While it was a long offseason for the Penguins organization, it was an even longer spring, summer and fall for Rutger McGroarty.
After beginning his rookie season in the NHL and spending much of his first year in the American Hockey League adapting to the pro game with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, McGroarty, 21, returned to Pittsburgh last spring before sustaining a lower body injury that ultimately ended his 2024-25 campaign prematurely.
Then, another setback for McGroarty, the 14 th overall selection in the 2022 NHL Draft, occurred over the summer as it was revealed he would be starting the season on the team’s injured list with an undisclosed upper body injury – resulting in the promising young forward missing the entirety of training camp and opening five weeks of the season.
McGroarty resumed skating in Pittsburgh and was seen on the ice prior to Penguins’ training camp practices in September, slowly ramping things up as he joined Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the end of October before returning to game action on November 15 against the Springfield Thunderbirds.
“I think overall, it was my first game in like seven and a half months, so I really wanted to focus on the little details,” McGroarty said after his first game action since April 8. “The first period, I don’t want to say it was kind of a feeling out process, but it’s kind of just getting back into the flow with things. Just making little plays to gain confidence.”
There was a bit of a scare in the first period after McGroarty took a puck to his chin and left the game, but when he returned for the start of the second period he accepted a pass in the neutral zone with speed and skated hard to the net before a smooth resulted in his first goal in his first game back.
“I mean, he played great, especially for the first game (back),” Penguins head coach Kirk MacDonald said of McGroarty’s play last weekend. “He could have easily popped a few more goals, but for not having any training camp – everybody else is two, three months into the season – to jump in there the way he did. I thought he was outstanding.”
The experience of a long injury absence really resonated with McGroarty as he went through the rehabilitation process with the Penguins’ training staff, noting everyone’s engagement from family and friends to his Penguins’ teammates always checking in with him to see how he was doing.
“I feel like I wasn’t as behind the eight ball as a lot of people could be. I think that they did a really good job, and they had a great plan. I mean, kudos to them,” McGroarty said, thankful for all the help from various training staff members and doctors helping him on his road to recovery. “I think that they are extremely smart, and there’s a reason why they’re in the position that they’re in. They handled everything incredibly, so I’m super grateful to those guys how they handled it.”
Now that he’s back on the ice and playing in games again, it’s about getting back to what was making him successful with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last season while also working on other areas of his game to take his play to another level in his second year of pro hockey.
McGroarty noted that when he was skating in Pittsburgh this fall, he did a lot of work on getting shots off and getting shots through during 1-on-1 rushes into the offensive zone — a part of his game he said he was disappointed with last season.
“I just feel like you have to grow where you’re planted,” McGroarty explained when asked about how he’s going to go about making up for lost time. “I feel like I’m here in Wilkes-Barre with this group of guys, and we’re winning. It’s a lot of fun when you’re winning. So, just continue to grow my game and focus on the little details.”
“I feel like with this injury, I’ve learned so much about myself and the people that I’ve surrounded myself with, and it’s pretty cool.”