Pittsburgh Penguins make sweeping changes to Hockey Operations

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Brett Thomas Wills
April 14, 2023 (11:36)

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With the Pittsburgh Penguins missing the playoffs for the first time in seventeen years by all accounts it was only a matter of time before changes were made within the front office and with rumours swirling the last number of weeks that General Manager Ron Hextall was on his way out, we now know that many in the front office are now out of a job.

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that President of Hockey Operations Brian Burke, General Manager Ron Hextall and Assistant General Manager Chris Prior have been relieved of their duties, a decision that was made by Fenway Sports Group.

We are grateful to Brian, Ron and Chrisfor their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from a new hockey operations leadership. While this season has been disappointing, we believe in our core group of players and the goal of contending for the Stanley Cup has not changed.

While I believe this was a long time coming and the writing has been on the wall since very early into this past season, I had believed that Mike Sullivan and his staff would have been the first to fall on a dagger and have their jobs taken from them.

The core group, discussed in the above statement isn't getting any younger and like all teams that have been successful and have been able to compete year after year, the Penguins window has closed and it may be in their best interest to begin a rebuild, if not started already.