PITTSBURGH — One arrives with a wealth of experience at various levels. The other retired as a player and announced his new gig via the same video last week.

There are plenty of differences between new Penguins assistant coaches Todd Nelson and Nick Bonino, but that’s also part of what I love about head coach Dan Muse’s first hires.

They’re smart, somewhat outside the box and devoid of ego. They’ve also earned promotions and opportunities as one of the best coaches in American Hockey League history and a fan favorite from the Penguins’ most recent Stanley Cup-winning teams, a gritty player who needs no introduction here.

The ultimate tie that binds Nelson and Bonino: winning.

“Todd brings a championship pedigree and winning history that speaks for itself,” Muse said.

Added Muse on Bonino: “Nick’s understanding of what it takes to win at the NHL level is unmatched.”

It’s a pipe dream to think winning will be the ultimate priority for the Penguins in 2025-26. It would certainly be fun for them to surprise the way the Washington Capitals have done, but the likelihood of that happening appears small.

However, it’s never too early to start building a positive culture, especially with younger players.

That’s something Nelson has done exceptionally well for a long time, most recently with the Hershey Bears in Washington’s system.

In three seasons, Nelson won the Calder Cup twice and in 2024 earned the Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award for the league’s coach of the year.

Those Bears teams won nine consecutive playoff series, along with 76% of their regular season games, as Nelson garnered praise for his tight bond with players.

In fun ways, this resulted in hosting them for team cookouts and joining in the group’s bear imitation celebration after goals. More important, though, was demonstrating a consistent ability to help younger guys improve and for everyone to win together.

Prior to Hershey, Nelson was head coach with Grand Rapids (2015-18) and Oklahoma City (2010-15) and won in both places. He’s one of just six coaches in AHL history with three league championships on his resume.

Reading more on Nelson, I loved what he said in late May after his team was eliminated in the second round of the postseason:

“Our coaching philosophy as a group — and me personally — is to have the guys wanting to come to the rink every day and be a part of a family atmosphere, coming here to work hard and make themselves better,” Nelson said.

“But you have to do it in a fun environment. I want them to jump out of bed and say, ‘I want to get to practice and see the boys, the coaches and make myself better.’ ”

It’s the NHL, not the Mighty Ducks. Nelson doesn’t need to whip District 5 into shape or cheerlead from the bench alongside with Muse and whoever else.

But he does need to see the game in a similar way to Muse, and I don’t hate that. This actually feels a little bit like Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery and one of his assistants the Penguins interviewed in Mitch Love.

It’s also what the Penguins need to do.

Along with maximizing the performance of veterans, roster and stylistic tweaks are required. The same for convincing a group of younger players they can improve and compete, ignoring outside belief or perceptions.

Bonino knows those things well. He was one of my favorite Penguins to cover on those back-to-back Cup teams because of his toughness, ability to step up in big moments and his personality.

On the ice, Bonino was tough as nails and once played with a broken tibia, chipping in eight goals and 25 points in 45 playoff games during those Cup runs. Away from the game, Bonino was low-key, funny and well liked.

I remember one time Bonino starting a heated debate on whether you button a dress shirt starting at the bottom or top — silly on the surface but a mood lightener during the dog days of a season.

“He’s a guy who was a fairly big presence in this locker room,” Bryan Rust told me a few years back. “He’s a guy everyone liked and enjoyed being around.”

Certainly Muse, who was an assistant coach on that Presidents’ Trophy-winning Predators team, knows that.

Muse saw Bonino kill penalties and add scoring punch to the bottom six, though the Connecticut native and Boston University product will face a different set of tasks in his new role.

That might be overseeing the penalty kill. It could also be translating for Muse or younger players what it’s like here when the Penguins win, what’s possible with swift development and how to disregard outside expectations.

Bonino was a sixth-round pick in 2007, not exactly high-priority territory. Yet he evolved and thrived by continuing to grow his game, the type of thing many Penguins prospects must accomplish.

When you also consider Rich Clune, a third assistant who spent this past season with the Ducks, the Penguins added four Calder Cup championships (2017, ’18, ’23 and ’24) to their bench, along with a pair of Stanley Cup victories (2016, ’17).

Hard to see how that’s a bad thing.

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