The Penguins yesterday hired Trevor Daley, but the two-time Stanley Cup winning defenseman isn’t returning to the team as a player. He has retired after 16 seasons in the NHL and will join the Penguins’ front office as a hockey operations advisor.
Daley signed with the Detroit Red Wings after winning his second Cup with the Penguins in 2017.
General Manager Jim Rutherford said he always knew Daley would be a good front office man, so he reached out to Daley when he found out he was retiring as a skater.
Daley says it wasn’t an easy decision to stop playing, but the Penguins are the right organization to join, and he and his family love Pittsburgh.
Daley has already talked to Sidney Crosby and Kris Letang, and he remains good friends with many others in the Penguins organization.
Daley will be based in Pittsburgh and will report directly to Rutherford on player evaluations at the NHL and AHL levels. He will also act as an “eye in the sky” for the coaching staff during games. He said yesterday he doesn’t feel that coaching is right for him at this point, and the team is going to let him explore how he wants to go about his job.
The Penguins yesterday fired assistant GM Jason Karmanos in a move that Rutherford said is “the first part of the process to reorganize our group.” Karmanos just last month was named the GM of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. Director of hockey research Sam Ventura will become interim assistant general manager with the Penguins and manager of hockey operations Erik Heasley will serve as interim GM at Wilkes Barre/Scranton.
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