The Real Reason Kyle Dubas Chose Dan Muse to Replace Mike Sullivan Finally Revealed

Q: You obviously see something in your guy now. What's your selling point to Crosby and to these guys before you make the announcement that this is your guy that's gonna lead your hockey team, and why Dan Muse.

Dubas:
So, I don't know that it was so much a selling point to them. After we made the hire, I just felt that the players should know what it was about Dan that led us down that path. So, I didn't go into the process thinking I was going to hire somebody that I didn't really know or hadn't worked with even briefly. And it was clear, you know, a number of people had kind of said, you know, you should really talk to Dan. And especially as we transitioned away from a legendary coach in Sully into this next era of the group, it was to me the key thing was somebody that could instill all of that amongst the players who are here, but also on intake of our young prospects and young players that we acquire and get them up to speed with it quickly and be able to help to transition us through, but also someone that can come out on the other side.

Because I think one of the narratives quite often is when a coach goes into a rebuild, they tend not to be the coach that comes out of it. And for me, it was looking for the person that could really hammer on the development side of it and the detail side of it and work ethic and sort of match the same sort of mindset that we had on that. But also somebody that I felt had the chance to be the head coach when the team is back as a contender again. And just the amount of detail and the level of preparation, the way that he communicated that Dan had in the interview process was great.

But really what separated it was in talking to the players that had had him going back to his time at Yale, but then in Chicago Steel and then with Nashville and then at the U.S. program and then in New York. He always ran the penalty kills. Penalty kills were some of the best in the league. You talk to the players, the level of preparation, the ability to adapt and on the fly in between games has always been excellent. And so all of that just started to kind of go add up. And you always, I think, in your mind have sort of a list at the beginning of the process for who the best people are going to be or who the top people are going to be. But Dan just kept rising to the top and kind of checked every box that we had had. And, you know, it was clear to me as we kind of was that it was during the combine. We had done all of our interviews and done our in-person stuff that it was just he was everything that we were looking for. And, you know, showing that through the summer with his work ethic and his commitment to building out the program on his terms. Yeah, no, I like it.