The Pittsburgh Penguins will not renew the contracts of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Head Coach J.D. Forrest as well as WBS Assistant Coach Kevin Porter, the club announced this morning.
“Today’s decisions were not easy and we are grateful to J.D. and Kevin for their dedication and hard work over the past eight and four years, respectively. Both are good coaches and most importantly, excellent people,” said Penguins Assistant General Manager Jason Spezza. “These decisions come after taking the season to fully evaluate our minor league and development systems.
“As we enter into an era where each of those systems operating at an elite level becomes paramount to the future of our entire program, we felt it would be best to take this time to make the changes that our management team deems important to reaching our goal of having Wilkes-Barre become the premiere developer of players and staff that can help the Pittsburgh Penguins win Stanley Cups.”
Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was eliminated on Friday in the first round of the Calder Cup Playoffs. The search for a new Head Coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton will begin immediately and will be led by Spezza. Additional changes to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton staff will be announced when a new Head Coach is named.
