The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins have hired Kevin Porter as an assistant coach. Porter joins head coach J.D. Forrest behind the bench for the upcoming 2020-21 American Hockey League season.
Porter, 34, is entering his first season as a coach after a 12-year career in pro hockey. Porter played 249 NHL games and 528 AHL games over those 12 years, including 85 contests with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from 2015-17. Porter was part of the Kilpatrick Trophy-winning Penguins squad as the league’s regular-season champions in 2016-17, a season in which he set a career-best with 46 points. He also played 43 games for the Pittsburgh Penguins from 2015-17 and had his name engraved on the Stanley Cup after Pittsburgh’s championship win in 2016.
Porter totaled 129 goals and 225 assists for 354 points in his 528 AHL games with San Antonio, Lake Erie, Rochester, Grand Rapids and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. He spent the last three seasons in Rochester, serving as team captain.
Playing for Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Colorado in the NHL, Porter collected 29 goals and 29 assists for 58 points.
A fourth-round draft pick by the Phoenix Coyotes in 2004, Porter played four seasons at the University of Michigan and won the Hobey Baker Award in 2008.
Porter had spent the last several months as a volunteer assistant with USA Hockey, working with the National Team Development Program’s under-18 team.
