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Former ECHL Player Bylsma
Named Interim Penguins Coach

February 16, 2009

PITTSBURGH - The Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League announced on Sunday that they have named former ECHL player Dan Bylsma as interim head coach.

The 38 year old will coach his first game for Pittsburgh on the road on Monday against the New York Islanders, who are coached by former ECHL player and coach Scott Gordon.

The Wheeling Nailers are the ECHL affiliate of Pittsburgh of the NHL and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. There have been 396 former ECHL players who have played in NHL including 41 who have made their debut this season and 140 in the last four years.

Former ECHL coaches working as head coaches in the NHL are Gordon and Bruce Boudreau of the Washington Capitals. Boudreau, who coached Mississippi for three seasons winning the Kelly Cup championship in 1999, was named NHL Coach of the Year in 2007-08 becoming the first former ECHL coach to receive the award. Peter Laviolette, who began his coaching career with the Wheeling Nailers, led Carolina Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup in 2006.

Bylsma has been head coach of Wilkes-Barre Scranton in the American Hockey League which is 35-16-1-2 including an active eight-game winning streak. The Penguins said that they would announce further plans for the Wilkes-Barre/Scarnton staff, which includes former ECHL player Todd Reirden as an assistant coach, on Tuesday.

Bylsma began his professional career with Greensboro in the ECHL and had 60 points (25g-35a) in 60 games as a rookie in 1992-93 and 30 points (14g-16a) in 25 games in 1993-94. Selected in the sixth round (109th overall) by the Winnipeg Jets in the 1989 NHL Entry Draft, Bylsma played nine seasons in the NHL with Anaheim and Los Angeles and had 62 points (19g-43a) in 429 career NHL games.

He began his coaching career as an assistant coach with Cincinnati in the AHL in 2004-05 and the following season worked as an assistant coach for the New York Islanders of the NHL before joining Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as an assistant coach in 2006-07.

Reirden played in the ECHL each of his first two professional seasons and had 60 points (9g-51a) and 145 penalty minutes in 91 regular season games and nine points (2g-7a) and 14 penalty minutes in 14 postseason games for Jacksonville, Raleigh and Tallahassee from 1994-96. He played five seasons in the NHL from 1998-2004 and had 46 points (11g-35a) and 181 penalty minutes in 183 regular season games with Atlanta, Edmonton, Phoenix and St. Louis and one assist in five Stanley Cup Playoff games with St. Louis.

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