PITTSBURGH — Sooner rather than later, it’s going to be Rutger McGroarty time.
The 21-year-old forward made his NHL debut last season and was a lock to make the opening-night roster for the Penguins, only to be sidelined by an injury for training camp and the first six weeks of the season.
McGroarty is essentially on a conditioning stint at the AHL level, having played two games for Wilkes-Barre in the past week.
It won’t be much longer until he returns to Pittsburgh. And when he does, big things are expected.
McGroarty played in three games early last season and looked like a fish out of water at the NHL level. He simply wasn’t ready. So, he was sent back to Wilkes-Barre and played most of the season there. He had a slow start upon returning to the AHL, only to progressively reach the level that had been expected. At some point during the midway point of the season, the flip switched and McGroarty, who had been doing everything but scoring, started putting the puck in the net.
Late in the regular season, he received the recall back to Pittsburgh.
He looked like a decidedly different player in his second NHL stint. McGroarty produced a goal and three points in five games and was a plus-1. But the numbers really don’t tell the story. He was a completely different player in terms of the eye test. Notably, his skating was stronger.
While McGroarty has long been considered a top-tier NHL prospect, his one wart has always been his skating. It was never terrible, but it was never high-caliber, NHL movement.
The Penguins went to work with him last season while he was in Wilkes-Barre, making minor adjustments to his stride. This, along with the fact that he’s still young and getting stronger, helped him become a much better skater by the conclusion of last season.
Then, there is this season.
According to one Penguins employee who has been keeping close tabs on McGroarty, the forward is “twice the skater he was at the end of last season.”
Many in the Penguins organization have been blown away by how dominant McGroarty looked in his two AHL games. He has scored in each of his games, including a shorthanded, end-to-end beauty.
The organization has long been in love with the intangibles he brings to the table: hockey IQ, leadership history, size and a two-way game. His penalty killing and defensive awareness were immediately identifiable when he showed up in Pittsburgh for his second stint in April. Not many players over the years have arrived in Pittsburgh in possession of good defensive habits, making McGroarty even more of a favorite among the hockey operations staff.
With McGroarty, the final two things to come were the skating and scoring, which is a story as old as hockey history.
Despite not having a training camp — this is why the Penguins are taking their time before his ultimate, and likely final, promotion to the NHL — he appears to have picked up where he left off in April.
This season is supposed to be about the development of young players and, while the Penguins have exceeded expectations so far, they haven’t actually received much in the way of contributions from their youth, other than the impressive Ben Kindel.
After a promising start, Harrison Brunicke struggled to the point that he’s now in Wilkes-Barre for a two-week conditioning stint.
Ville Koivunen, who is currently dealing with an injury, still hasn’t scored an NHL goal and has looked generally out of sorts.
With injuries mounting, the Penguins roster is now littered with players who can politely be referred to as fringe NHL players. This serves as at least a partial explanation for their unsuccessful November. When the Penguins were healthy in October, they were on quite a roll.
They aren’t healthy at the moment, and it’s starting to become glaringly apparent.
McGroarty is on the way. He will be slotted in anywhere that he is needed on the top three lines and will immediately become a top penalty killer.
If he makes the Penguins faster and more potent offensively, even better. And there are many in the organization who believe he will do just that.
• Speaking of Wilkes-Barre, don’t forget about defenseman Finn Harding. Only 20, the former seventh-round pick is off to a solid start at the AHL level.
The Penguins believe he has a future as an NHL player. People in the organization have compared him to Ben Lovejoy, which would be a pretty nice projection for a seventh-round pick.
Harding has five points and is a plus-6 through 14 AHL games. This marks the right-handed defenseman’s first AHL season.
He’s not ready for the NHL yet, but many believe his future is bright.
• Dan Muse has changed in the past week.
There has been a directness, maybe even a surliness, when he discusses his team.
I truly don’t think he received the memo that this isn’t supposed to be a playoff team. The coach got a taste of what this team can do in October, and it seems it convinced him to push this team even harder.
• Discussions between Fenway Sports Group and the Hoffmann Family of Companies have halted.
We know that a potential sale of the Penguins was in play between these companies, and I’ve not heard that a deal is completely off the table. But they are not speaking at the moment and no sale appears to be the least bit imminent.
• The godfather of the Penguins, Eddie Johnston, turned 90 on Monday. A party was held in his honor at 31 Sports Bar & Grille in Bridgeville, an establishment owned by former Penguins goalie Ken Wregget.
Johnston is one of the most important and beloved people in franchise history. The man who drafted Mario Lemieux in 1984 still attends every home game, sitting in the press box. To put in perspective how important he is to the Penguins, the list of people who attended his party included Sidney Crosby, Kyle Dubas and Muse.
Also, you know it’s a good party when Bryan Trottier is playing the guitar.