The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have announced J.D. Forrest as their 12th Head Coach in franchise history.
Forrest replaces Mike Vellucci who was promoted to the Pittsburgh Penguins after just one season at the helm of their AHL affiliate.

The new Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins Head Coach enjoyed a varied career that didn’t include the NHL despite being selected 181st overall by the Carolina Hurricanes in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft.

Forrest played four years with Boston College winning the NCAA Championship in 2001 and would go on to spend some considerable time in Europe turning out for SaiPa Lappeenranta,
Ässät Pori, Elmira Jackals, Kärpät Oulu, Jokerit Helsinki, Kloten Flyers, Malmö Redhawks and Augsburger Panthers.

He played 35 AHL games (Albany River Rats and Worcester Sharks) and a further fourteen in the ECHL for Florida Everblades before retiring in 2014.

Having decided to turn his hand to coaching, Forrest was indebted to head coach of the U.S. National Team Development Program, Don Granato, who reached out and offered him an opportunity to join his staff there.

Appointed as an intern assistant coach, Forrest got to work with a group that included Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy and Clayton Keller.

He went on to serve as head coach of the Red Bull Salzburg’s farm team in Austria the following season before taking on his first professional role as an assistant coach with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in 2016.

Having made such a strong impression in his four seasons as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton assistant coach that other teams were starting to take notice and rightly so. The list of former WBS coaches who have gone on to coach in the NHL is extensive.

With his familiarity with the organisation, the prospects and the style of hockey they want to play and keeping him in in the organisation, it was a no-brainer for the organisation to promote the former defenseman to the role vacated by Mike Vellucci.

The 39-year-old worked primarily with the defensive group and penalty kill during his time as an assistant coach and is looking forward to his next challenge.

“I’m really excited,” Forrest said. “These are difficult jobs to get. I want to thank the Penguins organisation for having faith in me and giving me the opportunity to coach down here in Wilkes-Barre. It’s a great deal.

“We get a lot of important prospects, a lot of important players, and there’s a long tradition of that pipeline from Wilkes-Barre to Pittsburgh. My job is to keep that going. So I can’t wait to get started. I know most of the players and we’ve got a fantastic team. Whenever that time comes, I’m ready to get going.”


Two other notes regarding the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

Jason Karmanos has been appointed as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins General Manager.
The 46-year-old has served as Pittsburgh’s assistant general manager since 2017 after initially joining the Penguins’ front office as VP of hockey operations in 2014. As assistant general manager of Pittsburgh, Karmanos oversees the team’s amateur scouting and player development staffs while assisting general manager Jim Rutherford in all aspects of hockey operations. As part of his new role, Karmanos will oversee all player personnel decisions with WBS, and directly oversee the team’s coaching staff.

The Penguins did not renew the contract of assistant coach Jarrod Skalde after two seasons with the organisation. The Penguins will not make any additional decisions regarding the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coaching staff until closer to the start of the AHL season.