The Pittsburgh Penguins have named Vukie Mpofu as the Director of Hockey Operations and Legal Affairs, per Kyle Dubas.
He will be advising and assisting the Hockey Operations Department with player contract negotiations and ensuring that everything complies with the collective bargaining agreement and salary cap. He will also report to Dubas and will have an active leading role in the Pens Hockey Research and Development Department.
He has spent the past two seasons in the same role for the Los Angeles Kings. He helped with player and staff contract negotiations for the Kings and their AHL affiliate, the Ontario Reign, as well as managing the Kings’ analytics staff. The Kings were 91-52-21 while he was in LA.
Before he joined LA, he was the Vegas Golden Knights Hockey Legal Affairs Intern, as well as working for Wasserman, a major sports and talent management group, as their Legal Intern. He was also the UCLA Athletics NCAA Compliance Extern in 2019-20.
He is a native of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a BA in political science. He also received his Juris Doctor at the UCLA School of Law in 2020-21.
He also played with the Red Deer Rebels from 2012 to 2014, putting up nine goals and 15 points in 69 career games.
