Penguins fire associate coach Todd Reirden

Marcus Pettersson hijacked the conversation.

Not in a malicious or vindictive way.

But out of a sense of appreciation.

In mid-April, late in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ prematurely ended season, a reporter pointed out to the defenseman that he was enjoying the best season of his seven-year career in part because of the obvious benefits of playing with an All-Star defensive partner such as Erik Karlsson.

Pettersson agreed with the premise but shifted the focus elsewhere.

To associate coach Todd Reirden.

“I’ve got to thank Todd for that too,” Pettersson said. “The amount of work that we’ve put over the last few years (after) a couple of years ago not having my best season, I’ve really taken a step over the last year and this year too. The work he’s done with me has helped me a lot.”

The Penguins will turn to someone else to do that work after they fired Reirden on Friday, bringing his second tenure with the team to a halt.

Re-hired as an assistant coach in September of 2020 and then promoted to associate coach in 2022, Reirden spent the past four seasons overseeing the team’s defensemen as well as the power play.

The latter of those duties likely led to his dismissal.

Despite having the talents of All-Stars such as forwards Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin as well as Karlsson and defenseman Kris Letang at their disposal, the Penguins’ power-play was ranked 30th in the NHL with a success rate of 15.3%. Additionally, the Penguins allowed a league-worst 12 short-handed goals.

The futility of the power play was a leading factor in the Penguins missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

“Todd is an extremely hard-working coach, and he’s a very detail-oriented guy,” coach Mike Sullivan said Dec. 31 when asked about Reirden and the power play’s woes. “He does a great job in preparing these guys in giving them the information that they need in order to try to exploit certain areas that he finds (in scouting). He’s got a great analytical eye. He gives these guys a game plan going into the game — each and every night — that gives them an opportunity for success. He takes it every bit as personal as the players do. We all do. We’re all a part of it, myself included. When it doesn’t go the right way, we all have to take ownership for it.

“Todd’s no different. He’s a guy that just digs in. He rolls up his sleeves. He tries different ways to try to reach the players. When they do have success, I think it’s great that our players acknowledge him because I think he’s behind the scenes working extremely hard for them.”

The Penguins’ power play was fourth in the NHL during Reirden’s first season in his second tenure with the club (2020-21), converting at 23.7%. After finishing 14th in the league in 2021-22 at 21.0%, it remained in 14th place with a slightly better rate of 21.7% in 2022-23.

Those lukewarm results largely served as the impetus to acquire Karlsson via one of the largest trades in NHL history this past August.

Despite the addition of Karlsson, Reirden and company largely never gained substantial traction with the power play.

Reirden’s return to the Penguins was far from boring. Rehired by former general manager Jim Rutherford when the NHL was dealing with the harsh realities of the pandemic, Reirden briefly took over the head coaching duties when Sullivan was unavailable because of covid-19 in November of 2022. Over six games, Reirden guided the Penguins to a 2-2-2 mark in Sullivan’s absence.

In addition to being promoted to associate coach, Reirden was given a two-year contract extension in 2022 by Rutherford’s successor, Ron Hextall.

Beyond the realm of the Penguins, Sullivan and Reirden were scheduled to serve as head and assistant coach, respectively, for the United States in the 2022 Winter Olympics before the NHL withdrew its participation over concerns with covid-19.

In addition to the power play, Reirden’s primary duties were rooted in guiding the defensemen. An NHL blue liner himself in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Reirden aided the likes of Letang, Mike Matheson and Cody Ceci during his second stint with the Penguins.

“I really enjoyed him,” Ceci said in February. “He helps out a lot on the back end. Me specifically, coming in, just building my game back up, we did a lot of work together with video and whatnot. He was great for me.”

Similar results were not enjoyed by prominent additions such as Jeff Petry, Ty Smith or Ryan Graves over the past two seasons, however. Petry lasted a single season with the Penguins before being jettisoned in the Karlsson trade while Smith spent nearly all of his brief tenure with the Penguins at the American Hockey League (AHL) level.

As for Graves, he wound up on the team’s bottom defensive pairing this past season after signing a six-year contract as an unrestricted free agent in July of 2022.

Reirden, 52, previously worked for the Penguins in various capacities between 2008 and 2014. Initially hired as an assistant coach for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins of the American Hockey League in 2008, he was promoted to head coach in 2009 then elevated to an assistant coach role with the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2010.

After leaving the Penguins in 2014, Reirden was hired by the Washington Capitals as an assistant coach then promoted to associate coach in 2016 and helped that franchise win its first Stanley Cup championship in 2018. Following head coach Barry Trotz’s departure in the wake of the championship due to a contract dispute, Reirden became the head of that club in 2018 and served in that capacity for two seasons.

Reirden’s dismissal was the second alteration to the franchise’s coaching ranks this week. On Sunday, the Penguins cut ties with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach J.D. Forrest and assistant coach Kevin Porter as management opted not to renew their contracts.

During his season-ending press conference April 19, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas indicated the coaching staff – as well as all quadrants of the organization – would be subject to an audit.

“It’s my job to evaluate all of the groups, all the systems that we have in place — medical, equipment, player development, etc. — and make sure that we’ve got the right people in place on staff to get us where we want to go,” Dubas said. “(Sullivan) and I will meet continually about the staff, go through each staff member, whether they’re the right fit for our group or not and then evaluate whether we want to make any changes.”