Penguins let three assistant coaches leave after early postseason exit

The Pittsburgh Penguins have awarded head coach Mike Sullivan with an opportunity to right the ship following back-to-back early postseason exits, the most recent coming versus the 12th-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Qualifier series held at the bubble site in Toronto.

Three of Sullivan's assistants weren't so lucky.

Pittsburgh confirmed on Wednesday that the contracts for assistant coaches Sergei Gonchar, Jacques Martin and Mark Recchi won't be renewed for the 2020-21 season.

"We are in the process of conducting a review of our organization because we have underperformed in the playoffs the last few years," Penguins executive vice president and general manager Jim Rutherford said in the prepared statement. 

"We just thought we needed to change the dynamic of our coaching staff. We have very high standards here in Pittsburgh, and we want to continue competing for Stanley Cups. The message to our fans is that 'We are not rebuilding, we're re-tooling.'"

The Penguins suffered a first-round sweep to the New York Islanders in the 2019 playoffs. During the 2019-20 NHL restart that began earlier this month, Pittsburgh dropped three of four games to Montreal.

Gonchar won a Stanley Cup while playing with the Pens in the spring of 2009, and he first rejoined the organization as a coach in the fall of 2015.

As noted by the Associated Press (h/t ESPN), Martin served as a Pittsburgh assistant for the 2013-14 season and returned to the bench after the Penguins hired Sullivan in December 2015.

Recchi won the Stanley Cup on three occasions during his playing career and joined the Penguins as a player development coach in July 2014.