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Rich Clune

Penguins Announce Multiple Coaching Hires

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have finalized their coaching staff under head coach Dan Muse. Pittsburgh announced that they’ve hired Todd Nelson, Nick Bonino, and Rich Clune as assistant coaches, and Troy Paquette as the team’s assistant video coach. 

In his second stint as an assistant coach at the NHL level, Nelson is arguably the most important of the hires. Serving as the head coach of the AHL’s Hershey Bears for the last three years, Nelson will make the more than 200-mile move to western Pennsylvania. It’s difficult to find many faults during his time with the Bears, amassing an impressive 65.28% win percentage with a 141-53-12-10 record in 216 regular season games. His winning ways continued in the postseason, coaching the Bears to a 31-17-0 record in 48  (64.58%) postseason contests over the last three years, with back-to-back Calder Cup Final championships.

Bonino’s formal hire comes with little surprise. The Penguins announced on their Facebook page a few days ago that Bonino had officially retired from his professional playing career and would be joining the team’s bench for the 2025-26 campaign. Coupled with his time on the ice, the 2025-26 campaign will be his fourth with Pittsburgh.

Like Nelson and Bonino, the Penguins are also bringing in a former NHLer in Clune. The longtime veteran for the AHL’s Toronto Marlies began his coaching career shortly after retiring in 2022-23 as the Marlies’ development coach. He’s coming to Pittsburgh on the heels of his first coaching job in the NHL, serving as an assistant coach for the Anaheim Ducks on Greg Cronin’s bench last season.

Ducks Part Ways With Two Assistant Coaches

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Earlier today, The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta reported (Twitter links) that the Ducks were likely to make further changes to their coaching staff.  Those moves have now been made as the team announced (Twitter link) that they will not be retaining assistant coaches Brent Thompson and Rich Clune.

Thompson spent the last two seasons behind the bench in Anaheim, his first NHL stint in nearly a decade after spending a pair of years as an assistant with the Islanders.  In between, he had been a fixture at AHL Bridgeport, serving as their bench boss for nine years before being added to former head coach Greg Cronin’s staff with the team bringing in coaches known for player development.

As for Clune, this was his first season with the team and the first full year that he was an assistant coach.  His playing career came to an end back in 2022 with AHL Toronto and he remained with the organization for two seasons in a player development role while spending a part season as an assistant with the Marlies before getting a chance to work with an NHL franchise.

For the time being, at least, it appears that Anaheim’s other assistant coaches will remain on Joel Quenneville’s staff.  Tim Army was also hired last offseason for his second stint with the team after being an assistant in the first three years of the franchise’s existence.  Meanwhile, goalie coach Peter Budaj, who also joined the Ducks last summer for his first stint of being an NHL coach, appears to be safe as well.

Afternoon Notes: Clune, Devils, Kane, Holloway

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The Anaheim Ducks have hired former player Rich Clune as an assistant coach, shares Chris Johnston of The Athletic (Twitter link). Clune has spent the last two seasons as a development coach with the AHL’s Toronto Marlies, joining the team he once captained immediately following his 2022 retirement. Clune added a role behind the bench last season, and will now get a chance to do the same at the NHL level.

Clune was a career minor-league bruiser, who played in just two full NHL seasons as part of his 15-year career in North American pros. He scored a career-high nine points in 47 games during the 2012-13 season, swapping record stats in the following year with seven points and a career-high 166 penalty minutes in 58 games. Clune would go on to play just one more NHL game in his career, though he did total an impressive 593 career games in the AHL – recording 151 points and 1,607 penalty minutes.

Other notes from around the league:

  • The New Jersey Devils have signed a two-year extension with ECHL affiliate the Adirondack Thunder. The two teams have been partnered since 2017-18, following a brief connection between Adirondack and the Calgary Flames. The Thunder have only missed the playoffs once in their six-year connection with New Jersey, though they’ve failed to make it past Divisional finals.
  • The Edmonton Oilers could welcome winger Evander Kane back to the lineup on Friday, with head coach Kris Knoblauch designating him a game-time decision to Dan Rosen of NHL.com (Twitter link). Kane hasn’t played since Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals, and hasn’t scored since Game 5 against the Dallas Stars. In total he has just eight points in 20 games this postseason, though his aggression and grit will be a welcome boost over Dylan Holloway, who’d stand to lose his role should Kane step back in, shares Renauld Lavoie of TVA Sports (Twitter link).

Front Office/Coaching Notes: Hurricanes, Clune, Laperrière, Murphy

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In today’s media availability with the new General Manager of the Carolina Hurricanes, Eric Tulsky, team reporter Walt Ruff came away with a couple of news items. Inside the organization, Tulsky acknowledged he would have to hire someone toward the top of the management hierarchy given that he was an internal hire and that the coaching staff of the Chicago Wolves is still being deliberated upon.

Darren Yorke is poised to take on the full responsibilities as Assistant General Manager of the Hurricanes organization after sharing the role with Tulsky over the last two seasons. Carolina may look to fill the position of Director of Player Personnel which has been vacant since Yorke left the role after the 2019-20 NHL season.

For the Wolves, Tulsky is expected to procure an additional coach to Bob Nardella’s staff for the 2024-25 AHL season. As things currently stand, Nardella will retain his role as head coach of Chicago with the team also retaining Dave Barr as an assistant coach and Stan Dubicki as the team’s goaltending coach.

Other notes:

  •  Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported that the Anaheim Ducks are interested in hiring Rich Clune as an assistant coach for the 2024-25 NHL season. Clune has been serving in a similar role with the Toronto Marlies of the AHL after being promoted from his previous position as Development Coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs on November 29th. Nevertheless, there has been nothing indicating that Clune is interested in the position in Anaheim, as he spent the last seven years of his playing career with the Maple Leafs organization.
  • The AHL affiliate of the Philadelphia Flyers, the Lehigh Valley Phantoms has extended head coach Ian Laperrière through the 2025-26 AHL season per a team announcement. Laperrière has spent the last three years as head coach for the Phantoms while coaching the team to a 98-92-30 record and has qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs in back-to-back seasons. Outside of the progress he has seen with the Phantoms, Laperrière has also helped graduate Tyson Foerster, Cam York, and Bobby Brink to the NHL level in recent years.
  • Top professional scout Rob Murphy will be headed to another nation’s capital city as Bruce Garrioch of TSN reports he will be leaving the Ottawa Senators organization to join the professional scouting department of the Washington Capitals. Murphy has been a respected scout in the NHL for nearly the last two decades having performed similar duties with the Phoenix Coyotes and spending three years as the Director of Scouting for the Buffalo Sabres from 2014-2017.

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