Todd Nelson

I think with Hendricks, obviously, there's two things that are stacked in his favor.

Number one, He's played his best hockey probably of his pro career playing for Todd Nelson.

So Todd Nelson's on our staff.

He's deeply familiar with Hendricks.

And number two, I think there's the commitment of the coaching staff to try to give these guys runway to make mistakes, to have bad moments and respond from them.

They've improved.

they've been really aggressive with moving out some of their own veteran guys and using those assets to bring in younger players and and they've also drafted very well so that that presents the opportunity to to give maybe a greater playing up playing more playing time to the guys that are kind of caught in that middle ground and you know he's he's one of those guys so um it's going to be on us to give him that opportunity and to get the most out of him and and he can play wing he can play center he's you know he's playing center for us to start and It's a great chance for him to take advantage and assert himself.

Yeah, to your point, was MVP for the Hershey Bears 2023 Calder Cup team that was coached by Todd Nelson.

Edmonton has gone to this playbook countless times already.

Right? In the last 12 years, they've gone, I've got the list in front of me, Todd Nelson, Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft, Kris Knoblauch, and now Mike Babcock.

So on one hand, everyone's thinking, it's like, "Well, Babs is different because he's a different style, class, breed of coach." But I would say, how different? How many times can you go behind the bench and say, "That's the thing we need to change, and that's what's gonna make everything better," before you realize that it's not.

All the issues that you-

And obviously coming over from Washington, former first round pick.

He has some familiarity with Penguins assistant coach Todd Nelson.

So curious to see how and where he will fit into Dan Muse's lineup come opening night.

Absolutely.

I think just, you know, damn you having gone through being a head coach at the NHL level for the first time, that staff in general, it was, you know, a different, different viewpoints, different, like a whole different dynamic.

You had like the kind of younger recently retired players and, and Rich Clune and Nick Bonino, and then kind of the, the KG, the KG vets and Todd Nelson and Mike Southers and combined, it was just, it, a phenomenal dynamic and it was so much fun to be around and and the players really responded to it so and then they accomplished so much in just the one year together their first year together so it's really exciting josh i think to see you know what they can do here in year two as a staff

I'm glad you brought that up because with it being a shorter camp, there's a lot of teams around the league that may have a new head coach, may have new assistant coaches, may just be kind of figuring things out, so to speak, on the fly with these shorter camps, shorter preseasons.

The Penguins do not have an issue with that because, yes, there are some new players in camp.

Yes, they're still trying to figure out what their roster will look like, like every team in the league on opening night.

But there's no real – wonder of communication or approach or who's the coach that i talk to for this who's the coach that i talk to for that like that continuity i know it's two year it's one year to the next but it seems in my mind i'm glad you brought it up to kind of loom a little larger just because there are veterans with stuthers and nelson there are who by the way todd nelson knows a few of these guys that have come on board from the washington capitals there's familiarity there so um You got Nick Bonino, another year of experience under his belt.

And Rich Kloon is, from my understanding, been a guy who's been kind of any opportunity he has to talk to guys and work with guys in the summer from a video standpoint and just chat with them, he's right there making that happen.

So I think that there's just a lot of continuity.

So I think he would get some consideration.

Hendrix Lapierre obviously has NHL pedigree, very good American hockey league player, won the Calder company in in the american hockey league with todd nelson who's now behind the penguins bench as an assistant so they probably believe in him he's a guy that could probably get a look with some of these injuries the one injury and it's not going to affect their centers obviously is well and before i get into that ben kindle now kind of screws that up because with his situation if he they're trying to say it's day-to-day and that could be that they don't want to cause panic if he misses significant time he was slotted already to be your number three center at the moment It should have been number two,

but yeah, go ahead.

I agree with you there.

Yes, those finals could have happened... what if this, that, and the other injuries and everything, but they didn't get it over the hump.

Todd Nelson.

I hate that.

Like I've heard more.

Hitchcock was 62.

Todd Nelson was 51.

Hmm.

So, Todd McLellan had the longest run, and he was 502.

But there's always an element of, "Okay, wait, did I miss somebody?" [laughs]

Well, and, and yeah, like Craig MacTavish and Todd Nelson, I, I remember-

Yeah

... former PR man JJ Aber having to get on the phone with the league to, like, tell them, "Okay, no, that game, Mac T was the head coach."