Kostopoulos, Chiodo added to Penguins’ staff

The Pittsburgh Penguins announced today that former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton players Tom Kostopoulos and Andy Chiodo have been hired to player development roles within the organization.

Kostopoulos was named player development coach, and Chiodo was named goaltending development coach.

Both Kostopoulos and Chiodo will work closely with Penguins’ director of player development Scott Young and player development coach Jarrod Skalde.

Kostopoulos, 39, and Chiodo, 35, rank among the most popular players in the history of the Wilkes-Barre/ Scranton Penguins.

A native of Mississauga, Ont., Kostopoulos retired in April after a 19-year professional career than included a combined 1,468 NHL and AHL regular-season and playoff games. He is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s all-time leader in games played (658), goals (187), assists (282) and points (469), and he is one of only four players in hockey history to have logged 600 games at both the NHL and AHL levels. Kostopoulos served as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s captain for the final five seasons of his career.

Chiodo, a Toronto native, helped the Penguins to an improbable run to the Calder Cup Finals in 2004. He posted a 2.18 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage that postseason, and won two Game 7’s on the road, both in overtime (at Bridgeport, at Hartford).

Chiodo played 92 AHL games in his career, 72 with the Penguins from 2003-06.

Chiodo last played in 2016-17, for HC Innsbruck in Austria. He spent the 2017-18 season as the goaltending coach for the Ottawa 67’s of the Ontario Hockey League.