Nick Bonino Announces Retirement, Joins Penguins As Assistant Coach

5PM: As expected, former NHL journeyman center Nick Bonino has coupled his move back to Pittsburgh with a formal retirement announcement. He will end his career with 868 NHL games, 69 AHL games, and 22 IceHL games.

1PM: Former NHL center Nick Bonino spent 2024-25 in Slovenia with HC Olimpija Ljubljana of the ICEHL, and was supposed to spend a second year with the club after re-signing several weeks ago. Instead, he’s decided to end his playing career and will return to the NHL as an assistant coach with the Penguins, the club announced Wednesday on its Facebook page. DK Pittsburgh Sports first relayed word that Bonino could be joining new head coach Dan Muse’s staff yesterday.

Bonino will be the first assistant named to Muse’s staff, which had been wiped clean from last year’s group under Mike Sullivan, except for goalie coach Andy Chiodo. Ty Hennes and David Quinn followed Sullivan to the Rangers to serve on his staff there, while Mike Vellucci left to take an assistant role with the Blackhawks.

The move confirms Bonino’s retirement following a 16-season pro career, 15 of which were spent in the NHL. A sixth-round pick of the Sharks back in 2007, Bonino was a quality top-nine piece until the final few campaigns of his career and ended up suiting up for seven different teams.

One of those clubs was the Penguins. He only spent two years in Pittsburgh, who acquired him from the Canucks in the 2015 offseason. To say they were the most memorable years of his career would be an understatement. He played a key depth role as the Pens marched to back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2016 and 2017, including a series-clinching goal in overtime in the second round against the Capitals in 2016.

While he was usually good for around 35 points in the regular season, Bonino posted an 8-17–25 scoring line in 45 playoff games for Pittsburgh – a 46-point pace over an 82-game schedule. He was especially exceptional in their 2016 run, tying for third on the team in playoff scoring with 18 points in 24 games along with a team-high plus-nine rating, centering one of the best third lines in recent memory with Carl Hagelin and Phil Kessel.

Bonino was still an effective two-way center for a while after, and was quite serviceable for the Predators after landing his big four-year, $16.4MM payday from them in free agency following his second Stanley Cup victory. He finished top 15 in Selke Trophy voting twice during his Nashville tenure.

The Connecticut native had a brief second stint with the Penguins in 2023 after they acquired him from the Sharks at the trade deadline, but played just three games before a kidney laceration ended his season. He last played in the NHL with the Rangers in 2023-24 but had his contract mutually terminated midway through the campaign after falling out of the lineup.

Bonino’s NHL career officially draws to a close with a 159-199–358 scoring line in 868 games. He boasts a career +30 rating and averaged north of 15 minutes per game across stints with Anaheim, Nashville, Pittsburgh, San Jose, Vancouver, Minnesota, and New York. He made an estimated $30.69MM in career earnings, per PuckPedia. He also scored 17 points in 22 regular-season games in his brief stint with Ljubljana last year.

In addition to his Pittsburgh connection, Bonino is also quite familiar with Muse. The latter was an assistant coach overseeing him with both the Predators and Rangers.