Mike Sullivan has coached a style based on speed and skill during his five-plus seasons with the Penguins.
The franchise's new GM and president of hockey operations, Ron Hextall and Brian Burke, have made it known that they would like to add some size to the mix.
How well those qualities can blended next season is hard to say, but Sullivan sounds as if he wouldn't flatly reject the idea of adding some bigger players to his lineup.
"There's always an evolution of the roster," he said Friday. "As a coaching staff, what we try to do is put together a game plan that gives the group of players the best chance to win. Based on the group of players that we have here in Pittsburgh, the game plan that this coaching staff has implemented is based on that very thing.
"The other aspect of it is just the evolution of the game itself, where the game is going. ... The roster can evolve, and so can styles of play to make sure that we're putting together a game plan that allows us to play to our strengths. That's the question that we ultimately try to answer as a coaching staff."
Because the Penguins have lost four consecutive playoff series and haven't made it past Round 1 since 2018, there has been speculation outside the organization about whether Sullivan's job is in jeopardy. Only his bosses know whether a coaching change will get even cursory consideration, of course, but Sullivan offered a fairly candid assessment of his performance in 2020-21.
"Ultimately, you get judged on your success, so I think our performance in the regular season ... I would have to think that it would be acceptable that we won our division," he said. "But having said that, we have higher expectations in Pittsburgh. We have higher expectations inside our room, and we didn't ultimately live up to that. We all have to take ownership for it."
That presumably includes first-year assistants Todd Reirden and Mike Vellucci, along with goalie coach Mike Buckley, although Sullivan said their futures haven't come up in any conversations since the Penguins' season-ending loss on Long Island Wednesday.
"I haven't considered anything at this point," he said. "The season just got over."
Sullivan confirmed that Evgeni Malkin had a knee injury that forced him to sit out the first two games against the Islanders, and said he "fought really hard to get back into our lineup" during that series.
"He was not 100 percent," Sullivan said. "I think I'm probably stating the obvious when I say that."
Backup goalie Casey DeSmith, meanwhile, sat out the New York series because of what Sullivan described as a "soft-tissue groin injury."
DeSmith's absence became a front-burner issue when Tristan Jarry, the starter, struggled with glove-side shots in Game 1, made a game-ending puck-handling blunder in Game 5 and had a miserable showing in the series finale.
Sullivan declined to discuss the particulars of his exit interview with Jarry -- "I'm not prepared to share the details of our discussion" -- but said they talked about "his development as a player" and "some of the positive things and the progress that's made in areas where we think he can improve."
That, he added, is the same basic discussion the coaches have with all players in exit interviews.
Sullivan never criticized Jarry, at least publicly, and professed to be pleased, in general, with how the Penguins performed during Round 1.
"I thought our team competed extremely hard in the playoffs, and for the most part, played a lot of really good hockey in the playoffs," he said. "It was unfortunate that we didn't get the result, but I think the takeaway is that it's hard to win in this league."
The Penguins were able to do that often enough during the regular season to finish first in the East Division, a feat Sullivan said underscored the quality of their work.
"I thought the team took some great strides this year to become the team that we were going into the postseason," he said. "The fact that we won our division, I think, is suggestive of that. This group played a lot of really good hockey. Obviously, we fell short of our ultimate goal, and that's disappointing from all of our standpoints.
"It's unfortunate that we didn't meet our ultimate goal, but I thought that for the most part, it was a pretty productive season to get to the point where we got to, to contend for the Stanley Cup."
