The Pittsburgh Penguins named former Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes general manager, Jim Rutherford general manager early Friday. The team also announced the firing of head coach Dan Bylsma.
Rutherford, who replaces Ray Shero, who was fired on May 16 after the Penguins were eliminated from the playoffs, spent the last twenty years as the general manager of the Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes until he resigned in April to move into an advisory role within the organization.
After the team moved from Hartford to Raleigh, North Carolina, Rutherford built a Hurricanes team that made two trips to the Stanley Cup Finals, in 2002 and 2006, and won the Stanley Cup in 2006.
Bylsma, who replaced Michel Therrien midway through the 2008-09 season, guided the Penguins to the franchise’s third Stanley Cup in 2009. The Penguins finished either first or second in their division in each of Bylsma’s seasons as head coach, and Bylsma is the winningest coach in Penguins history. In addition to the Stanley Cup in 2009, he was also given the Jack Adams Award, for Coach of the Year, in 2011.
The writing on the wall came after the Penguins blew a 3-1 series lead to the New York Rangers in this year’s playoffs and lost the series in seven games. The loss was the fifth straight season that the Penguins lost to a lower-seeded team in the playoffs.
No announcement has been made about Bylsma’s successor or the rest of the coaching staff. However, assistant coaches Tony Granato, Jacques Martin, and Tood Reirden, as well as goaltending coach Mike Bales have all been give permission to look elsewhere for jobs.
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