Dump n Chase: Early thoughts on Sam Poulin, Cody Glass, Rutger McGroarty

Thinkin’ about some forwards today

Welcome back where we chase down some loose thoughts.

Q: What player in early camp has exceeded expectations the most?

That depends on the expectations at hand. From the start, we’ve been of the mind that you’re going to look up at the end of the year and see that Sebastian Aho has played 50+ games and think ‘wow he did alright’, so his early camp start isn’t that personally surprising, but it reasonably could be for others.

So, similarly, Cody Glass was a big question mark here coming into camp. He’s only 25, his salary and contract isn’t terrible (lasting only one year for a mid-level $2.5 million cap hit) and he was a very decent NHL forward as recently as 2022-23 (35 points in 72 games, 54% WAR overall player). Despite all of those elements in Glass’s favor, Nashville paid a third and sixth round pick to wiggle out of his contract. While that certainly speaks to the value of cap space, it left Glass in a curious position of being dumped as a negative asset by his second organization.

In early preseason, the Pens have been acting like they paid assets to get Glass, not the other way around. He’s skated on the top line for both of the preseason games (alongside important organizational players in Drew O’Connor, Rutger McGroarty and Kevin Hayes). Glass has played in practice lines with Hayes and Lars Eller. And Glass has generally, if somewhat modestly, impressed. Let’s not get too amped up about a star turn upcoming or a future All-Star, but Glass has certainly not looked like he deserved to be dumped over a $2.5 million contract (though, obviously, Nashville had their own reasons and after spending a lot this summer on free agents they needed to clear some space somewhere).

Glass has gone from a true question mark (at least here) to a player who sure looks like he’s going to be a lineup regular this season. Given his age, impressive size (6’3”, 210 pounds) and NHL past (he’s scored 48 total points in his last 113 games), Glass could be a very nice piece for Pittsburgh to have in the short term that could contribute. Not a bad first week.

Q: Sam Poulin. No question, just Sam Poulin.

If it’s a make or break camp for Poulin, there hasn’t been much making going on just yet. Poulin wasn’t great in his first preseason look last night and coming dangerously close to being a “lost in the shuffle” type of player.

Publicly, Mike Sullivan and Kyle Dubas have said all the positive and uplifting things (as if there’s any other route to go). They like Poulin, he’s doing well in the AHL, they think he can help them in the future. And while some of that is true, Dubas also goes out and signs players like Blake Lizotte as a superior option for fourth line center/wing, a direct road block for Poulin’s NHL chances. The Lizotte signing is the type of move that a team would not make if they truly believed they had another player ready to graduate from the AHL for that same spot.

Last year, the Pens somewhat surprisingly waived Ty Smith and Rem Pitlick on the first day waivers were available. That happens 12 days before the regular season starts, which means it’s tomorrow. Not predicting that for Poulin, since the early cuts of Smith and Pitlick were indicative of just how much NHL time the Dubas regime was going to have for those players (none, and they both were traded during the season). Poulin, signed to a two-year deal by Dubas just this summer, is not quite in that same area. But he may not be too far from it.

Q: Why hasn’t there been that many changes this camp?

There was a pretty big change this morning, Drew O’Connor was practicing with Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust, which always felt like just a matter of time before the team went back to what they knew they had there. Anthony Beauvillier got work with expected fourth liners with Lizotte and Noel Acciari.

Ville Koivunen got a quick look with Evgeni Malkin in the early days, and a player like O’Connor has bounced around a little, as have bottom-six members like Glass and Hayes. But the camp has been more steady than surprising as far as which players have been placed more or less consistently in the same general spots.

Rutger McGroarty hasn’t come near a premier billing with star players, but he has stayed busy in both preseason games and getting long looks with semi-important players.

Not saying it’s been good or bad (well, maybe if you’re Valtteri Puustinen or Emil Bemstrom the usage and splits haven’t been all that beneficial) but it’s been a very controlled and measured camp where the pieces that made sense to line up early have been put together by today as generally makes sense. There aren’t going to be a lot of surprises. There’s still some questions to answer about final placements and where McGroarty fits into the whole mix (an AHL start seems like it’s coming more and more into focus given how the lineup is shaking out).

As always, some players have seen their stock rise since the start (we’d put Glass, McGroarty, Beauvillier and Puljujarvi in that category) and others have dipped or at least stagnated (where Poulin, Puustinen and Bemstrom fit, at least for the moment) but there haven’t been much in the way of whipping changes or any fanciful experiments attempted in the first week of camp. That isn’t likely to change as the regular season nears.