PITTSBURGH — Marc Savard is probably best remembered by Pittsburgh Penguins fans for the unfortunate events of March 7, 2010, when Matt Cooke drove his shoulder into Savard's head, the ugly sequence concussing Savard and essentially ending his career.

Here's hoping we'll soon identify Savard with something a little more positive around these parts: fixing the Penguins power play.

OK, not directly, as the Maple Leafs announced on Sunday that they've hired Savard as an assistant coach on Craig Berube's staff. Not even the Columbus Blue Jackets cycle through coaches that quickly.

But what Toronto did makes a lot of sense — and it could be replicated in Pittsburgh, with one person, perhaps a former player, taking ownership of this particular group.

Before a run of head coaching success in the Ontario Hockey League, Savard ran the Blues power play for Berube in 2019-20 ... and St. Louis finished third in the NHL at 24.3%.

Making a hire specifically for the power play is something I hope the Penguins consider after moving on from Todd Reirden earlier this offseason.

"We have to get the power play to the point where it's functioning at a high level," president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas said back in April.

"It's a collective situation that we need to get much, much better at. It was obviously costly."

The Penguins finished this past season 30th in the NHL at 15.3%, a frustrating number considering the presence of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang for a full season, plus Jake Guentzel for 50 games.

When they announced the addition of Mike Sullivan doppelganger David Quinn earlier this month, the Penguins curiously specified the former Rangers and Sharks head coach would work with the defense — but said nothing about the power play.

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