Penguins fire Hextall, Burke after missing playoffs
The Pittsburgh Penguins have fired general manager Ron Hextall, assistant general manager Chris Pryor, and president of hockey operations Brian Burke, the team announced Friday.
Pittsburgh failed to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2005-06, Sidney Crosby's rookie season.
"We are grateful to Brian, Ron, and Chris for their contributions to the organization over the past two seasons, but we feel that the team will benefit from new hockey operations leadership," owners John Henry and Tom Werner said in a statement. "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."
The Penguins will begin searching for replacements immediately. Members of Pittsburgh's AHL affiliate and Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan will make hockey operations decisions in the interim.
Pittsburgh hired Hextall and Burke in February 2021 after the surprise resignation of Jim Rutherford, who guided the Penguins to Stanley Cup wins in 2016 and 2017. Pittsburgh has only won one playoff series since capturing its most recent championship.
The Penguins missed this year's playoffs by a single point. They entered the season with high expectations after Hextall signed longtime stars Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to new contracts in the offseason, but depth proved to be a significant problem over the course of the campaign.
Penguins scored just 49 goals (and gave up 70) in nearly 1600 5v5 minutes without Crosby or Malkin on the ice this season. Got absolutely nothing from the bottom 6
— Dimitri Filipovic (@DimFilipovic) April 13, 2023
Hextall drew plenty of criticism for an underwhelming trade deadline that saw the team add a declining Mikael Granlund along with veterans Nick Bonino and Dmitry Kulikov. Pryor pushed to acquire Granlund, according to The Athletic's Josh Yohe. The Finnish winger amassed five points in 21 games with the Penguins and is under contract through 2025.
Pittsburgh enters the offseason with nearly $21 million in cap space and 14 players committed to the 2023-24 roster. Goaltender Tristan Jarry and blue-liner Brian Dumoulin are the club's most notable pending free agents.