The Penguins opened the 2025.26 preseason with a 2-1 shootout loss to Montreal at Bell Centre, with Tristan Broz scoring the lone goal for Pittsburgh. This is the lineup that Dan Muse and his staff put together:
Danton Heinen – Tristan Broz – Anthony Mantha
Rafael Harvey-Pinard – Tommy Novak – Valtteri Puustinen
Robby Fabbri – Joona Koppanen – Avery Hayes
Sam Poulin – Ben Kindel – Boko Imama
Ryan Graves – Connor Clifton
Ryan Shea – Matt Dumba
Owen Pickering – Harrison Brunicke
Joel Blomqvist
Sergei Murashov
Before training camp opened, Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas had this to say about the situation between the pipes, with five goalies on NHL contracts:
“They’ll start competing here today, and the best two goalies… with the way that they perform in camp and we deem is best for their development, but notably, the way they perform in camp and preseason… will determine who the two goalies are to start with the Penguins. Their contract situations, none of that matters.”
Dubas talked about how the two young goalies who split the net tonight have extremely high potential, and that was on display.
Blomqvist, who made his NHL debut last season after being named an AHL All-Star in 2023-24, was rock solid. The 2020 second-round pick stopped all 11 shots he faced in the first half of the game before Sergei Murashov took over. The 2022 fourth-round pick was a treat to watch with his talent and athleticism.
“You want hard decisions,” Muse said. “We want guys to be constantly taking advantage of opportunities. Both guys came over tonight and played really well.”