The youth movement has finally started!
Last season the Penguins had 13 players who were 30 or older suit up for them for at least a game. Four of them have moved on down the road. The replacements aren’t all entirely younger – 32-year old Kevin Hayes has been playing older than his age these days, but the team is finally starting to churn into some younger players.
The Kyle Dubas effect was in full force in his first season in Pittsburgh. The Penguins used a waiver claim (John Ludvig) for his first taste of NHL action. They gave what had been previously a career minor-leaguer the chance to stick (Ryan Shea) and another in Marc Johnstone the opportunity of a lifetime when the NHL roster was banged up. Another youngster (Jack St. Ivany) made his way up the ranks the old fashioned way through minor league growth and development. As a result, what looked last summer like an empty cupboard of potential new NHL faces ended up being a team with quite a few players taking the famous solo rookie lap.
Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images
That makes the future more exciting as far as seeing new faces. Dubas is a very active manager on the waiver wire, he’ll pickup new faces like Ludvig, Jansen Harkins and Matthew Phillips. Some will work out better than others, but the only predictable element is that the Pens will be churning through the league to find players. They’ll use trades to bring in an Emil Bemstrom or tryouts to see what Jesse Puljujarvi has. Some of these players might have some NHL experience, but some might be getting an opportunity for the first time, or at least a last time.
Due to having very little to show from the 2018 – 2024 draft classes so far, the Penguins also find themselves in a weird boat. Pittsburgh has received almost NOTHING from players born in the 2000’s. Considering that we’re only a few months removed from it being 2025, that’s a big problem at this point.
The decade of the 2000’s has given the Pens:
- John Ludvig (33 games, 5 points)
- Jonathan Gruden (16 games, 1 point)
- Ty Smith (9 games, 4 points)
- Sam Poulin (6 games, 1 point)
- Filip Hallander (4 games, 0 points)
As of now, that’s the complete list of impact from this decade. If we were still in 2021 or 2022 this could be excusable, understandable even, but it’s incredible how little NHL talent that the Pens have had lately.
Luckily, that could and should be changing in the near future.
Rutger McGroatry is the highlight for players in the organization that are on deck to make their NHL debut sometime in 2024-25. With a March 2004 birthdate, McGroatry will be looking to shatter the current record of youngest person to ever play for the Pens (Ludvig, Aug 2000). That kinda puts into perspective how lacking some of the recent draft classes have been, part a function of trading futures for immediate help but also part an indictment of the drafting and developing of the team in that 2018-21ish range.
Beyond McGroatry’s almost lock to play some NHL games for the first time this season, there are some other candidates as well. It can’t be out of the range of possibilities that McGroatry’s fellow 2022 first rounder Owen Pickering could get a taste of the NHL if his season (and the Pens’) goes a certain way this year.
Joel Blomqvist is the third goalie in the organization, and via injury to another goalie it’s not uncommon at all to see the third goalie get some NHL action of the course of a long season. Blomqvist (22-years old with a Jan 2002 birthdate) would be the youngest goaltender to see NHL action for the Penguins and bump Alex Nedeljkovic (28, Nov 1996 birthday) from the spot, to put in perspective how long it’s been since Pittsburgh has had a young goalie.
Ville Koivunen (21, Jan 2003) is another youngster who could be seen in the NHL for the first time this year, the only player from the Jake Guentzel trade to qualify for ‘first time NHLer’ since Vasily Ponomarev already got into two games with the Hurricanes. Ponomarev could add to the possible 2000’s babies that could get NHL time and be a welcome addition there.
All of this seems like it is happening fairly quickly, after years of delays. Dubas could have held tight in the safe lane and kept Brayden Yager (himself possibly/probably not making the NHL until 2025). The swap for McGroatry is in-line with Dubas’ work to accelerate the process of getting younger. For anything you can say about Dubas, it can’t be denied his focus and progress in going after young talent and start the acclimation process to get the Penguins younger.
It’s well overdue, and before long you won’t be able to count the Penguin players from the 2000’s on a single hand.