Fueled by a desire to teach, new Penguins coach Dan Muse is embracing the challenge that awaits

PITTSBURGH (AP) - Dan Muse knows his resume, at least the part that includes his playing career, doesn’t exactly fit the profile of the typical NHL coach.

And yet in some ways, the years spent as a self-described "bad" forward at Division III Stonehill College, where Muse scored all of five goals in 61 games, played a vital role in creating a path that eventually led Muse to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

"That taught me about work ethic," Muse said on Wednesday, a week after the Penguins hired him to replace two-time Stanley Cup winner Mike Sullivan. “That taught me about 'Never quit. Don't stop. Never listen to the outside noise and keep finding a way.'"

Something Muse has done everywhere he’s been over the past two decades, whether it’s on the ice, in a high school history classroom or on the lacrosse field.

Beyond hockey, teaching might be Muse’s true calling. There’s something about the challenge of trying to tap into someone’s potential - whether it’s a perennial NHL All-Star, a 20-year-old prospect, or a student struggling in the classroom - that has always called to him.

The fact that calling pushed the 42-year-old to the highest reaches of the sport that’s been a lifelong passion is mostly a happy accident.

"I haven’t felt like I’ve worked a day in my life," he said.

Maybe, but there is plenty of work to be done in Pittsburgh, which finds itself trying to navigate the twilight of the Sidney Crosby Era to the beginning of whatever might come next.

Those plans are still largely in the gestational phase. General manager Kyle Dubas has spent the past 15 months leaning into accumulating as many draft picks and young prospects as possible. The Penguins have 30 selections over the next three years, including 18 in the first three rounds.

Muse’s burgeoning reputation as a coach with the knack for getting the best out of players makes him seemingly a solid fit for where the Penguins might be going, though Dubas stressed Muse’s talents lie beyond merely turning young, talented prospects into young, talented pros.

"Whether it’s a young player coming into the league, or a veteran player trying to stay in the league, Dan has an extraordinary impact on all of them," Dubas said.

He’ll have to if he wants to have a lengthy run in Pittsburgh, which has missed the playoffs each of the past three seasons and hasn’t made it beyond the first round of the postseason since 2018. While longtime captain Crosby, who turns 38 this summer, remains one of the most productive and dependable players in the league, the Penguins have struggled defensively and in goal.

Dubas is not interested in a quick fix and instead is searching for a solution that will have staying power. Muse seems to be on board, declining to put any sort of timeline on when Pittsburgh might return to legitimate Stanley Cup contention, saying only that the process will start when the club reports to training camp in September.

Muse said he’s spoken or at least reached out to "95%" of the players under contract for next season, though he’s focused on simply getting to know them at this point rather than do a deep dive into specific philosophies. That will come later.

There was a time earlier in his coaching journey - particularly when he was hired as an assistant at Yale in 2009 - when he feared his modest playing career would be a hindrance. Now, the idea of creating a plan and asking future Hall of Famers Crosby and Evgeni Malkin to execute it isn’t a problem.

"I’ve worked in almost every role you can imagine," said Muse, who spent the past two years on Peter Laviolette’s staff with the New York Rangers. "Second assistant. First assistant. Video coach. Head coach (at the junior level). Especially having the opportunity to work in two different NHL organizations, as well as with all those different players, led me to feel extremely confident about my abilities to come into this opportunity."

Heady territory for someone who grew up in a hockey family but didn’t pick up the game seriously until he was 11 and living in Alabama, not exactly a hockey hotbed. Muse can’t explain what exactly drew him to the game. He just always sort of loved it. His parents helped stoke that passion, and his work ethic did the rest.

Muse’s background is one of the reasons why Dubas was intent on opening the job up to candidates of all stripes, not just the people he’d gotten to know during his decade-plus in the NHL.

"If we hadn't gone through that whole process and turned to someone I knew in the past or worked with, we wouldn't have found the best coach for the Penguins," Dubas said. "And that's Dan."

In a league that recycles coaches with regularity, the bespectacled Muse and his almost gravely New England accent offer a blank canvas. The Penguins are, in a way, starting over. Muse, who has won championships at every level he's coached outside of the NHL, is just starting up.

"A year from now, I believe I'll be a better coach and hope to be a better person than the one I am sitting here today," he said. "That's how it should be."