{"id":295658,"date":"2026-09-28T17:02:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295658\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T17:02:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T17:02:09","slug":"penguins-room-how-bad-luck-could-create-change-inside-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/295658\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins Room: How Bad Luck Could Create Change; Inside Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 overflowing<\/a> depth quickly became just enough as an extraordinary run of bad luck and injuries depleted their lineup in the final days of preseason. Ben Kindel is out with a lower-body injury, while Bryan Rust is out with an upper-body injury that went unnoticed until he left the final preseason game Saturday, and even Ryan Graves is on injured reserve with issues in both knees.<\/p>\n

Yet, as misfortune befell the Penguins and players who were headed to the waiver wire and otherwise back to Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton got to stay, a door of opportunity opened, however brief, for those players. But what exactly becomes of the opportunity may rest more with general manager Kyle Dubas than the actual players on the ice. It\u2019s all part of the team\u2019s \u201cweird\u201d state. <\/p>\n

On the first day of camp, defenseman Erik Karlsson<\/a> described the team\u2019s status as \u201cweird,\u201d and no better description has emerged since. A team in transition, pushing for a youth movement, actually got older. Veteran players on the other side of 30 were brought in to supplant the young players who were thought to be as ready as they ever will be, and until the spate of maladies, the team was on track to have none of its prospects in the lineup, except goalie Sergei Murashov.<\/p>\n

Kind of weird for a team putting so many resources and lip service into player development, eh? The closest to actual prospects were 24-year-old Nick Robertson, who wanted a change-of-scenery trade from Toronto, 26-year-old Filip Hallander, and 24-year-old Hendrix Lapierre. Both of the latter were in undefined roles through training camp, simply fighting to stick around. <\/p>\n

Clearly on the outside from the beginning were the Wilkes-Barre crew: Rutger McGroarty, Ville Koivunen, Owen Pickering, and Harrison Brunicke. <\/p>\n

However, the run of injuries has kept McGroarty and Tristan Broz with the team, though even Broz is now listed as injured, and Koivunen was bumped into the lineup on the third line. <\/p>\n

Looking at the bigger picture, it certainly seems that until contrary evidence emerges, Dubas and staff are not in love with their prospects, at least the ones on the cusp of the NHL. A team in transition would not have acquired numerous middling veterans and would be doing more to promote those prospects. <\/p>\n

The biggest change that might come from mining the depth to fill the open spots is that the Penguins find they have a trade chip or two. If Dubas is not high enough on some of his maturing prospects, like McGroarty, some good playing time and success could change the trade calculus in several ways.<\/p>\n

It seems incorrect to even refer to McGroarty as a prospect, but if he, Hallander, Lapierre, and the crew perform well, a rival GM could easily see value, or Dubas could more easily part with one of the acquired veterans. <\/p>\n

Repeating assistant GM Jason Spezza\u2019s words, the Penguins \u201chave to\u201d get the younger players in the lineup at some point. It would seem this is the first, albeit unexpected, opportunity for those players to grab hold. <\/p>\n

If they do, will Dubas follow through?<\/p>\n

Penguins Room<\/p>\n

**Food for thought: Early in camp, one veteran player dropped a hammer on the league-wide thinking regarding forcing prospects into the lineup: \u201cThe NHL is not a developmental league. When you get here, you\u2019re supposed to know your (crap), but in the last eight years, it seems like that\u2019s not been the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair enough. This writer might disagree, but suspects that if you polled NHL players, that would be the majority opinion. <\/p>\n

**It was an amusing sight, and a sign of the times, peering down the hallway in the Penguins\u2019 room at the UPMC Lemieux Complex to see Karlsson in sweats and sandals walking and talking with coach Dan Muse. Karlsson very much likes Muse, and it is rather obvious that they have a good relationship. <\/p>\n

Muse might be the best recruitment tool to keep Karlsson around if the Penguins can show a brighter future.<\/p>\n

**Declan Carlile has been everything the Penguins hoped when they quickly signed him on July 1. Kaedan Korczak has been OK. <\/p>\n

**There is no question that Brunicke could play in the NHL today, and will soon enough be undeniably ready. Perhaps the biggest intrigue this season will be how Dubas handles the abundance of righties.<\/p>\n

**Kris Letang has a bit to prove. Last season veered toward disaster several times. He hasn\u2019t shown that customary skating burst in camp, and it seems more like an assumption than hard evidence that he\u2019s one of the top three righties. <\/p>\n

**Filip Hallander told PHN that he\u2019s got to get that \u201cevil eye\u201d more often this season. He meant that he wants to play with an edge\u2014the hungry eye or eye of the tiger. It was a language barrier thing, and we had a laugh about it. He\u2019s a good human, and he really attacked the camp aggressively to prove he belongs.<\/p>\n

He remains a player who might have a higher ceiling than anyone realizes. <\/p>\n

**Ryan Graves having issues with both knees is something to watch. He clearly was not enjoying camp and struggled mightily in preseason games. Graves might be dealing with a physical issue; it would explain his drop over the last couple of years, but the mental side of knowing his NHL career is quickly evaporating clearly hits hard.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a prime buy-out candidate next June. The cost would be about a $1 million savings from his $4.5 million cap hit for each of two years ($1.208 million, then $958,333), but then a negligible $541,667 penalty for two more years.<\/p>\n

Also, given the market and what the Penguins received to take on Kevin Hayes, a second, or maybe just a third-round pick would be the cost to trade him in a salary dump (that would be good news for the player). <\/p>\n

**Fans were not wrong. McGroarty outplayed Koivunen in camp and preseason, but the politics of rebuilding and finances obviously played a role in Koivunen getting a shot on the third line in the final days of camp and the fourth preseason game.<\/p>\n

In fairness to the team, Koivunen also has legitimate potential as a middle-six scorer. There has been zero side-eye or chatter around the Penguins room about Koivunen\u2019s contract, but players are also human beings. If Koivunen doesn\u2019t produce, one wonders how he will be viewed by his peers in Wilkes-Barre and by the NHL squad in Pittsburgh.<\/p>\n

Of course, if he does produce, Dubas might walk around like he\u2019s a foot taller. <\/p>\n

** Despite Dubas promising an open competition for the second goaltender spot, Joel Blomqvist played just one half of one game. It certainly seems the organization had already decided, which is warranted, but it\u2019s another promise of a chance that wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags:Penguins Prospects<\/a> phn+<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n

Categorized:PHN+<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Penguins\u2019 overflowing depth quickly became just enough as an extraordinary run of bad luck and injuries…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[28131,41802,73,75,74,1067],"class_list":["post-295658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-penguins-prospects","tag-phn","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-penguins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}