mikey287 wrote: Sat May 24, 2025 11:38 am
Sully is one of the best coaches in the league for playing young players and is actually a big voice in youth development in the States, I've heard him speak on it personally...a large swath of Pens fans apparently got tricked into believing otherwise, but that scowl should be directed at the scouting staff...or they should really look around the league more closely haha
My issue is opportunity and development. First they always have a full roster of non waiver wire players, ie Jankowski and Heinen, that are what they are. Sullivan also seems to have a small fuse for mistakes and will give less ice time to younger players rather than working through the mistakes.
Every September we see 23 non waiver players and we all know the roster before training camp even starts, I think that was due to JR and RH as much as Sullivan, but Sullivan also seemed to make roster decisions based on waiver status.
That being said, he did give guys like Rust and Guentzel the opportunity to work through mistakes and neither were blue chip prospects. He allowed Kuhnhackl, Wilson, Sheary, etc. to also grow from their mistakes but something happened after the cup, and it wasn't because players weren't even as good as Kuhnhackl.
My opinion is that he just got stuck in a rut between Rust and Puustinen and think he's a great coach that needed a fresh start. I think he's exhibit A why we don't see Tom Landry's and Chuck Noll's in terms of coaching longevity. I don't blame him, it just is what it is.
