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Pens hire Spezza as assistant GM

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins hired two-time NHL All-Star Jason Spezza as assistant general manager. President of hockey operations Kyle Dubas announced the move on Wednesday. Spezza spent the 2022-23 season working as a special assistant to Dubas when Dubas served as the general manager in Toronto. The 40-year-old Spezza scored 363 goals during a 19-year NHL career with Ottawa, Dallas and Toronto. He retired in May 2022 and immediately went to work for Dubas. Spezza’s role in Toronto included working inside several departments with the Maples Leafs, including player ...

Pittsburgh icon Savran dies at 76

By Neil Rudel nrudel@altoonamirror.com Stan Savran, a Pittsburgh broadcasting icon who emceed the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame induction banquet since its inception, has died. He was 76. Savran’s death Monday evening follows a series of health issues that included lung cancer in 2022 ...

Pens hire ex-Leafs GM as president

The Associated Press PITTSBURGH — Kyle Dubas wanted to take a breath and take a break after being fired as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Then the Pittsburgh Penguins called. The break ended shortly thereafter. Dubas joined the Penguins as the team’s president of hockey operations on Thursday, less than two weeks after a somewhat ugly exit from Toronto following a second-round playoff loss to Florida. The 37-year-old Dubas goes from one type of hockey crucible to another. In Toronto, he was tasked with helping the Maple Leafs emerge from two decades of ...

Penguins fire Hextall, exec Burke

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins asked Ron Hextall and Brian Burke to thread an impossibly thin needle when they were hired in February 2021. Hextall, the general manager, and Burke, the director of hockey operations, were asked to find a way to prop open the championship window for stars Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang without sacrificing the club’s long-term future. After a little over two sometimes turbulent years that produced a significant lack of progress on either front, Hextall and Burke are out of a job. The team fired Hextall, Burke and assistant ...

Pens reach land-use accord with historic Black church

By Peter Smith The Associated Press PITTSBURGH — More than 60 years ago, a historic Black church was forced to give up its sanctuary, compensated for what it says was a fraction of its value, to an urban renewal project that wiped out the heart of an African American neighborhood known ...

Season ends with another ‘L’ for Penguins

By Nicole Kraft The Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio — Johnny Gaudreau scored a minute into overtime and the Columbus Blue Jackets rallied to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 3-2 Thursday night, snapping a four-game losing streak. Gaudreau scored his 14th overtime goal and the Blue Jackets moved ahead of Chicago and Anaheim for the worst record in the NHL. Columbus has one game remaining. Andrew Peeke and Emil Bemstrom also scored for Columbus. Michael Hutchinson stopped 34 shots. “I think everyone played great, and we did a good job, team-wise, of winning their chances,” ...