Penguins Will Not Bring Back AHL Coach And Assistant

29/04/2024 02:03

The Pittsburgh Penguins have announced that they're not renewing the contracts of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins head coach J.D. Forrest as well as assistant coach Kevin Porter after they led Wilkes-Barre Scranton to its highest win total in six seasons.

The AHL Penguins finished third in the AHL's Atlantic Division and had numerous Penguins prospects getting their first taste of professional playoff hockey, however, the team lasted just two games as they were eliminated by a lower-seeded team in the Lehigh Valley Phantoms this past Friday.

Forrest was promoted to head coach of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton back in 2020 after he'd been an assistant coach with the team since 2016. He coached the baby Penguins in each of the last four years, missing the playoffs twice while getting eliminated in the first round in their only two playoff appearances under his leadership. While Forrest won just 113 out of the 252 games he coached, he didn't exactly have a strong lineup as the Penguins' minor-league system has been one of the worst in the NHL for quite some time.

Assistant coach Porter was a previous Penguins player, having dressed in 43 regular-season games with the team during their back-to-back Stanley Cup seasons in 2016 and 2017. Porter tallied just three assists during that time and eventually wrapped up his playing career as the captain of the AHL’s Rochester Americans in 2019-20. The 38-year-old has been Forrest's assistant for his entire run as head coach of the team.