New Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Johnston has been looking to round out his coaching staff and it appears he finally has found his guy.
The Penguins announced that they have agreed to terms with Gary Agnew to join the coaching staff as an assistant coach.
Agnew joins former Penguins player Rick Tocchet as an assistant under Johnston, to go along with goaltender coach Mike Bales, who was kept from Dan Bylsma’s staff.
The 54-year old Agnew was an assistant coach for the St. Louis Blues under Ken Hitchcock the past two seasons, where the Blues allowed the fourth fewest goals in the NHL during that span.
Agnew was also an assistant coach with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2006-10 and also served a brief stint as interim head coach for Columbus.
Prior to joining the Blue Jackets, Agnew was head coach of Columbus’ American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate in Syracuse for six years. During his tenure in Syracuse, Agnew won 200 games, as well as the team’s first division title in ’01-02.
He has a reputation for being able to work well with both defensemen and forwards as well as being a solid special teams coach.
It had been long rumored that Johnston wanted to add Travis Green to his staff but Green instead elected a head coaching job in the AHL so Johnston quickly moved on to Agnew.
Photo Credit: OHL
