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Concerns Growing Around Evgeni Malkin as Penguins Look for Next Head Coach
Evgeni Malkin has been a star for a long time in the NHL, but now he's presented a major concern in Pittsburgh as they search for their next Head Coach.
After a decade in charge, Mike Sullivan was fired as the Head Coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins, and now, the team remain in the search for his replacement as they look to lead the organization into the future.
At this point in time, the team are seemingly down to Mitch Love and a few other options, but now Insider Josh Yohe has presented a potential issue, which is Evgeni Malkin.
According to reports from Yohe, Malkin has been a slight problem for Head Coaches in the past, as Sullivan admits that he didn't always hold Malkin accountable for his mistakes, with the fear that he could lose Malkin's full focus and attitude if he were to do just that.
Malkin liked playing for Dan Bylsma and loved playing for Sullivan. Though Mike Johnston is the target of many jokes and wasn't an NHL-caliber coach, Malkin didn't always make his job easy. The new coach better have the right personality to deal with Malkin. He's a Hall of Famer and still brings plenty to the table, but he's difficult to coach. One of Sullivan's biggest failures in his final seasons was that he didn't always hold Malkin accountable when he made mistakes. I suspect he wanted to, but you can easily lose a star player when you're playing that game.
This attitude issue is something that was called out by fans in recent years, with some calling him lazy on the ice, especially as he gets towards the final year(s) of his career.
Ultimately, a new coach in Pittsburgh will have the pleasure of coaching Sidney Crosby, but will also need to deal with the volatile Malkin, so we will see if they can handle that role and lead the Penguins into the future.
| POLL | ||
MAI 28 | 201 ANSWERS Concerns Growing Around Evgeni Malkin as Penguins Look for Next Head Coach Will Evgeni Malkin be an issue for the Pittsburgh Penguins next Head Coach? | ||
| Yes | 103 | 51.2 % |
| No | 98 | 48.8 % |
| List of polls | ||