By JASON MACKEY

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

PITTSBURGH (TNS) — The search for a head coach has been exactly what Kyle Dubas promised: thorough and methodical, an exhaustive and indiscriminate consideration of styles, personalities and backgrounds.

How ironic, though: The best candidate isn’t hard to find, nor does he have an atypical resume for what the Penguins president of hockey operations covets. He works four hours away, for a division rival, and has followed a path Dubas knows well. In fact, it’s one he has helped spur.

As the search enters the finishing stretch — Dubas wants to have someone in place by June — I find myself most intrigued by Washington Capitals assistant coach Mitch Love, who checks every box the Penguins should want: — He’s an accomplished minor league coach, having twice (2021-22 and ’22-23) won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award for the American Hockey League’s Coach of the Year.

— Love for the past two seasons has worked alongside head coach Spencer Carbery with the Capitals, where he should’ve seen what it takes to extend a window around an older star: rebuilding on the fly, integrating and trusting younger players and adjusting roles to get more out of players.

— A former enforcer, you’d think Love would insist on more team toughness, which the Penguins have certainly lacked, along with a greater dedication to defense. The latter has been another hallmark of Love’s teams.

I know Dubas’ search is ongoing. Jay Leach, Jay Woodcroft and D.J. Smith are names who’ve surfaced, and I’d imagine David Quinn will get a long look, as well. My feelings aren’t meant to diminish any of them.

But the more I read and learn about Love, the more I like him and believe he’s exactly what this team needs right now.

“We’re looking to hire a great head coach,” Dubas said last month. “Someone who can come in and continue to partner with us on all that we’re undertaking and understands that the job ahead is going to be a time of transition.

“It’s going to be continuing to maximize the prime or the end of careers of some of the players that we have, and it’s going to be expeditiously developing some of the young players that have already come onto the roster or are about to come onto the roster. [The new coach] must make tweaks and changes around the system and the way that we integrate players, putting their own stamp on the organization.”

It’s what Carbery did in Washington following a successful junior and minor league coaching career, Dubas hiring Carbery as a Maple Leads assistant in 2021.

After two seasons in Toronto, the Capitals tabbed Carbery for the head job, the 43-year-old leading Washington to the best record in the Eastern Conference this past season and putting himself in prime

Bennett/Getty Images/TNS position to win the Jack Adams Award.

Dubas should look at Love as Carbery 2.0, a coach who can get players to buy in and help the Penguins form a more well-rounded identity, something they admittedly lacked during the final years of Mike Sullivan’s tenure.

Love has done it before.

While his playing career was defined by physicality — he averaged 3.4 penalty minutes per game played and fought 40 times with the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League in 2002-03, resulting in 327 penalty minutes — Love’s coaching path has featured plenty of responsible hockey.

Love never made the NHL and kicked around the minors until 2011. After retiring, he immediately became an assistant coach with the Everett Silvertips in the WHL. He remained there cutting his teeth until 2018-19, when he became head coach of the Saskatoon Blades (WHL) and led a 24-point improvement, snapping a five-year playoff drought.

Following three years there, Love bumped up to the AHL, where he became the top minor league coach in Calgary’s system. Same deal. The Stockton Heat improved by 29 points over their previous full season (interrupted by COVID), finishing with the AHL’s second-best record and reaching the semifinals.

In 2022-23, Love’s team had the AHL’s best record and the ninth-best regular season in league history. He was again honored as coach of the year, prompting the Capitals to hire him as an assistant.

Sensing a pattern?

Wherever Love has gone, there’s been quick improvement. And often it has been due to defense or more of a commitment to playing the right way, an area where the Penguins have lacked.

I’m not saying Love will turn the Penguins into the trapping Devils or anything crazy. But as far as available resumes go, I’m certainly intrigued by two AHL squads that ranked first and second in goals-against per game, along with a Capitals group that played a far more responsible style than the Penguins.

“He’s accomplished a lot in a short amount of time as a young head coach in Calgary’s organization,” Carbery told NBC Washington after the Capitals hired Love in June 2023. “But there are a couple things that stood out to me.

“One was his tremendous work ethic. Two was his ability to communicate and his ability to get his messages across. As a head coach, that’s essentially what you’re doing on a daily basis — collectively and individually — and he’s had a lot of success with that. You could tell not only from talking to him but talking to players who have played for him and coaches who have coached with him that he has the ability to communicate.”

It’s a very good match, honestly.

For what Love couldn’t help but learn in Washington.

For his ability to relate to and lead young players.

To bring a clear — but new — message.

And also to hopefully out-perform expectations while not being afraid to tell veteran players what they need to hear instead of what they might want to hear.

Mike Johnston knew a ton about hockey but never truly got through to the Penguins stars. Sullivan did that and obviously doesn’t lack for knowledge when it comes to the Xs and Os. Time had simply run its course.

Now, it’s time for the Penguins to chart a new path, to tweak their team game, make better use of younger players and afford someone an opportunity to make their own mark, as Dubas said.

The search isn’t over. Dubas wants to close with in-person interviews by the end of the month. But I’m very much intrigued by the guy who works for the division rival. Mitch Love could really benefit the Penguins.