As the Penguins are closing in on hiring a new General Manager, (announcement could come as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday) what continues to be a moving target is whether the team hires a President of Hockey Operations in that same time frame or if they hire one at all. The Penguins over the last couple weeks have leaned into the direction of going the President of Hockey Ops / General Manager Combo but word this week continues to be that the team is not 100% locked into going that route. Certain individuals though have been interviewed for this role and vice-versa for the GM role. Everybody was not interviewing for the same position and if the Penguins do indeed go the Pres/GM route, there is said to be some combinations weighted over others.

— Some New Developments —

Is he in or is he out? There continues to be mystery surrounding Jason Botterill’s Candidacy. Botterill did not actively seek out this job and Seattle had blocked permission while they were still playing. Pittsburgh, though, from the start had targeted Botterill for the top hockey operations role. Pittsburgh over the last week had been pushing for an interview and the Penguins late this week finally had a face-to-face meeting with Botterill that took place Thursday afternoon and into Friday morning. The sense on Botterill is coming into this meeting is Pittsburgh had to be the one’s selling Botterill on taking over the hockey ops than Botterill To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!

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