New Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford has taken his time since being hired to begin the search for a new head coach to replace the fired Dan Bylsma.
Rutherford as also been quoted as wanting a head coach with a presence, someone who the Penguins players will respect right off the bat.
With that in mind it seemed quite odd that Wilkes Barre/Scranton head coach John Hynes has been the only candidate seriously linked to the Penguins job for the past couple of weeks, as Hynes has been the only coaching candidate that Rutherford has mentioned by name.
That is until now.
TSN’s Darren Dreger reported Tuesday that former NHL head coaches Ron Wilson and Marc Crawford will both interview with Rutherford this week.
Wilson, 59, may be the better candidate even though his last stint as a head coach in Toronto (2008-12) didn’t go so well.
However Wilson has had pretty good success in stints with Anaheim (1993-97) Washington (1997-2002) and San Jose (2002-08). Overall Wilson has compiled a regular-season record of 648-561-91, plus 101 ties thrown in.
His teams are known to have an aggressive style of play, but it hasn’t really translated into a lot of playoff success as Wilson’s teams have made the playoffs in only eight of 18 years on the bench. However he did reach the Stanley Cup Finals once with Washington and has coached Team USA in the Olympics twice, earning a silver medal in 2010.
As for Crawford, the 53-year old just completed his second season coaching the ZSC Lions in Switzerland.
He has also coached four different NHL franchises: Quebec/Colorado, Vancouver, Los Angeles and Dallas.
His last two stints in LA and Dallas ended quickly after two seasons each, but Crawford has won a Stanley Cup (1996). However other than that he hasn’t had much playoff success in other places outside of Denver. His Canucks teams made the playoffs four consecutive seasons but won only one series in that span.
Crawford boasts a career 549-421-77 record with 101 ties.
However throw former Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Stevens into the mix as Stevens is expected to interview for the job and it looks like Rutherford is serious about hiring an experienced NHL coach to try and right the ship in Pittsburgh immediately.
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