Penguins promote Patrik Allvin to assistant general manager

The list of people who have won a Stanley Cup ring with the Penguins more often than Patrik Allvin is fairly limited.

Like, Mario Lemieux limited.

A member of the Penguins’ three most recent championship squads, Allvin has been a dutiful employee of the organization ever since 2006 when he was hired as a European scout under former general manager Ray Shero.

Over the next 14 years, Allvin was steadfast in his duties and slowly moved up the front office’s depth chart, holding a variety of positions in the realm of scouting.

On Wednesday, he was promoted once again to one of the highest-ranking positions within the franchise as assistant general manager.

“I don’t think I’ve ever taken anything for granted,” Allvin said during a video conference with local media on Wednesday. “I’ve had the same approach as a player: Keep working hard and do your job and see where it goes. The success that we’ve had here over the last 14 years, I think as an organization, I think we’re not done yet. We’re hungry to get better. Everybody wants to get another (championship). Everybody wants to get better and improve in all areas.”

Allvin, 46, has also served as director of European scouting and director of amateur scouting. Current general manager Jim Rutherford promoted Allvin to his two most recent positions.

“He’s done some good things for the Penguins over the years,” Rutherford said by telephone. “I noticed that when I promoted him a few years ago to run amateur scouting. Watching him real close, he works really well with people. He’s a good leader. He knows the players. He scouted these players as amateurs and of course, now they’ve worked their way up into the pros. He’s got strong ties in Europe, which is helpful also. He brings a different perspective to the hockey (operations).”

Allvin, a native of Falun, Sweden, will have the unique designation of being the only European in the NHL to hold an assistant general manager position. Finnish-born Jarmo Kekalainen of the Columbus Blue Jackets is the NHL’s only European general manager.

“That wasn’t the main reason,” Rutherford said. “He gets this position because he’s very capable of doing all the things that are necessary as an assistant general manager. But having that knowledge and connections in Europe is good. It’s good for the Penguins.”

The assistant general manager position was opened up Oct. 26 when Jason Karmanos, a longtime lieutenant to Rutherford dating to their time with the Carolina Hurricanes franchise, was fired. Rutherford indicated he had been contemplating changes to the front office, including Allvin’s role, for some time.

“I’ve had Patrik in mind for about a year trying to figure out what’s the right place for him and how he continues to advance in the organization, which he’s earned. He’s the guy that I had in mind.”

Along with Allvin’s promotion, Sam Ventura, previously the director of hockey research will also assume the title of director of hockey operations. He served as interim assistant general manager between Karmano’s dismissal and Allvin’s promotion.

Ventura, who has been involved in the Penguins’ usage of on-ice analytics in various capacities since 2015, will assist Allvin with financial aspects including salary cap management, the minutia of the NHL’s complicated collective bargaining agreement with the players association and budgets for the hockey operations department.

Erik Heasley will continue on as manager of hockey operations and assistant general manager of the franchise’s American Hockey League affiliate in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

“Sam Ventura and Erik Heasley, they take on more duties being responsible for the (salary) cap and budget and contracts and things like that, which they’ve been involved with, but it wasn’t ultimately their responsibility,” Rutherford said. “So more responsibility for them. I like how this has played out.”

Allvin, who indicated he recently completed a bachelor’s degree in finance in Sweden, admitted that aspect of his new job will take time to learn.

“Working with Sam over the last couple of years here, I’ve sure used him a lot on the amateur side,” Allvin said. “We have a common respect. I’ve learned a lot from where Sam’s coming from. And I also think Sam has learned a lot from the scouting department. This is just going to be a great relationship moving forward here. I’m excited to even work even closer with him than I’ve done in the past year.

“Sam is on top of things. He’s well prepared. He has an open mind. He wants to learn in the areas where he doesn’t have the expertise in. There is no ego in the group that we have here. We all want to get the job done, and we all want to get better.”

Allvin will continue to oversee the organization’s amateur scouting for the remainder of the 2020-21 season. Several leagues in Europe as well as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League have already opened play while the NHL and several other leagues in North America remain on hiatus on due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It appears the Penguins will fill that position after the 2020-21 campaign is completed.

“I’ve got to finish that this year,” Allvin said. “It’s a unique year, and we’ll go make sure to do the best. I’m completely confident that our scouting staff is on top of things. They will be open-minded and flexible here moving forward. We’ll see here once we get going here. Obviously, this is new. We will sit down as a staff and make sure we have structure in place. We’ll have communication and make sure we have a plan.”

“He will, this year, continue to oversee amateur scouting,” Rutherford said. “As we go along, Patrik and I will talk about where we’re going with amateur scouting and different things with the organization. But right now, in this year, we feel the best thing to do is to still oversee amateur scouting.”

Following Karmanos’ dismissal, Heasley was named as interim general manager of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton before being reinstalled as assistant general manager on Wednesday. According to Rutherford, Heasley will continue to oversee the operations of that franchise, which will not open play until Feb. 5 at the earliest.

“We won’t name a general manager in Wilkes-Barre,” Rutherford said. “We don’t feel at this point in time that we need it. Erik Heasley will do most of those duties. For all intents and purposes, Erik will be the interim general manager there until something changes. But we’re not going to name anybody there in the near future.”

With the NHL not slated to open until Jan. 1 at the earliest — and there is every reason to suspect that target is optimistic, at best — Rutherford suggested he is done making changes to his front office and coaching staffs, which have undergone a significant facelift over the past three months.

“For what we’re doing now — anything that we’re doing now — we’re set,” Rutherford said.