We have been waiting for quite a while for head coach Joel Quenneville to announce his coaching staff. That day is now here as Mike Kitchen, Andrew Brunette, and Derek Mackenzie will join already announced goaltender coach Rob Tallas on Coach Q’s staff for next season.

Mike Kitchen has been assumed to be returning since Q was announced as the Panthers coach on April 8th, 2019. He will almost certainly coach the defense and penalty kill. Kitchen returns for his second stint with the Panthers as he was an assistant coach from 2007-2010.

Andrew Brunette has spent his post-NHL career in various off ice roles, but this will be his first Assistant Coach position. He’s been linked to the Panthers for a while now. He holds the pretty cool achievement of being the last player to ever score on Hall of Fame Goaltender Patrick Roy. I would assume he will be in charge of the Power Play.

Mackenzie is the surprise here in my opinion. His NHL career ended on opening day last season with a shoulder injury and he spent the rest of the season as an unofficial coach. The organization must have really liked what they saw because I don’t know of any connection between him and coach Q. I would assume he will be working with forwards and defensive zone work.

Rob Tallas has been the goaltender coach for the Panthers for the past 10 seasons and as we already knew, will continue in that role. It’s obvious that Roberto Luongo loves working with him and that is usually what keeps goalie coaches around long term.

We will update this story with more details when it becomes available.

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