Sullivan agrees to four-year extension as coach of Penguins

Mike Sullivan agreed to a four-year contract extension as coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday.

The extension will run through the 2023-24 season.
"I'm so appreciative of Ron Burkle and Mario Lemieux, our ownership group, and (president) David Morehouse and (general manager) Jim Rutherford for showing the confidence in me to try to continue to lead this team," Sullivan said. "And so anytime that someone like myself has the opportunity to establish a little bit of stability with regard to my job, it's certainly a great help from my standpoint. I'm grateful for the opportunity that I've been given with this Pittsburgh Penguins organization. It really is a unique organization. I just think they do it right. It starts with the leadership of our ownership and it goes down from there."
Sullivan is 174-92-34 in four seasons with the Penguins, qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each season. The 51-year-old was hired on Dec. 12, 2015, to replace Mike Johnston, and coached the Penguins to a 33-16-5 record to finish the season before winning the first of consecutive Stanley Cup championships in 2016.

"Mike has done a great job delivering four 100-plus point seasons with our team," Rutherford said. "To win back-to-back Stanley Cups in this era speaks volumes of him as a coach. His instincts in managing the interworkings of our team both on and off the ice has been impressive."
Sullivan's 300 games coached and 174 wins each rank third in Pittsburgh history. He is 216 games behind Eddie Johnston and 78 wins behind Dan Bylsma for first place.
"Jim is a great communicator, so he's talked to me since the end of the season about this whole process," Sullivan said. "We both had a comfort level on where it was at. I know Jim has had conversations with my agent over the last couple of weeks, and ultimately it got done today. I was never in the dark or any of that sort of thing."
Sullivan, who coached the Boston Bruins for two seasons from 2003-06, is 244-148-57 with 15 ties in 464 NHL games and 41-31 in 72 playoff games.
"Mike has proven he is a tremendous leader for our team," Morehouse said. "Our trust in him as a coach has continued to grow since winning back-to-back Stanley Cups in his first two years. Mike has a championship mindset and he is the right guy for our team, the organization and the city of Pittsburgh."