The Pittsburgh Penguins pulled a bit of a surprise Wednesday when they announced that Dan Muse will be the team’s new head coach. Muse was with the New York Rangers for the previous two seasons as an assistant coach, but has been a head coach before at the USHL level, notably with the Chicago Steel and U.S. National Team Development Program.

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Muse has a track record of helping players develop, but also with winning. He helped lead the Steel to its first ever Clark Cup in 2017. He also helped Team USA win the gold medal at the 2023 IIHF Under-18 World Championship with a roster led by future high draft picks Ryan Leonard, Gabe Perreault and Will Smith.

At just 42 years old, Muse will be among the youngest head coaches in the NHL and has followed a unique path from prep school assistant all the way to the NHL on his coaching journey, which is fascinating.

The Penguins are in a bit of a precarious spot. They have aging veteran superstars who still want to win, but there’s also the need to rebuild and start planning for the long term. 

Pittsburgh’s prospect system is starting to improve, but it still has a long way to go in order to remake the future of the team. Being able to mix development with winning is a very difficult needle to thread, but it helps to bring in someone that has done that in previous stops.

Dan Muse's Path From Prep School To The Pittsburgh Penguins

Despite being just 42, Muse has been a coach at some level for 20 years already. The Canton, Mass., native graduated from Stonehill College where he played at the NCAA Division III level.

He went straight into coaching, first with Milton Academy prep school. After two years there, he made the jump to college, as an assistant at Division III Williams College. After just one year there, he went to Division I Sacred Heart University where Muse spent one more year before getting a really big break – being named an assistant coach at Yale University under Keith Allain.

The Bulldogs won their first ever NCAA championship in 2013 with Muse’s fingerprints all over it. It was his fourth year at the school and Muse had quickly gained a reputation as a hard worker who was relentless in trying to make himself, his program and his players better.

When a program wins a championship, especially one like Yale which had an illustrious history with so few trophies to show for it, people notice.

That same year, Muse was named video coach for Team USA at the World Junior Championship. With a team led by Johnny Gaudreau, John Gibson and Seth Jones, Team USA won its first gold since 2010.

In 2015, Muse got his first head coaching job. The Chicago Steel brought him in and success soon followed. Muse was there for two seasons, winning the Clark Cup in 2017 – the first championship in the team’s 17-year history in the USHL. It was an especially dramatic turnaround for the team after missing the playoffs altogether in his first year.

The Clark Cup has been a rite of passage of several NHL head coaches. Among current head coaches, Jon Cooper, Jeff Blashill and Jim Montgomery have all won Clark Cups on their way to the NHL. Former Detroit Red Wings bench boss Derek Lalonde also won one.

Of those coaches, only Blashill also spent time as an NHL assistant coach prior to running an NHL bench. Muse will have that same experience.

Muse’s rapid ascent in the coaching world continued as he was hired by the Nashville Predators to be an assistant coach with Peter Laviolette, who himself came up as a player in the Division III NCAA ranks.

After three seasons in the NHL, USA Hockey came calling for Muse again. He was brought in to lead the U.S. National Under-18 Team at the National Team Development Program which featured future NHL star Luke Hughes, among others.

That first year was difficult, not just because of COVID-19 hampering the season, but injuries derailed the team. On home ice at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship, with six additions from the U17 Team just for injury replacements including Hughes, USA failed to medal for the first time at the tournament in 17 years. A young Rutger McGroarty, now one of the key prospects in Pittsburgh’s system, was one of those U17 players called up.

It was a bitterly disappointing moment, even if there were some clear disadvantages USA had to deal with at that tournament.

Two years later, however, Muse and Team USA got redemption as a team led by Leonard, Smith, Perreault, Trey Augustine, beat Sweden in overtime for the gold medal giving Muse his second overall championship in just five years as a head coach.

The following season, Laviolette called Muse to join him with the Rangers, where he was for the last two years. 

Will It Work?

There are very few coaches anywhere in the world that have had a coaching path quite like the one Muse has been on. But when you win enough, the opportunities come faster and more frequently. 

That said, Muse's head coaching experience has been limited to the junior level. Having the NHL assistant coaching experience is a huge plus, but now Muse faces one of the biggest coaching challenges in the NHL.

Sidney Crosby has said he wants to remain with the Penguins, which is great news for any coach. The hard part is trying to push the franchise in a more positive direction where there is bound to be frustration if the wins don’t come quickly. That's going to require giving more responsibility to younger players, even though they might not be the best options in the lineup relative to the veterans they have.

Kyle Dubas has been aggressive in his maneuvering as Penguins general manager. Not every move has been popular, but that’s kind of the way things are going to go there for a bit. Building a championship team again is going to take time.

Hiring Muse, who has a track record of helping players get better while not sacrificing winning, is a good idea to try. When you look at the path he has taken, there is no doubt work ethic is a big part of what got the Massachusetts native to this point.

Whether it works or not remains to be seen, but it is definitely an outside-the-box shot worth taking. 

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