By MATT VENSEL

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

(TNS) —Kyle Dubas’ deliberate search to select the Penguins’ next head coach is entering its final stages. In-person interviews are expected to wrap up in the coming days, and Dubas is on track to name a coach by his stated target timeline of early June.

Mitch Love and Jay Woodcroft are believed to still be in the mix for the position. Sportsnet in Canada reported D.J. Smith could be a finalist. Other candidates may remain in it, as well. It is unclear if Penguins assistant David Quinn is one of them.

Among those four people, only Mitch Love hasn’t been an NHL coach previously.

Each of Love, Woodcroft and Quinn has been linked to at least one of the two other open head coach positions around the NHL. Seattle and Boston are those teams.

Love, 40, quickly shot up the coaching ladder after a roughand- tumble pro playing career. He started as a strength coach with the Everett Silvertips of the Western Hockey League and within a handful of years, he was named the American Hockey League’s top coach. He was an NHL assistant in Washington for the last two seasons.

Woodcroft, 48, is a second- chance candidate who has reportedly interviewed for a few openings in this coaching cycle. He coached only 133 regular season games with Edmonton and won a pair of playoff series before the Oilers fired him in the middle of last season. Dubas and he have a relationship through Hockey Canada.

Smith, 48, got his start in the Ontario Hockey League, just like Dubas. Dubas was in the Toronto front office when the Maple Leafs hired Smith as an assistant. Smith went on to be head coach in Ottawa from 2019-23 but was unable to get that young club to the postseason. Last season, Smith was an assistant in Los Angeles.

Quinn, 58, was a head coach in New York and San Jose before joining the Penguins as an assistant last season. Quinn is a good friend and former college teammate of Mike Sullivan, who was dismissed in late April after a decade here in Pittsburgh.

Speaking of Sullivan, the two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach has rented billboards in the Pittsburgh area thanking Penguins fans for everything over the years.

It is possible other candidates could still be in the running to replace Sullivan on the bench. Dubas and the organization have been tight-lipped throughout the process, which has unfolded slowly in part because Dubas spent a couple of weeks in Europe serving as Canada’s general manager at the IIHF World Championship.

In other news, Penguins assistant coach Mike Vellucci, who spent the previous six seasons in the organization, may soon join the Chicago Blackhawks as an assistant, per reports. Vellucci has been in limbo with the Penguins since they fired Sullivan. Dubas gave Vellucci and two other assistants with expiring contracts permission to seek other opportunities. Andy Chiodo and Ty Hennes have yet to head elsewhere.

Last month, Dubas said once the Penguins picked a head coach, any free agent assistants would get the opportunity to interview to remain in their current roles. In the case of Chiodo, the goalie coach has interest in continuing on in Pittsburgh.

Other teams have eyed Vellucci over the years.

The veteran coach has had several interviews for NHL head coach positions in recent years, then garnered interest as an assistant this spring once Dubas gave him the green light to explore his options.

Fresh off serving as an assistant for the U.S. team that scored gold at the IIHF World Championship, Vellucci may be joining the staff of new Chicago coach Jeff Blashill.

Vellucci joined the Pittsburgh organization in 2019, just two weeks after he led the Charlotte Checkers to the Calder Cup. In a lateral move, he became head coach for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. A year later, Vellucci was named an assistant coach in Pittsburgh. He served under Sullivan for five seasons.

The only assistant coach the Penguins have under contract at the moment is Quinn.