Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Muse named finalist for Jack Adams Award

Pittsburgh Penguins Head Coach Dan Muse has been named a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, the NHL announced Friday.

The Jack Adams Award is presented annually to the coach adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success. The winner will be named toward the conclusion of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Muse led the Penguins to a 41-25-16 record and 98 points in the 2025-26 season, guiding the team to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the 2021-22 campaign.

Muse’s 41 wins tied for the third-most by a first-year coach in Penguins franchise history. His 98 points also tied a franchise record for most points accumulated by a coach in their inaugural year.

Under Muse’s guidance, the Penguins saw year-over-year improvement from the 2024-25 season in almost every major team statistical category. The team finished the regular season with 290 goals, ranking third in the NHL.

This marked the most goals scored by Pittsburgh during Sidney Crosby’s tenure with the club, which began in 2005. It was also the most goals the team has scored in a single season in 30 years, since the 1995-96 season when they scored 362.

Muse is the third coach in franchise history to be named a Jack Adams Award finalist. Dan Bylsma was a finalist in the 2010-11 season and Michel Therrien in the 2006-07 season.

Should Muse win the award, he would join Bylsma as the only coaches to achieve this honor in franchise history. He would also become the 10th head coach in NHL history to win the Jack Adams Award in his first year coaching. Buffalo’s Lindy Ruff and Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper are the other two finalists for the award.

The Jack Adams Award was first presented in the 1973-74 season.

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