promised.

The European contingent of Penguin fans has always been impressive, no louder voices than what come from Britain. From traveling this summer, I didn’t prefer London as much as some cities in other countries visited, but a Penguin game in London would be fitting and nice for the diehards over there.

Places like Germany (specifically Bavaria) and Switzerland would be amazing. Munich getting that new arena sounds promising for the NHL to return. The scenery in that part of the world is truly something. That would be a personal pick. It would be a natural fit from the Jagr connection to have a Pittsburgh game in Prague and get some material of him hosting Sidney Crosby around his native land.

For American sports, and particularly the NFL, with the American market about tapped out, expansion and focus will be on Europe. That might not mean full-fledged teams playing all their games overseas, but expect to see American sports continuing to increase their presence abroad in the years to come in order to grow their games.

Q: Thoughts on the NHL Network’s top-20 centers?

Looks mostly like a good list but hairs can always be split. In no way should Connor Bedard be ranked so high so soon, but naturally interest in the next exciting young player is going to help spur him on a little quicker than maybe he really deserves.

Sidney Crosby falls one spot from last year to sixth. Sasha Barkov went ahead of Crosby, which is difficult to argue too much considering last season’s outcome of Barkov leading the Panthers to the Stanley Cup.

It’s a marking of time to see veterans like Evgeni Malkin and Anze Kopitar off the list this year with the younger generation like Robert Thomas, Tim Stutzle and Nick Suzuki slowly but surely taking over as the top players in the game.

Tage Thompson went from 11th at this time last year (coming off a 47 goal, 94 point season) to off the list, always funny how reactive these types of things can be in both directions to putting a guy way up there when he pops off and then forget all about him when he comes back to earth. Then again, it gives us all some hockey items to think about and that’s welcomed at this time of year.