Penguins to not renew contracts of AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coaching staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - On Saturday morning the Pittsburgh Penguins announced they will not be renewing the contracts of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Head Coach J.D. Forrest and assistant coach Kevin Porter.

"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 premier developer of players and staff that can help the Pittsburgh Penguins win Stanley Cups."

The Baby Penguins were recently swept in their opening round, best-of-three Calder Cup Playoffs series against the Philadelphia Flyers AHL affiliate Lehigh Valley Phantoms two games to none.

This past season, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton finished third in the AHL's Atlantic Division with a 39-24-8-1 record.

Penguins Assistant General Manager Jason Spezza will lead the search for a new AHL head coach.