The Penguins on Wednesday announced they have hired Marty Lauzon as director of high performance. Lauzon will oversee their efforts in strength and conditioning, nutrition, mental fitness, injury prevention and injury rehabilitation.
Lauzon replaces Teena Murray, albeit under a different job title. Murray lasted just one year with the Penguins. She was dismissed by the team in June.
Lauzon, a Quebec native, has more than 25 years of experience in professional and collegiate sports. Starting in 1999, he spent 21 years working in the NFL, first with Cleveland then Atlanta. The last two years, he served as director of athletic performance and sports medicine for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks.
The Penguins say he will “work in concert” with head team physician Dr. Dharmesh Vyas and will report to president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas.
Lauzon is the latest front office addition made by Dubas, who in his first offseason as president has parted ways with several higher-profile hockey operations staffers brought in by the previous regime of Ron Hextall and Brian Burke.
This is an important role for the Penguins, especially given the age of star players Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and now Erik Karlsson. Tristan Jarry’s recent injury woes are also something Lauzon must turn around.
Relatively speaking, the Penguins actually had pretty good injury luck last season. Pittsburgh was in the bottom half of the league in total man games lost. And for the first time ever, Crosby and Malkin both played all 82 games.
Still, the Penguins moved on swiftly from Murray once Dubas was hired. They now will count Lauzon to keep their players healthy and in peak condition.
Matt Vensel: mvensel@post-gazette.com and Twitter @mattvensel.
First Published: August 9, 2023, 3:13 p.m.
Updated: August 9, 2023, 5:18 p.m.
