All signs point to Mitch Love stepping behind the bench for the Pittsburgh Penguins next season.
According to The Fourth Period’s David Pagnotta, Love, an assistant coach for the Washington Capitals for the past two seasons, is on the shortlist of frontrunners for Pittsburgh’s vacant head-coaching position. The Penguins are expected to go through their final rounds of interviews this week.
The Penguins parted ways with long-time bench boss Mike Sullivan in late April after missing the playoffs for a third straight season. Pittsburgh finished 31 points behind the Capitals for first place in the Metropolitan Division and 13th out of 16 teams in the Eastern Conference overall.
Per Elite Prospects’ Cam Robinson, former Capitals forward Marco Sturm is expected to be named the next bench boss of the Boston Bruins, leaving the Penguins and Seattle Kraken as the only two teams yet to hire a head coach for next year. Love also interviewed with the Bruins and the Kraken.
Robinson added Wednesday that his “team-side sources” believe Love will eventually be offered the Pens job.
Love has been in charge of the Capitals’ defensemen for two years after the Caps hired him away from the Calgary Flames’ AHL affiliate to join Spencer Carbery’s staff. The 40-year-old former AHL defenseman/winger is a two-time winner of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as AHL Coach of the Year.
Following an impressive 2024-25 campaign in which they ran away with the East, the Capitals’ top brass expected their assistants to draw interest from around the league this summer. They will need to name a replacement for Love if he does depart to their bitter rivals.
“Yeah, I think a few of our coaches have generated some interest with a lot of openings around the league,” GM Chris Patrick said last week. “Now that we’re out of the playoffs, I think those processes will now pick up steam a little bit. We’ll probably know fairly soon.”
Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas has a deadline for when he wanted to have a new head coach inked to a contract. Dubas, who was in Sweden as Team Canada’s general manager for the 2025 World Championship, flew home earlier this week after Canada’s upset loss to Denmark in the tournament’s quarterfinals.
“My plan is to have a new head coach in place by June 1,” Dubas told The Athletic’s Josh Yohe. “It’s not so much about having a coach in place for the NHL Draft (June 27) as it is having a coach in place for our pro scouting meetings in mid-June. That’s the thing that’s really important.”
If Love does not get the Pittsburgh job, DJ Smith, former Ottawa Senators head coach, appears to be the other favorite. Smith did not lead the Senators to the playoffs once during his five seasons at the helm of the club. His latest job came as an assistant with the Los Angeles Kings this past season.
