Madden Monday: Erik Karlsson trade shines spotlight on Penguins coach Mike Sullivan

Now that Erik Karlsson is finally a Pittsburgh Penguin, Sunday’s trade shines the spotlight even brighter on head coach Mike Sullivan.

That’s the assessment of 105.9 The X host and TribLIVE columnist Mark Madden during this week’s “Madden Monday” podcast.

Sure, Sullivan has two Stanley Cup rings. And on the day he was hired, new President of hockey operations Kyle Dubas went so far as to say, “Sully can coach forever.” So Sullivan probably isn’t on the hot seat.

Yet.

But if the Penguins fail to win a playoff series for a sixth straight season in 2023-24, even after acquiring a big-ticket player such as Karlsson, Madden says Sullivan will at the very least deserve a lot more scrutiny.

“I want to see how Sullivan responds to the hand he’s been dealt,” Madden said. “Because Sullivan is the kind of coach who thinks every guy counts. We need everyone on this team to fill a role and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, this isn’t that kind of team anymore.”

It’s Madden’s contention that — now more than ever — the Penguins are pushing all their chips behind the team’s star players. And with defensemen such as Letang and Karlsson potentially eating up to 50 minutes of ice time per night, that minimizes the role of the bottom pair. By extension, the Penguins may have a similar view of how the bottom six forwards are utilized as well.

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“Kyle Dubas has basically said regarding the bottom pair of defense, it doesn’t matter who it is,” Madden said. “And I think you’ve got to take that one step further. I don’t know if there’s a shootout specialist to be had out there. But what if they acquired one like when they had (Erik) Christensen and then later Jussi Jokinen? They won so many shootout points because of that. If they would have had a guy like that last year, they would have made the playoffs easily. They have to resign themselves to ‘OK, not everybody’s a really good 200-foot (player).’ … You’ve got to get points any way you can.”

So far, Madden claims that he’s been told the communication between Dubas and Sullivan has been good. As a result, he is assuming that Sullivan “is in” on Dubas’ big-picture thinking for the course of the franchise.

But Madden also pointed to that time back in 2017 when then general manager Jim Rutherford traded for enforcer Ryan Reaves and Sullivan balked at playing him because he felt like Reaves was a liability in other areas of his game. Madden believes that now Sullivan has to be open-minded to the notion of playing specific players even if they only have specific skill sets in a limited amount of ice time.

“It doesn’t matter who the fourth line right wing is. It just doesn’t. So why not have a tough guy, or a shootout specialist or whatever you have that could help you get points?” Madden asked.

Also during the podcast, Madden and I find a few subtle, ripple effect benefits for the Penguins in the wake of the Karlsson acquisition, and we discuss the Steelers as they enter Week 1 of the preseason as well as Ben Cherington’s comments about the future of the Pirates and the failure of the U.S. women’s soccer team.