RSS Penguins Team Notes

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins goaltender Sergei Murashov impresses in NHL preseason debut

Penguins fans got a first look at goaltender Sergei Murashov’s athleticism and agility when the 2022 fourth-round pick made his NHL preseason debut on Monday night against the Canadiens.

After taking over for Joel Blomqvist in the second half of the preseason opener, Murashov made 19 saves on 20 shots through 1.5 periods and overtime.

That included a highlight-reel grab on a point-blank chance from Ivan Demidov.

View Link

Murashov then turned aside three of five chances in the shootout, stopping Demidov, Patrik Laine and Filip Cesar before Oliver Kapanen beat him on the game-winning goal.

The 21-year-old netminder was particularly happy to have made those two game-saving stops on Demidov, whom he had battled in the MHL, Russia’s junior league, according to Penguins reporter Michelle Crechiolo.

The Penguins will meanwhile be pleased with the ability to get quickly from side to side of the net that Murashov displayed during his 34:55 on the ice Monday night.

Murashov has been surrounded by plenty of hype heading into camp after recording franchise-record rookie win streaks in both the AHL and ECHL during his first season in North America.

With the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Murashov went 12-3 with a 2.64 goals against average and a .913 save percentage with one shutout.

He’s now getting some glowing reviews from his Penguins teammates during training camp.

From Tristan Broz after Monday night’s preseason loss, via Crechiolo: “He’s such a stud. I love him so much. I wish we could have got that win for him. He deserved it. He’s such a great player and such an inspiring person. So, it was fun to see him do his thing out there. I’m sure he’ll build and get better off of it.”

From Bryan Rust earlier in training camp, via The Athletic’s Josh Yohe: “Yeah, I have noticed him. In fact, I noticed him last year, too. Even before camp this year, I noticed him. It’s hard not to notice him. He’s that much better this year.”

More from Rust: “His athleticism and natural ability are one thing. But what I really see is his work ethic, his competitiveness, how he never gives up on plays. We just seem him putting the work in every day. All of those things add up over time for a goalie.”

Joel Blomqvist meanwhile made 11 saves on 11 shots while playing the first 30 minutes of Monday’s preseason opener.

Penguins head coach Dan Muse said about both goaltenders after the game, per Crechiolo: “You want hard decisions. We want guys to be constantly taking advantage of opportunities. Both guys came over tonight and played really well.”

With Tristan Jarry still on the roster heading into the season, and Blomqvist joining Arturs Silovs and Filip Larsson in competing for playing time, there’s no guarantee as to which level Murashov will be playing at next season.

Dubas has told reporters that the goaltenders’ preseason and training camp performances will matter more than their contract status, but Jarry’s $5.375 million cap hit is still something the Penguins will have to take into consideration when shaping the roster.

But Dubas has said repeatedly, especially amid comments from Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin about wanting to win again, that the Penguins are “urgently” trying to rebuild.

Having a goaltender with Murashov’s potential, especially the quick movements he flashed against the Habs on Monday night, could eventually end up as a key building block in constructing a contender in the future.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/6...gei-murashov-impresses-in-nhl-preseason-debut

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Canadiens Recap: Thoughts and observations on the first preseason game

By rule, it’s a good idea not to place too much stock in any single instant of the preseason. NHL training camps are a series of many data points from testing to practice to games that it’s not a good idea to have the needle move too much for any one time the spotlight is the brightest – on TV in an exhibition against an incomplete opponent.

That disclaimer out of the way, there is of course some evaluation and stories developing that we can draw from tonight’s action when the Penguins kicked off the first game of their 2025-26 preseason schedule up in Quebec against the Montreal Canadiens.

Here was the lines and lineup for the Penguins:

Tonight’s lineup in MTL pic.twitter.com/xqGEZqbzzQ

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 22, 2025

The hosting Canadiens ice a pretty good lineup with a bevy of NHL forwards at the top of their lineup and new addition Noah Dobson playing on the back-end, as well as starting goalie Samuel Montembault. Home teams usually are a little stronger than the visitors on paper in willingness to bring a little extra for convenience and entertainment alike

La formation de ce soir

Tonight's lineup#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/5tk0rCHD5E

— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) September 22, 2025

The Pens and Habs traded some power plays, it was Pittsburgh who struck first. Harrison Brunicke, Valtteri Puustinen and Tristan Broz teamed up to make a flurry of quick passes in and through the slot that culminated with Puustinen feeding Broz who quickly snapped a shot past Samuel Montembeault.

FIRST GOAL OF THE PRESEASON! pic.twitter.com/Uw3DfuV9In

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 22, 2025

Sam Poulin threw a hit and dropped the gloves with a spirited fight about halfway through the game, the Pens used that break to split the goaltending time with Sergei Murashov coming in to relieve Joel Blomqvist. Montreal also took the opportunity to substitute Jacob Fowler into their net in exchange for Montembeault.

Jared Davidson and Sam Poulin drop the gloves in a heated tilt pic.twitter.com/g0g2ILPzef

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) September 23, 2025

The Pens got into penalty trouble in the third period, they battled to kill off some more 5v3 time and soon after the power play expired Montreal got their first goal. Murashov couldn’t sweep up a puck into his glove, got spun around and eventually ended flat on his back. Not much good comes from that and Owen Beck was able to lift a puck over the fallen goalie and into the net. 1-1 game.

Overtime was in the cards, seeing a mostly cautious 3v3v for the first half. It finally opened up, Ryan Shea setup Avery Hayes for a nice look on a 2-on-1 but Fowler made a nice save to keep the game alive. Murashov would answer that big save with one of his own, flashing the leg moving laterally to take a goal away from Ivan Demidov. Mike Matheson hit the outside of the post in the final seconds.

That allowed some shootout practice. Murashov got the better of his countryman Demidov again by poking the puck away from his attempt. Mantha couldn’t score in his home province. Laine fired off target and Tommy Novak couldn’t find the five-hole. Sean Farrell shot a puck that hit Murashov and still had enough English to flip over and into the net. Broz managed to extend the game even further with a nifty deke and fake to tuck a forehand five-hole shot in. Filip Mesar couldn’t deke past Murashov only to see Ben Kindel not be able to score on his backhand deke.

In Round 5, Oliver Kapanen solved Murashov with a nifty backhand deke, which ended up being the winning effort after Avery Hayes couldn’t score on the final chance.

Some other thoughts and stray observations:

• Tristan Broz was the lone forward to kill a 3v5. Needed a center in the situation but nice to see him get tapped and do well even before he scored a goal. Broz also made a wonderful centering pass for Mantha in front of the net that nearly scored. All of that went down in the first period alone. Broz was shining against the prospects in Buffalo last week and he’s still looking pretty darn good and standing out in multiple moments early in the preseason.
• Montreal got that 5v3 advantage because the puck rolled over the stick of Ryan Graves, who was left behind the play and Connor Clifton tripped over his feet crossing up, leading to Graves having to slash to limit the chance. So, yeah, that wasn’t pretty or much evidence “new year, new me” is going to apply to Graves when he’s struggling with the basics like trying to send a puck in deep. That’s unfortunately shades of the past. Graves would go onto take another penalty while the Pens were already shorthanded later in the game, so, yeah..Not a great first night.
• First impression of some newcomers: Clifton is physical if nothing else, limited elsewise…Thought Matt Dumba had a nice night, it’s not exactly 100% regular season pace out there but for a player advertised as dropping off moving the puck, he had some nice moments in that regard…Anthony Mantha, quiet but not a ton to work with either…Robby Fabbri played with more of an edge than I expected, throwing his body around with hits.
• Ben Kindel got time on the top power play, alongside some NHL players (Mantha, Dumba, Novak) and Avery Hayes too. Kindel looked pretty good again holding on to the puck when he needed to.
• Blomqvist didn’t have a ton to do but did everything he needed to on the way to stopping all 11 shots he saw. Quiet night for him due to the game circumstance of the Pens mostly controlling play while he was in there, but a nice start nonetheless.
• Similarly, nice but quiet night for Pickering. He stood tall on Patrik Laine during a rush, which is exactly what you want to see. Nothing overwhelming but a good night to build on for Pickering.
• Tonight marked the NHL preseason debut of 21-year old Sergei Murashov, who wasn’t quite ready to match up against NHL caliber shooters last September. He certainly is now, and that’s a progress point for his growth and development. A lot of places and people are whisking along his development, and not for nothing since he is a very talented and promising player. His style is to play on the edge of losing control, and that was on display on the goal against when he lost his net. Murashov also played in the busy portion of the game and stopped 17 of 18 shots in regulation and was good in OT and decent enough in the shootout situation.

Overall it would have to be considered a successful first night for the Pens. Win or loss can be flushed out the window compared to the more important items like seeing some good things from players like Broz, Brunicke, Blomqvist and Pickering all putting some nice tape together that should continue to build the cases they are making to earn some sort of role either at the beginning of the season, if not deeper into it in some of their situations. That’s about all you can ask for the first game, now it’s back to Pittsburgh to keep camp rolling along.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/game-reca...-and-observations-on-the-first-preseason-game

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Pickering, Brunicke take it one day at a time

Dan Muse talked about what he was looking for from players looking to get on the radar and offered an insightful comment.

What Dan Muse and his staff are looking for in these preseason games is simple: "However it is that you impact the game, go find a way to do it… show what you can do to help this team. What that actually is for each person, it's going to be a little bit different."

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) September 24, 2025

Muse has been liking what he’s seen from the young pair of Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke. The two were joined together at the Prospects Challenge earlier this month in Buffalo and that has carried over through the early part of training camp. So far, so good.

Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke remain together.. This is what Dan Muse had to say about their play in the preseason opener on Monday in Montreal: pic.twitter.com/6ziqBTXmKb

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) September 24, 2025

A picture is starting to develop for how Pickering and Brunicke could slot in for the start of the regular season as the Pens’ third pair. While Pickering and Brunicke took their familiar places along side one another Ryan Graves worked with Kris Letang during a scrimmage today, Parker Wortherspoon got some time with Erik Karlsson. A mid-day scrimmage isn’t an absolute indicator of hard and fast future plans but it also could be early signals of how the pieces of the puzzle are getting lined up as a first try, if nothing else.

Of course, given the current state of the Pens’ blueline, there are a lot of possibilities. Ryan Shea and Matt Dumba worked in the scrimmage today and represent another potential third pair for the season. There were others that didn’t play this morning because they will get the opportunity to show their stuff tonight — Caleb Jones, Jack St. Ivany, Alexander Alexeyev and Connor Clifton —which could get sliced and diced into many combinations in the days to come to offer even more options.

Those combinations can be scrambled in a hurry if any element doesn’t develop as the team likes — including what could be questionable matches with their most two important players at the position of Karlsson and Letang. To this point the club has found a match they like and want to see more from with Pickering and Brunicke — their top two defensive prospects — working and growing together in visibly apparent ways during this preseason.

The old phrase “take it a day at a time” is a cliche that does have some truth behind in this situation, as Harrison Brunicke knows already with his NHL training camp experience of last fall being the same as what he is facing this year.

"I came into camp last year just feeling it out with a nothing-to-lose mindset, going in each day just trying to get better. That’s the same thing that I’m doing now, just taking it a day at a time and working towards my goal of making this team."

Hear from Harrison Brunicke pic.twitter.com/I9KVOZIVZQ

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) September 24, 2025

Brunicke impressed at last training camp and he’s drawing rave reviews again. His performance and ability to keep going will dictate whether he’s going back to juniors in the near future or gets up to nine games in the NHL before his contract burns a year to prove that he should stick around a little further.

Brunicke tends to draw more attention due to his young age, 19, and since he either has to play in the NHL or go back to the WHL this season, which makes for a more dramatic and long-lasting decision coming up soon. On the other end of the pairing, the situation is similar for Pickering in the sense that he is looking to avoid assignment back to the AHL and graduate into becoming a full-time NHL player.

"It’s a business. And it’s cut-throat. You’ve got to keep pushing.”

On Owen Pickering figuring out the NHL as he enters his second full professional season:https://t.co/YBfpSbSkGD

— Seth Rorabaugh (@SethRorabaugh) September 22, 2025

Pickering’s comments on the subject mirror that of his partner fairly closely.

“My mentality was as soon as I was drafted to a team before this was to try to make that team in the fall,” Pickering said that day. “That’s kind of the mentality that I have, and I’m going to carry that forward.”

Moving forward more than three years, Pickering’s hopes haven’t changed.

He wants to be in the NHL as soon as possible.

“The goal, since last year, for me has been to be full-time in the NHL,” the rookie defenseman said Sept. 11 in Cranberry. “I try not to get too complicated or specific with the goals that I want. I feel like if I keep them simple and just kind of stick to them every day, it’s better for me.

“I’m honestly not thinking about it too much right now. It’s cliched, but I’m literally focusing on today. Then tomorrow. Then I feel like that will take care of itself if I attack every day. But I feel like since last year, the goal has been to be a full-time NHLer.”

Muse has been telling his players to “go find a way to do it” in terms of landing their spot. Young Pickering and Brunicke have been making the most so far at the attempt to achieve their individual goals together through continued impressive play, and they just might do it if they can keep building their case with each passing day.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67328/pickering-brunicke-take-it-one-day-at-a-time

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Best and worst case scenarios for the 2025-26 Pittsburgh Penguins

There still seems to be a concern among some fans and media that the Pittsburgh Penguins haven’t fully embraced the idea of a rebuild enough, and still have a little too much talent on the roster for the 2025-26 season. They will not be a good team. But are they still a little TOO good for a potential run at the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes?

It’s hard for a team to truly bottom out when it still has one of the best players in hockey (Sidney Crosby) on it.

Evgeni Malkin will still have his moments.

Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell are still here.

Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty bring some young skill and talent to the lineup.

I can kind of see where that concern (if you want to call it that) might be coming from. But I don’t necessarily agree with it, because this team still isn’t likely to be very good. They’ve had all of those guys the past three years and still missed the playoffs. The young guys will have growing pains. Rust and Rakell might not be as productive as they were a year ago. Even all of them are good, the defense and goaltending will likely cancel out whatever quality play the forwards give them.

It’s almost certainly going to be a lottery team.

But there’s still a pretty wide range of possibilities on what this team could look like this season.

It’s a low-ceiling and a low floor.

The Penguins’ highest ceiling on the ice (and worst-case for rebuild): Compete for a wild-card spot​

I am not saying they will actually get a wild-card spot, but I could envision a scenario where all of the variables at play fall in their favor and the team is way more competitive than anybody imagined. Crosby is still great. Young players make an immediate impact. Somebody in goal actually plays well. I mean, Tristan Jarry has had extended stretches in his career where he has played at an All-Star level. Just because something isn’t likely to happen doesn’t mean it WON’T happen. Maybe Arturs Silovs is good. Good goaltending and some high-level forwards can mask an awful lot of flaws. There’s not enough to make this a contender, but there’s enough to potentially make it a competitive team.

That would make for an exciting season, but it would probably result in another mid-first round pick. Which would not be totally ideal for the rebuild.

The Penguins farm system has dramatically improved over the past year, and there is actually some real talent in their top-10 prospect list. But they are still lacking that franchise-changing superstar that can bring it all together and be their long-term building block and focal point. They need some lottery luck to get it.

The best-case scenario for the short-term and the rebuild: Play competitive hockey and get draft lottery luck​

There was a time where I fully supported the idea of complete tear down rebuilds and “tanking,” but after seeing so many of them fail, and after seeing so many of them take way longer than expected, I just don’t know if that’s the best approach in the modern-day NHL. Especially with the draft lottery odds being what they are, and the worst record potentially giving you the No.3 overall pick. You’re really putting your luck and future into an 18 percent chance the ping pong balls are going to fall your way. Teams like Detroit, Arizona/Utah and Vancouver went through rebuilds and never had lottery luck. There’s a world of difference in most draft classes between the No. 1 pick and the No. 3 pick.

You’re not always going to get the Sidney Crosby or the Gavin McKenna.

Plus, everybody loves the idea of a punted season until you have to actually watch what it looks like.

And then see how long it takes to come back from that.

So, in my mind, the best-case scenario for this season is the Penguins play competitive hockey. They are in most games. They play some exciting games. They win a few games. They are still a lottery team, but not a 22-win team bad. And then the lottery balls fall their way.

Over the past 10 lotteries we’ve seen five teams with the worst-record maintain the top pick.

We’ve also seen teams more from eighth, third, fifth, 10th to the No. 1 spot, and teams move from similar spots up to No. 2.

It’s all luck and you have no control over it.

Play competitive hockey, be interesting, and let the lottery balls do what they are going to do.

The worst-case scenario: The Penguins are truly terrible and get no lottery luck​

This is what you don’t want. And it happened on a smaller scale this past season when they had their worst regular season in two decades and actually dropped two spots in the draft lottery results.

They could be worse this season if all of the variables mentioned above go in the opposite direction.

The goaltending is bad. The defense is as bad as advertised. Rust and/or Rakell get traded. The team legitimately bottoms out and finishes with one of the two-worst records in the league and is just unwatchable slop. This is the floor for this team. I don’t think it’s the most likely outcome, but it is a potential outcome. Especially if they go as young as we have heard they want to go with this roster.

If all of that happens, and they still don’t win the draft lottery and end up picking third or fourth, that would be a brutally devastating result.

I know the 2026 draft class is supposed to be incredibly top-heavy, but McKenna is still the prize you want. Not getting him after a season like that would be a real gut-punch.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/pittsburg...scenarios-for-the-2025-26-pittsburgh-penguins

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins announce roster for Red Wings, gives context clues for Fleury game

The Penguins announced their pool of players for Friday night’s exhibition game against Detroit.

Tomorrow's roster for the preseason matchup against Detroit has been announced, as well as the roster for the 12 PM practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Details: https://t.co/9tBKSLsK90 pic.twitter.com/ruTpzhObox

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 25, 2025

Below is the Penguins’ lineup for Friday night’s preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings at PPG Paints Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM ET and fans can watch a live stream of the game on SNP+ or tune in to the game on the Penguins’ official flagship radio station, 105.9 ‘The X’.

FORWARDS

8 – Aidan McDonough
10 – Aaron Huglen
11 – Filip Hallander
12 – Robby Fabbri
18 – Tommy Novak
19 – Connor Dewar
22 – Sam Poulin
23 – Nolan Renwick
43 – Danton Heinen
46 – Blake Lizotte
48 – Valtteri Puustinen
51 – Cal Burke
53 – Philip Tomasino

DEFENSE

3 – Jack St. Ivany
5 – Ryan Shea
24 – Matt Dumba
27 – Ryan Graves
44 – Chase Pietila
56 – Alexander Alexeyev
75 – Connor Clifton

GOALIES

35 – Tristan Jarry
37 – Arturs Silovs

While there are some NHL players in that lineup, the majority of the top players on the team still won’t play Friday. There’s a good reason for that, instead, they’ll practice ahead of Saturday night’s big preseason game (for as big as any preseason game can be) against Columbus.

Below is the non-game group slated to practice tomorrow, September 26 at 12:00 PM at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.

Forwards – Justin Brazeau, Tristan Broz, Atley Calvert, Sidney Crosby, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Avery Hayes, Boko Imama, Ben Kindel, Ville Koivunen, Joona Koppanen, Evgeni Malkin, Anthony Mantha, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust

Defensemen – Harrison Brunicke, Finn Harding, Caleb Jones, Erik Karlsson, Philip Kemp, Kris Letang, Owen Pickering and Parker Wotherspoon

Goaltenders – Marc-Andre Fleury, Filip Larsson and Sergei Murashov

Since it’s unlikely that the team would run any players on Friday’s game back into action the very next night at this time of the year, the pool of players in this second group is likely going to be where the Pens pick from to create Saturday night’s lineup. That tracks, since all of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang have made various comments recently about expecting to play in Marc-Andre Fleury’s last game, which essentially will serve as something of what soccer fans might call a testimonial to see him off.

The splits are also intriguing since on defense it has what could be close to an opening night lineup type of feel with Harrison Brunicke and Owen Pickering getting to make their case in a game that will include Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson on the back-end, as well as potentially Pittsburgh’s entire top-six forward group of Crosby, Malkin, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell, Anthony Mantha and Ville Koivunen. The game could be a big one for players like Koivunen, not to mention Avery Hayes and Tristan Broz to show their stuff under a bright spotlight in a fairly close to actual type of game lineup.

Saturday won’t be a complete dress rehearsal, since apparent NHL roster players like Blake Lizotte, Connor Dewar, Philip Tomasino and Danton Heinen will play on Friday. It’s too early for a full dress rehearsal anyways, with over a full week of camp to go. But the Pens are giving context clues that Saturday night’s game with Fleury should be one of their strongest lineups of the early/mid preseason and probably included the 2025-26 season debuts of star players like Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Rust, Karlsson, Rakell and the like.

One other cool wrinkle is that it could potentially be a “passing of the torch” type of moment should the Penguins decide to dress 21-year old Sergei Murashov alongside the 40-year old Fleury. Murashov could project to be Pittsburgh’s next top goalie one day in the future, what better way to have a changing of the guard than share a game with the franchise’s record holding goalie in every major category? That’s one of several little items that will be special over the weekend as Fleury makes his return and prepares to bid adieu.

If you want to go to practice tomorrow, well Godspeed and may the odds be in your favor, the team is expecting huge crowds at UPMC Lemieux.

A message to fans regarding tomorrow’s open practice at UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex pic.twitter.com/H12wla2lOa

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 25, 2025

It was a circus in 2024 when Jaromir Jagr practiced with the team, more people were around 30-45 minutes BEFORE practice than usually ever show up even during playoffs. If you are itching to go, the earlier to get there and sacrificing much of the morning is probably going to be required, if at all possible.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/6735...red-wings-gives-context-clues-for-fleury-game

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Red Wings Game Recap: Pens earn first win of the season

The Penguins used the following lineup of potential lower-lineup players and maybe a third pairing or two possibility surrounded by future minor leaguers in their first home preseason game of the season against Detroit on Friday night.

Tonight's lineup vs. the Red Wings

: SNP+ pic.twitter.com/UAHCIMW0zP

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 26, 2025

The visiting Red Wings didn’t exactly bring their A-team either, though they did start Whitehall native John Gibson for his very first taste of action with the winged wheel on his chest and bring a couple of recent first round picks in Carter Bear and Nate Danielson to the party.

Tonight's lineup @ Pittsburgh pic.twitter.com/QhDAqbN2m1

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 26, 2025

Detroit got the better of the play early but the game settled in until AHL contracted rookie Aaron Huglen got forced into a bad idea with a pass coming up the ice that got picked off and Connor Clifton and Ryan Shea were both way up on the play and out of position. That gave John Leonard a free look at picking a spot, and he did just that wiring a puck by Tristan Jarry. Leonard scored 36 goals last season in the AHL (for Charlotte) and, well, you can see how with this shot.

John Leonard snipe! pic.twitter.com/oXgJEml0VY

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 26, 2025

Detroit scored on the power play, and it was Leonard again. This one was a little flick of the wrist from just inside of the blueline, a couple of players waved their sticks at it, but it looked like it went straight through and somehow eluded Jarry. 2-0.

The Pens got on the board early in the second period, Jack St. Ivany took the wide open space he was given to skate to space and centered the puck for Connor Dewar. Dewar made a spinning backhand shot that might have been hopeful but did have some zip and elevation on it. 2-1 game.

Nifty backhander by Connor Dewar pic.twitter.com/qsPROM3TYh

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) September 27, 2025

Philip Tomasino raised the temperature of the game when he went into Gibson at high speed. There was some back pressure on him from a defender and Tomasino did try to leap up instead of plow right through but that got the ire of Gibson and a bunch of Red Wings to try and pound him. Even up penalties resulted, which seemed just.

During a TV timeout near the mid-way point of the period, and game, both teams change out their goalies. Arturs Silovs gets into the net for the Pens, Jarry departs having stopped 11 of 13 shots.

The change of goalies eventually let the Pens’ class shine, Detroit put in an undrafted goalie signed from the Czech league. He gave up a goal to Robby Fabbri, with the former Red Wing knifing through the defense and getting to the far post quicker than the goalie 2-2 game.

No quit in #12 pic.twitter.com/dN8DGb9cYv

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 27, 2025

Pittsburgh struck on the power play in the third period to take their first lead and the lead for good. A quick series of passes ended up with Filip Hallander finding Philip Tomasino all alone in front. Wrong guy for the Red Wings. 3-2 Pens.

A PPG FOR PGH pic.twitter.com/6HpnVibClj

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 27, 2025

That ended up being it for the scoring, and the Pens have their first win of the 2025-26 season.

A few random thoughts to put a bow on the night:

• Jarry, like many Penguin goalies, are wearing black pads this fall. That’s a change up from a rule instituted by Kyle Dubas. Upon joining into the organization in 2023 Dubas mandated that all goalies in the organization were to wear white pads, due to the belief white pads and a white net/end boards made it more challenging for the opponents to see open areas to shoot, compared to the contrast of black pads. Doesn’t mean much, as we’ve seen from goalie results in the last couple years, if anything the takeaway is that it’s nice Dubas is flexible at least. It would probably be a stretch to call Dubas a Lou Lamoriello disciple, but the younger manager certainly had an impression made on him in their time spent together, and that kind of connection catches an eye for a manager making a suggestion like color of pads. But I don’t think old Lou would have been flexible enough to change his ways and drop many of his ideas, so I guess credit to Dubas for letting it go on the control for one matter that proved not to mean that much.
• Regardless of pad color, gotta hope Jarry gets goals like the second one out of the way now when the games don’t count. Dealing with any sort of traffic or distraction has always given him fits and that was on display. That’s what preseason is for to get sharp but he’s gonna have to take it up a notch when it counts. Hard to do much more hand wringing besides that for tonight, though it isn’t the most encouraging tell about where his game is at right now.
• Dewar had a nice spinning backhand shot. Was reminiscent of those first few games in Pittsburgh when he couldn’t miss and was scoring regularly. That never lasts very long for him but is frequent enough to win him an NHL job. And he wore an A on his jersey as an alternate captain. Not that they had much to choose from or that it means too terribly much, but it’s something.
• Also wearing an A: Ryan Graves. Unlike his first preseason game earlier this week, he wasn’t a train wreck tonight either. Progress! And see, other various NHL teams, Graves is a veteran! A leader of men! Trade for him now!
• The preseason is always good for a ‘holy crap, that guy’s still around?‘ – and today’s contestant was 35-year old Travis Hamonic. Completely blanked that he was picked up by the Red Wings, and not even on a tryout, on a $1.0 million deal. Good for him.
• Not many people say “stock down” and bash a player in the preseason compared to all the sleepers and risers that get celebrated, but so far Tommy Novak hasn’t really stood out or popped or done much to suggest he’s ready for the NHL season. It’d be foolish to read into that too much, but tonight you saw Dewar score, and Fabbri score and Tomasino score. Novak, like other games, is just kinda there. Not that he has to earn or win a job, but it would be more encouraging to see him play a more visible style or get on the board now and then. Same could probably be said for Danton Heinen getting copied and pasted in the above note.
• With that in mind, Fabbri is giving the Pens something to think about after his solid exhibition game performances. Is the team really going to waive someone like Heinen to sign a guy like Fabbri that will probably be about same same for overall impact over the course of the season? That’s something to be considered; how much is too much, and are the guys under contract enough when Kevin Hayes and Noel Acciari will be coming back from injury sooner or later too? Fabbri’s done pretty well for making a case for himself — we’ve seen enough to be confident he wouldn’t be out of place based on his on ice play — but there are bigger questions surrounding need and numbers already on hand with contracts that make it a gray area where the team could reasonably go in different directions with the decision about Fabbri. It’s not going to make or break the year regardless of the call, but it will be interesting to see if Fabbri has impressed enough to stick around — and what that decision could mean for other players on the fringe of the roster. There are only so many numbers to go around.
• Gotta call this what it was for the Penguins — a throwaway game. Nice to get out of it with a win and see a few NHL guys kick in enough to get the result, but this night won’t leave many lasting memories. With camp in WBS opening up this weekend, a lot of the lower part of this lineup will be headed up that way sooner than later. This was just kinda one to get through to get to tomorrow.

And now we’re through with it! There won’t be a bigger difference all year from the quarter-filled building tonight and a lineup of mostly non-factors for what the arena will turn into in just 24 hours. The stars will be out, the stands will be packed for the Pens’ game against Columbus to see Marc-Andre Fleury play a period one more time.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/game-reca...-game-recap-pens-earn-first-win-of-the-season

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins make first big cut, drop 15 players

The Penguins have assigned a player here or there back to juniors (like Travis Hayes and Quinn Beauchesne), but hadn’t had a mass cut of players from their 2025 training camp until Saturday. 15 players are leaving Pittsburgh and heading to the minor league training camp.

The Penguins have reduced their training camp roster to 58 players.

Details: https://t.co/WI84v1waXq pic.twitter.com/ibvM0ZZJ3E

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 27, 2025

From the team:

The Pittsburgh Penguins have reduced their training camp roster to 58 players, it was announced today by President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Kyle Dubas.

The following players have been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s training camp (AHL), which begins on Monday, September 29 at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex:

Raivis Ansons
David Breazeale
Tommy Budnick
Kyle Criscuolo
Brayden Edwards
Zach Gallant
Max Graham
Brent Johnson
Jordan Kaplan
Gabe Klassen
Daniel Laatsch
Brett Murray
Maxim Pavlenko
Emil Pieniniemi
Zach Urdahl

No major surprises in that listing, plenty of those players are on AHL contracts that were headed back to the minors sooner than later anyways — that includes a player not to be confused 22-year old defenseman named Brent Johnson that isn’t to be confused with the Pens’ backup goalie from the 2010’s that has the same name. The rest of the cuts are rookies like Max Graham, Daniel Laatsch and Emil Pieniniemi that will be looking to stay in the AHL and avoid getting pushed down to the ECHL and can use the AHL acclimation and evaluation much more than they need to be in the NHL camp any longer.

While there weren’t any difficult decisions or tough cuts made today, that will be changing in a hurry. The Pens still have 58 players on their roster and will have to trim all the way down to 23 before you know it. The regular season starts in only 10 days and final rosters will be submitted before that point.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67414/penguins-make-first-big-cut-drop-15-players

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Marc-Andre’s Day

Today is the big day. Marc-Andre Fleury is back in Pittsburgh and after successfully completing a practice yesterday will be getting some action in a preseason game tonight for the Penguins for the final time in his illustrious career.

While we wait for 7:00pm and the game, here’s some things we’re reading and thinking about. Check back in tonight for the first game thread of the season to discuss the game with your pals! The game will be televised on SNP+ and NHL Network.

The roster for the game is out, as expected the Penguins are bringing out the big guns for Fleury’s farewell. [Penguins]

Coach Dan Muse has said Fleury will play one period tonight, but it has not been announced which period it will be. [X – Wes Crosby]

Usually practice at any age is a chore to get through. Yesterday was one of the few times ever that every single player was outwardly smiling and enjoying every second of it. [Penguins.com]

Fleury’s going out the same way he came in: with a Penguin logo and the bright yellow Cape Breton style goalie pads. [Sportsnet]

Fans lined up way early to get a glimpse of Fleury’s final practice yesterday [KDKA – video]

The full media scrum after practice. [YouTube – Penguins]

Fleury soaked up the opportunity for the simple things, liking having a breakfast with the boys yesterday and getting the chance to catch up with old friends. [X – PensInsideScoop]

Behind the scenes with some stories from days gone by. [The Athletic $]

Sidney Crosby talking about Fleury’s play, and pranks. [Dave Molinari – Substack]

The pranks were there, Crosby and Letang’s vehicles getting the worst of it.

This shouldn’t (and surely won’t) be it for Fleury in Pittsburgh…Next stop, a jersey retirement ceremony? [Post-Gazette]

Youngsters named James…Always mischievous.

First victim: His own dad
Second victim: Evgeni Malkin

No one is safe. pic.twitter.com/NKFXBwjIPA

— Penguins PR (@PenguinsPR) September 26, 2025

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67379/marc-andres-day

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Blue Jackets Recap: Fleury shines in his last game

The Penguins and Blue Jackets traditionally meet for two preseason games a year, convenient for all given the geography. They haven’t had a preseason game like this, which officially was a run of the mill NHL exhibition game. Then again, run of the mill NHL exhibition games don’t draw a sell out crowd full of the emotion that comes from saying goodbye to a franchise icon. The unique Marc-Andre Fleury game is here.

The Pens’ lineup for the night, marking the preseason debuts of all their best players to join Fleury, who it was announced would play the third period.

How we're lining up vs. Columbus pic.twitter.com/7TBK3EAUkl

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 27, 2025

The Blue Jackets didn’t bring many of their bests, nothing unusual for a road preseason game where a team does a favor to their top guys and lets them stay at home and take a night off.

Yinz ready?

https://t.co/foNtS2f4uB

CBJ x @OhioHealth pic.twitter.com/0Wyw8M2hev

— Columbus Blue Jackets (@BlueJacketsNHL) September 26, 2025

Columbus scored in the first period on a 2-on-1, nice finish.

Sidney Crosby looks ready for the season. Exquisite placement on this shot, and check out the little setup by Avery Hayes. Looks pretty good. 1-1 game.

Raise your hand if you missed Sidney Crosby scoring goals at PPG Paints Arena:

pic.twitter.com/LVvIHVVpmr

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 28, 2025

The Pens took the lead with just 1.6 seconds left in the second period on the power play, Erik Karlsson’s point offering got hung up with Crosby near the net and Rickard Rakell was there to chip the loose puck home from the crease. 2-1 game.

RICKY RAKS BEATS THE BUZZER ON THE POWER PLAY! pic.twitter.com/IWz441mm6a

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 28, 2025

It turned into the Fleury show in the third period, the veteran goalie took the ice to a standing ovation and a crowd chanting his name. Letang even needlessly played the puck back to his buddy to get him a touch — and more importantly a chance for another big roar from the crowd. Fleury went vintage with one more pokecheck a few moments into his period.

Fleury was active making saves, many routine but to the delight of the crowd, and then the Pens doubled the lead out of no where. Ville Koivunen did well to pick off a breakout attempt and turned that into an easy goal for himself. 3-1.

VILLE BURIES IT! pic.twitter.com/XeEAlfjVVd

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 28, 2025

Owen Pickering got rung up for a penalty, even though it look like the other guy just fell down. Tristan Broz picked the team up by keeping his legs moving to draw a makeup call soon after and nothing comes of it.

Columbus pulls their goalie late, but by the cruel irony of fate, the play never comes close to Fleury to offer him his elusive dream of a goalie goal. Rakell takes care of that to tack on his second of the game. 4-1.

The game came to a perfect end when the Pens put Malkin, Crosby, Rust, Karlsson and Letang all on the ice for the final shift. With about 12 seconds left Malkin pulled the plug on trying to score again and passed the puck all the way back to Fleury to soak in the final seconds.

The home team in preseason games can elect for a shootout, regardless of game score. The Pens did so, and Blue Jackets agreed. A few more moments in the spotlight for Fleury.

Letang went first for the Pens, and chipped a shot high.

Yegor Chinakov got to go against Fleury, pad save on the aggressive challenge!

Crosby was next up for the home team, denied on his shot.

Cole Sillinger goes next, he can’t beat Fleury’s sprawling leg to the far post and the shot is wide anyways as it clicks off the outside of it. MAF gives the post a little love, one more time.

Malkin is next but his shot doesn’t work.

Luca Del Bel Belluz goes next, Fleury gives his classic pushups as the series starts. He picks himself up and gets beaten to the forehand to end the game, not that anyone minded.

Some more thoughts to finish it up

• Setting Fleury stuff aside for a second, the way teams choose to break forwards into pairs is always intriguing. Crosby-Rust has been a long-term connection that we all know about. Malkin-Mantha have been together extensively this training camp, looking ready to form the basis of a line. Rakell-Koivunen is another combo that’s gotten a lot of play this preseason. The ultimate end result may well be to move one or both of Rakell and Koivunen to Crosby’s line, but the creative idea to expand the depth is sitting there, at least as a possibility. It would outside of the box but interesting to think about if the talent stays split across three lines various pieces like Justin Brazeau, Philip Tomasino, Tommy Novak, maybe Danton Heinen (and eventually Rutger McGroarty when he’s healthy) get worked around into the blank spaces available to fill out those pairs that have played together so far. If it comes to that, which it might not since Rakell is going to need a pure center sooner than later. (And, afterall the Pens went Rakell-Crosby-Rust for a d-zone draw late in the game before their ENG for a reason..)
• Could Avery Hayes play his way into the mix? He didn’t look out of place with Crosby tonight. Based on the math, you would think not and this could be a one night only type of thing for now, but it certainly does make for a good data point in the minds of the coaches and managers to see Hayes do well in that spot in case it might be something to look at again at some point during the long season.
• A premiere game also means something towards the defense usage and potential future plans. Tonight Parker Wotherspoon and Caleb Jones got huge opportunities to partner up with Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang, respectively. Whether it’s popular or not, Jones may be a placeholder for Ryan Graves, who played last night. If that’s more of less the top-four, the picture clears up for Harrison Brunicke and Owen Pickering to fit in if it works out (Matt Dumba and Clifton Connor then going to healthy scratch island, at least until the decision to keep or send Brunicke back down). The picture could be shuffled at any time, but it’s not difficult to see those pieces slotting together.
• Columbus didn’t dress a good lineup, the Pens put a lot of big names out there. Why didn’t the Pens crush them right out the gates? As always, this Jack Han take has to be considered:

At this time of year, the team icing the most "preseason" rosters typically beat the opposing teams that dress their stars, simply because the AHL/tweeners try harder than the top line NHLers who are just trying not to get hurt.

— Jack Han (@JhanHky) September 22, 2025

• First power play group for the night: Malkin, Crosby, Rakell, Rust, Karlsson. We’ll see how much staying power that ends up having for the regular season, the Mike Sullivan/David Quinn power play often had Malkin split away from Crosby for significant times last year, for pretty much the first time.
• Player development can be unnoticeably small and take a while, but it certainly looks to the eye like Ben Kindel has been incrementally better in each and every viewing during this preseason. At the beginning of the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo he was barely a factor, eventually having a great game at the end. The same has unfolded in his three preseason games to date. He’s not quite NHL ready yet, but the talent has been on display more and more.
• One goal and two assists for Crosby in his preseason debut, still looking like the same old Sid (as if there were any doubts).
• Murashov ended up stopping 12/13 shots he saw in 40 minutes, including a flair for the dramatic with a big glove save on a breakaway. We can only hope this night is the obvious bridge from past to future in net, even if 575 career wins are too big of skates for anyone to expect to fill.
• Fleury made all eight saves on the shots he saw. You can understand why everyone would want the shootout to extend the night even longer but that was unnecessary. Named first star of the night, Fleury earned one more chance to soak up the adoration of the crowd that showed up to cheer him on every second he was in there. Special moment to take in.

A picture taken before the game, for your viewing pleasure:

Brothers for life. pic.twitter.com/H6dQnEYzzS

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 27, 2025

Truly a night for the history books that will hold a special place in the franchise’s lore for all who got to experience putting a well-deserved cherry on top of one of the greatest careers the NHL has ever seen. Congrats, cheers and merci to Marc-Andre Fleury for wrapping it up in the place he belonged.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/game-reca...-jackets-recap-fleury-shines-in-his-last-game

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins have a whole lot of waivin’ left to do

Here’s the announcement of waivers today. There were no Penguins today, and haven’t been any yet.

#NHL waivers on Sunday: pic.twitter.com/WkqckEe8cw

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 28, 2025

There’s a reason for that with three preseason games left to go this week, including one tomorrow. The Penguins still have 58 players on their roster, pretty thick for this time of year.

Let’s do a little breakdown of how things are looking based on the last roster the Penguins gave out.

Forwards (26): Justin Brazeau, Tristan Broz, Cal Burke*, Atley Calvert**, Sidney Crosby, Connor Dewar, Robby Fabbri*, Filip Hallander, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Avery Hayes, Danton Heinen, Aaron Huglen**, Boko Imama, Ben Kindel***, Ville Koivunen, Blake Lizotte, Evgeni Malkin, Anthony Mantha, Aidan McDonough**, Sam Poulin, Valtteri Puustinen, Rickard Rakell, Nolan Renwich**, Bryan Rust, Philip Tomasino

Defensemen (16): Sebastian Aho, Alexander Alexeyev, Harrison Brunicke***, Connor Clifton, Matt Dumba, Ryan Graves, Finn Harding, Caleb Jones, Erik Karlsson, Phil Kemp, Kris Letang, Owen Pickering, Chase Pietila, Ryan Shea, Jack St. Ivany, Parker Wotherspoon

Goalies (5): Marc-Andre Fleury*, Tristan Jarry, Filip Larsson, Sergei Murashov, Arturs Silovs

Key:
*PTOs
** AHL contracts
***Junior eligible players

Injured players who will go straight to the IR, like Kevin Hayes, Joel Blomqvist and presumably Noel Acciari and Rutger McGroarty have not been a part of the official playing roster.

Where will the cuts come from? That’s where the fun begins. Pretty much everyone with an asterisk after their name is facing an uphill battle, though Fabbri and Brunicke might still have more time in the next week to make their case. From there, all the names in bold are bold for a reason, those are players who would have to be waived to get assigned to the AHL and are all in the danger zone for that potentially happening in the next week or so. From there, younger players like Broz, A. Hayes, Harding, Murashov, Pietila and others can be assigned back to the AHL without requiring being placed on waivers.

The question is one of timing, which could also be answered by the game schedule with games on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Friday game, also the only home game, could serve as a final tuneup for much of the eventual lineup. One reason the Pens are carrying so many players who won’t be on the team (like the ones on AHL contracts) is since Monday and Wednesday’s games are on the road, those types of players can help get through those games and the others on the bubble have one more chance to show their stuff and make a case for staying with the NHL team as the season approaches

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67438/penguins-have-a-whole-lot-of-waivin-left-to-do

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins announce roster for game against Red Wings

The Penguins announced the players that they’re taking to Detroit for tonight’s preseason game against the Red Wings.

The roster for tomorrow night’s preseason game in Detroit has been announced.

Details: https://t.co/JGeEIHg78S pic.twitter.com/5WsHGB2jhx

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 28, 2025

From the team:

Below is the Penguins’ lineup for Monday night’s preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings at Little Caesars Arena. Puck drop is set for 7:00 PM ET and fans can watch a live stream of the game on www.nhl.com/penguins or tune in to the game on the Penguins’ official flagship radio station, 105.9 ‘The X’.

FORWARDS

11 – Filip Hallander
12 – Robby Fabbri
14 – Boko Imama
15 – Joona Koppanen
18 – Tommy Novak
22 – Sam Poulin
41 – Ville Koivunen
43 – Danton Heinen
48 – Valtteri Puustinen
49 – Rafael Harvey-Pinard
53 – Philip Tomasino
81 – Ben Kindel
85 – Avery Hayes

DEFENSE

3 – Jack St. Ivany
5 – Ryan Shea
24 – Matt Dumba
27 – Ryan Graves
44 – Chase Pietila
52 – Philip Kemp
56 – Alexander Alexeyev

GOALIES

31 – Filip Larsson
35 – Tristan Jarry

This is a classic preseason road game roster, with none of the key players being made to travel and compete again, after that group already played a couple of nights ago. That doesn’t mean the lineup will be without intrigue though, almost all of the players have something on the line to present a good showing that could advance their cases and place against each other within the organization’s depth chart.

That can be the odd part, all of these players are on the same team but there might be only a few lineup places for Tomasino, Heinen, Fabbri, Hayes, Hallander, Poulin, Imama, and Harvey-Pinard to be competing for, or on the blueline between Shea, Graves, Dumba, St. Ivany and Alexeyev. Educated guesses can be made as to which players might be ahead or behind in those battles but a game like tonight with all the competitors on the same ice against the same opponent will be a good data point for the team to consider based on the performance of each individual when they go to make roster decisions later in the week. How much weight one single night will carry in those decisions remains to be seen, but tonight would be a great night to have a good night for players in that range who still have something to prove or show in order to secure a spot.

And while Ben Kindel (probably) isn’t in the mix to play regular season games, it has been a very good September for the Pens’ top pick in the draft that he has turned into an extended look to get more opportunities to compete and grow at the NHL level to show his stuff. Kindel only has a few more of those chances as this preseason draws to an end, but his continued participation deeper into the preseason is a good sign for the path and hopefully progression as he gears up for his draft+1 season.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67455/67455

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Red Wings Preseason Recap: Kindel and Hayes pop again in win

The Penguins went to Detroit with the following crew that’s road worthy for a preseason game.

Tonight's preseason lineup in Detroit pic.twitter.com/wPlJJZzeH2

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 29, 2025

The home Red Wings don’t dress their absolute best, but there’s still plenty of talent to work with tonight.

Monday night lineup vs. Pittsburgh. pic.twitter.com/jEZS5zh2XR

— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) September 29, 2025

The beginning of the game looked like it would be a struggle, Detroit was owning the puck and recorded the first five shots on goal. The Pens could barely break out of their zone with possession, let alone touch the puck outside of it. Out of no where, a turnover saw Avery Hayes touch the puck for Ryan Shea to take off. Shea made a nice drive up the ice and laid a perfect pass over for Ben Kindel. Kindel had his opponent beaten going up the ice and got a nice shot away. 1-0 Pens.

Kindy gets us going pic.twitter.com/gvUDqbACXo

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 29, 2025

The Pens got another in the second period, Philip Tomasino fired a hard centering pass that looked like it clicked off Tommy Novak, then bounced off the leg of the driving Filip Halander and Novak was able to slam it home as he flew by the net. 2-0.

Tommy comin' in HOT pic.twitter.com/XqxLRQmFKG

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 30, 2025

Detroit spoils Tristan Jarry’s shutout bid with 3:40 to go in the third. Danton Heinen failed on a clear earlier and then Logan Pietila swung his skate and missed to breakup a pass, leaving a player all alone in front. 2-1 game.

The Red Wings pull their goalie but can’t score before the clock runs out.

Some more thoughts:

• Kindel’s goal was a beauty, skating is often a knock on him but he had no problem scooting up the ice and staying ahead of Alex Debrincat, whose no slouch on his skates. Straight line speed is one aspect of skating but it goes to show in a game situation that players with drive can elevate and perform and maybe also that reputations from internet scouting reports don’t always ring true just because it gets repeated a lot secondhand. On other thing about Kindel there, while it was a nice finish, it might be more notable that Kindel started the play by hawking down what would have been a clearing attempt going as a turnover. One part of the scouting that is true is that Kindel is good in all three zones to skate back like he did and get in position to start the play. You saw that in a ton of his highlights in junior where before the goal there was something good Kindel did in his own end, and you’re starting to see that in the NHL, albeit in preseason format.
• The play by Shea in that sequence was really encouraging too. He was confident and showed no hesitation getting up the ice and setup the goal. It’s not like Shea is known for his wheels or playmaking either (three assists in 70 career NHL games) so take it with a grain of salt that he’s unlocked some new area, but it can’t be a bad thing to have a good night. The display of confidence and making the play is a positive sign for where he’s at right now.
• To triple note on that first goal: Hayes has made a couple of subtle, nifty little plays this preseason – tonight’s touch to Shea on the Kindel goal was reminiscent of the pass Hayes made to Crosby in the prior game against Columbus. The more you watch him the more you notice little inputs like that. The pass itself isn’t that incredible, but Hayes set it up by feinting like he was going to skate the puck out with speed, causing the defender to stride towards him. That opened up the middle of the ice for Shea to step right into the pass. Whether or not Hayes has shown enough to make the NHL team out of camp is a big question with an uncertain answer from the outside looking in, but Hayes has certainly done enough to be worthy of having his name in the conversation. You could tell me he’s one of the top-12 forwards in the organization right now and I wouldn’t protest. If the numbers or the mix doesn’t work out right off the bat, at this rate it seems like a sure bet Hayes will be a callup to the NHL at some point this season and make his debut, at the very least.
• Interesting usage with Filip Hallander and Sam Poulin playing with two NHL caliber forwards (which isn’t to imply anything about PTO Robby Fabbri’s future, simply to say he has been an NHL player for a long time). Did either of the more unestablished players stand out? Can’t say they really did in a hugely positive way, Hallander had a nice rush up the ice in the second period and pass to Novak and got an assist for being in the right place at the right time (and upon second watch, got a very nice touch on the recovery to eke the puck down towards Novak); Poulin looked decent with some PK time. If nothing else tonight put some more information on tape for the decision makers to consider in a better way than Valtteri Puustinen and Boko Imama taking avoidable minor penalties.
• Tough to analyze defensive defensemen but liked the night from Alexander Alexeyev. Doesn’t seem like he’s gotten a very deep dive or had much of an inside track for an NHL spot this camp (Alexeyev was paired with rookie Chase Pietila tonight, for instance) but Alexeyev can snap the puck and was holding the offensive blue line a few times. He’s not a tremendous player or top-4 talent or anything, but I thought he had a good showing, poised and took care of his business.
• At the other end of the spectrum, if Danton Heinen is truly competing for a spot, tonight couldn’t have helped his cause. Didn’t impress and he failed with the puck on his stick in his own end and it ended up in the net a few seconds later. Less the glaring mistake, a lot could to be said for Fabbri too, who of course truly is needing a great camp to stick. Not the end of the world to not stand out in a singular game but time is starting to run short. If this game counts for anything, it’s got to be Hayes stock up and Heinen stock down. How much emphasis will be placed on one night is up for debate.
• Sticking with veterans that we haven’t opined that much about; Dumba has looked completely neutral in the preseason. Not necessarily bad, not good. Do kind of worry when the competition ratchets up to regular season speed, does he fall behind and limitations start to show at that point? Feels like a real worry. You can tell as a veteran he’s getting into gear himself and working off the heavy legs
• Novak’s had an oddly quiet preseason, scoring one tonight should help get things rolling or the confidence up at least. As seen on Dave Molinari’s twitter, Novak lost the first eight faceoffs he took and ended up only winning 2/16 draws on the night…I do wonder if Novak is going to be a center for the long term or would benefit from a switch to the wing (which could bolster the chances of natural center Tristan Broz, who didn’t play tonight but ought to be in consideration for where the pieces fit). Not to throw huge red flags based off one performance, just an observation to kick around.
• Another observation that’s more situational than telling is that through two periods the Pens had 15 shots on goal. Only nine of them came from forwards (and three forwards in Kindel, Tomasino and Novak each had two SOG to make up the bulk of that low number). There wasn’t a ton of forward talent on the ice which explains that well enough that the problem gets solved when the skilled players get in there, but that paints the picture well about not too many standing out tonight.
• Don’t look now but…Tristan Jarry! Good game from him, wasn’t peppered with shots and he got bailed out by the crossbar from Patrick Kane with a wide open look, but all things considered Jarry did everything he needed to do in his first full game, didn’t have much of a chance on the goal against and stopped the rest. Not to say many will take a ton of confidence in him until he performs like this when it counts, but looking sharp in the preseason is preferable to the alternative.

NHL GameScore Impact Card for Pittsburgh Penguins on 2025-09-29: pic.twitter.com/HQ8DNT9CFz

— HockeyStatCards (@hockeystatcards) September 30, 2025

The chart matched a lot of what the eye test said; Kindel, Shea, Hayes and Koivunen, who we didn’t touch on since there weren’t any singular big moments, were great. Maybe I’m too hard on Dumba, and frankly this was a friendlier view of St. Ivany’s night than I would have given. Fabbri was OK but down the line relative to others since he didn’t do a lot to move the needle. Then down the line some struggles for Heinen, Pietila, Puustinen and Imama – no disputes here.

One more preseason game down, and just two to go! The Pens will regroup briefly in Pittsburgh tomorrow before a group of them head up to Buffalo on Wednesday night.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/game-reca...eason-recap-kindel-and-hayes-pop-again-in-win

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins announce lineup for game against Buffalo

The Penguins have announced their lineup for their penultimate preseason game tomorrow night in Buffalo.

The roster for tomorrow's preseason game in Buffalo has been announced.

Details: https://t.co/yVP2uYByac pic.twitter.com/CL8URE6XMs

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) September 30, 2025

From the team:

FORWARDS

11 – Filip Hallander
12 – Robby Fabbri
15 – Joona Koppanen
22 – Sam Poulin
26 – Tristan Broz
41 – Ville Koivunen
43 – Danton Heinen
46 – Blake Lizotte
49 – Rafael Harvey-Pinard
53 – Philip Tomasino
55 – Noel Acciari
81 – Ben Kindel
85 – Avery Hayes

DEFENSE

3 – Jack St. Ivany
5 – Ryan Shea
24 – Matt Dumba
27 – Ryan Graves
38 – Owen Pickering
45 – Harrison Brunicke
52 – Philip Kemp

GOALIES

31 – Filip Larsson
37 – Arturs Silovs

Tomorrow’s non-game group will skate at 9:30 AM at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex and features the below players:

Forwards: Justin Brazeau, Sidney Crosby, Connor Dewar, Boko Imama, Aidan McDonough, Evgeni Malkin, Anthony Mantha, Tommy Novak, Valtteri Puustinen, Sam Poulin, Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust

Defensemen: Sebastian Aho, Alexander Alexeyev, Connor Clifton, Caleb Jones, Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Chase Pietila and Parker Wotherspoon.

Goalies: Tristan Jarry and Sergei Murashov

This looks like the last game opportunity for many, and what a list it is. All six of the forwards we listed as being on the bubble of the roster projection are out there. Now that Noel Acciari is game healthy, his name should go right on that list as a player looking to make the opening night 23-player roster. Even the forwards who aren’t considered to be in the immediate battle for serious contention for a lineup spot out of camp could be potential mid-season call-ups depending on what the team needs from the likes of Joona Koppanen, Sam Poulin and Rafael Harvey-Pinard.

The breakdown of the lines for tomorrow will be something to keep an eye on. Pairing Tristan Broz, with say, Philip Tomasino and Ville Koivunen could be a signal for a third line audition, just as the players on the wing of Blake Lizotte could be at least a one night tryout for a potential fourth line. Would it be Acciari and Fabbri? Heinen and Hallander? Hayes and Kindel? Some combination of that, or even none of the above? The choices are about endless and will provide some fodder for how the team might be starting to come into focus. Then again, depending on how the night goes, in preseason the disclaimer about any and every combo could be short-lived or not carrying that great of meaning for the future always applies.

Regardless of how the splits are made, the stakes are very high for almost all of these players to show their stuff and make what could be their final case heading into the upcoming decisions of who will break camp with the team. The Pens only have one more preseason game after this one, and that typically is more or less a dress rehearsal for the opening night lineup and an opportunity for the star players to knock a little more rust off and get ready for the first game next Tuesday.

Defensively, it’s at least interesting that the team keeps taking a look at Matt Dumba for game action and has been scratching Connor Clifton as of late for preseason games. The defensive core for tomorrow could look a lot like it did last night against Detroit with Dumba, Jack St. Ivany, Ryan Graves and Ryan Shea all getting back into another game. And who could omit that the famed #PickNicke pairing of Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke are going to get another go at it, though the real question might be whether or not they’re picked for Friday’s game.

A goaltender has not been announced, we’re getting to the point in the preseason where the goalies are getting ramped up for full action which means it wouldn’t be a surprise if Silovs is scheduled to go the distance for him to get one last tune up before the games start to count.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/67515/penguins-announce-lineup-for-game-against-buffalo

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Projecting the Penguins’ 2025-26 roster

As the season draws nearer and since there’s a little more competition involved for the Penguins in training camp than there has been in past years, let’s go back to how the current outlook is settling in for the roster. What has changed since this was done last month?

We can start with a few injuries. It looks like Joel Blomqvist, Kevin Hayes and Rutger McGroarty will be on the injured reserve to start the season – answering a couple of questions there but raising a few more.

Training camp performances will be interesting for the coaches and decision makers to weigh. Young players like Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes, Ben Kindel, Harrison Brunicke and Sergei Murashov have all had very strong Septembers and offer varying degrees of optimism for the future. Is it enough to crack the roster? That’s a tough question to answer from the outside, but we’ll put what the picture should be.

Forwards​

On the roster (11): Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Rickard Rakell, Bryan Rust, Anthony Mantha, Justin Brazeau, Blake Lizotte, Ville Koivunen, Tommy Novak, Philip Tomasino, Connor Dewar

The battle for 2-3 spots: Danton Heinen, Robby Fabbri, Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes, Ben Kindel, Filip Hallander

IR: Noel Acciari, Kevin Hayes, Rutger McGroarty

The big question here will be just how willing the Pens would be to move on from an NHL staple like Heinen (or even Fabbri) in order to incorporate the younger wave into the mix right from the start.

A complicating matter, as seen in the next area, is that Pittsburgh very well might keep eight defenders on their opening night roster – especially if Harrison Brunicke earns a spot. That would remove one forward from the mix down to 13 total, and 11 spots ought to be considered wrapped up. That makes for some late camp drama over whether the Pens will take the path of least resistance and maintain their depth by assigning some players back to the AHL to start the season like Broz and A. Hayes, or go the other way and have the younger forwards in the competition stick right off the bat.

At this point, Ben Kindel has deserved to put himself into the conversation due to his performance in the four preseason games that he’s played in. Kindel has taken tangible steps and shown growth and improvement at every viewing. There’s always the risk that due to his age, 18, and his overall game is not ready for the NHL regular season. If he makes the team, it likely would just be for up to nine games so that he could be sent back to juniors before appearing in a 10th game and triggering the start of his entry level contract. Sometimes it’s OK for a young player to get a long look and have a good preseason and leave it at that. But would it be the worst thing in the world to rotate players like Brazeau and Tomasino as the 13th forward for a couple of weeks to get a look at Kindel? Probably not for the Penguins. That still seems like a big leap to actually include Kindel with the team, it’s a credit to his excellent performance that this conversation can be had, we’ll see what comes from it.

If Kindel is reluctantly moved back, the Pens would likely have two spots to fill between the vets (Heinen, Fabbri) and the youngsters (Broz, Hayes). Heinen is an easy player to write off or forget, but he also brings that higher floor and experience to know what to expect. Perhaps the best compromise outcome is to split the difference and keep one of the vets and one of the young players, and then see where it goes from there.

Questions will have to be answered soon, Acciari is not expected to be out long-term, and even K. Hayes should be back from IR before the season gets too deep. Based on the impressive way the next wave of younger forwards are trending, it would appear that sooner or later the team is going to need to make difficult choices to move on from veterans. Seeing if that will come as soon as this week for a guy like Broz or A. Hayes to jump over someone like Heinen will be one of the most intriguing questions that the Pens will have to answer. Often times for depth, the team might lean to keeping the older players and assigning the youngsters to the AHL, so that they have something to fall back on. For all we know, there could be a situation like last year where Lars Eller was traded early in the season that could open up more room.

Defense​

On the roster (7) : Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Parker Wotherspoon, Ryan Graves, Matt Dumba, Connor Clifton, Owen Pickering

The big question: Harrison Brunicke

What to do with Brunicke will be a big swing point for how the roster looks. As mentioned above, the team could use that roster spot to keep an extra forward if they return Brunicke to juniors. They also only keep three left handed defenders in this outlook, which means sending Brunicke back could also mean giving that spot to a fringe player like Ryan Shea, Caleb Jones or Alexander Alexeyev to provide another option for the left side. Based on the lack of strength on that left side, it would be a good idea to have additional choices there.

The Pens haven’t closed the door on using a right shot defender on their off-side, but they also haven’t looked to experiment in training camp by seeing someone like Dumba, Clifton or even Letang on the left and paired with a right shot.

In all, Brunicke’s play has been strong enough that he will be in serious consideration to get at least that nine game NHL stint. Teenaged defensemen are a rare and almost mythical being in the NHL, it would seem the most likely result that Brunicke won’t be in Pittsburgh all season — but the door is open for him to get a look and see how it goes.

Goalies​

On the roster (2): Tristan Jarry and Arturs Silovs

IR: Joel Blomqvist

This might be the easiest area to project, after the injury to Blomqvist makes this fairly straight forward to start the season. As we saw last season, however, it may not stay that way for very long depending on how the performances go.

Murashov has had a great camp, but he’s 21-years old and only has 17 total AHL games under his belt. The list of 21-year old NHL goalies was limited to 20 minutes last season across the whole league, to say he’s still incredibly young for the position. In this situation, patience is best for Murashov to head to Wilkes-Barre and gain more experience for the future. If Jarry or Silovs faceplants and Murashov keeps excelling at the AHL level, maybe something during the season could be considered, for now this is a spot where the veterans will carry the roster spots out of camp.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/67464/projecting-the-penguins-2025-26-roster

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Marc-Andre Fleury memoribillia to be auctioned off for charities

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury recently closed the book on a Hockey Hall of Fame-worthy career, taking one final bow with the team that drafted him in 2003.

Always considered a fan-favorite, those same fans now have the chance to get their hands on some autographed merchandise and game-worn equipment, with the proceeds of recently announced auctions benefitting the Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation and the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania.

Some of the items include signed pucks, signed photographs and jerseys.

The supposed “crown jewel” of the auction lot includes Fleury’s game-worn (and autographed) goalie mask that he donned against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sept. 27.

Fleury played the full third period, making eight saves. He also participated in a shootout to end his memorable night.

Those dedicated to collecting will have to shell out a pretty penny for the mask. As of Tuesday afternoon, there have been over 45 bids, with the bid price surpassing $30,000.

The auction will end at noon Eastern Time on Oct. 6. More information about the auction and a full list of collectibles can be found at this link.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67507/marc-andre-fleury-memoribillia-auction

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Ben Kindel’s impressive preseason reason for long-term optimism

The Pittsburgh Penguins decision to select forward Benjamin Kindel with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2025 NHL Draft was an immediately polarizing decision. It was something of an off-the-board pick, especially given some of the bigger — and expected — names that were available (looking at you, Viktor Eklund). While it was something of a surprise, there was still a lot to like about his upside and his potential.

Both the talent and the production were there, and while he was not necessarily projected as a top-11 pick a lot of prospects experts and scouting experts saw the upside with him.

So far this preseason Kindel is doing a lot to validate the Penguins’ faith in him.

Now, preseason results always need to be taken with a grain of salt because there is always some question as to the level of talent players are competing against. NHL regulars are not always out there, and you can play some lineups some nights that are full of AHLers and players waiting to get sent back to the Junior leagues.

But Kindel has been given quite a run and extended leash this preseason against all levels of competition, and the end results are pretty much always the same — he has been good and stood out, while also consistently getting better.

He played another strong game on Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres, demonstrating a willingness and ability to make the little plays along the boards and subtle plays with the puck to keep possession moving. He also set up defenseman Matt Dumba for a goal on a blistering one-timer during a delayed penalty situation.

HERE COMES DUMBA! pic.twitter.com/ywZe2U5kot

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 2, 2025

From a numbers perspective this preseason he has a goal and an assist, while also recording 14 shots on goal and 26 total shot attempts. The latter two numbers being extremely impressive, and a strong demonstration of his ability to create offense and chances.

The overall underlying numbers when he’s on ice are also strog, as he owns a 72.3 percent expected goals share, a 75 percent actual goals share (3-1) and a 59.6 percent shot attempt share.

He’s been awesome.

That brings up two big discussion points.

The first is whether or not it makes any sense to give him a nine-game look to open the season before he goes back to juniors. The Penguins have said they want to go young this season — or at least dropped the hint to the local media — and would not hesitate to sit veterans for younger players. They probably did not have Kindel in mind for one of those spots, but they also may not have expected him to be this good.

Even so, making the jump from the CHL to NHL in one year is a massive for a player his age, and it does not happen often outside of the top picks in the draft. It might be tempting, but it might be better off to just give him another full year to develop before putting him in the NHL.

The other key point is what this might mean for the farm system as a whole.

While the Penguins farm system and prospect pool has become significantly deeper and better over the past year, and actually has some real talent at the top, they are still missing a big-time future star that can be a cornerstone building block. Rutger McGroary, Ville Koivunen and Harrison Brunicke are serious prospects that could have outstanding futures in the league, but they may not quite be on the star or superstar level.

Sergei Murashov might find that description, and given his position (goalie) he could be the most impactful player of the bunch. But he’s also a goalie and those guys are impossible to project.

Then there is Kindel.

He is the highest draft pick the Penguins have had in years, and that alone makes him one of the organization’s best prospects. Could he eventually become one of those All-Star level building blocks?

It’s still a small sample size in the preseason, but he’s showing a lot of the talents and skills you want to see from an NHL player and holding his own as a literal teenager. It remains to be seen if the Penguins got this pick right, but he has done nothing but build some excitement and optimism in our first real look at him in a Penguins uniform.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/pittsburg...ssive-preseason-reason-for-long-term-optimism

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins waive six, including Danton Heinen

The roster is starting to come into focus for the Penguins.

The team sent five players to the AHL camp.

The Penguins have reduced their training camp roster.

Details: https://t.co/lwC2LZrj1d pic.twitter.com/neAZJiAnyn

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 2, 2025

The following players have been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s training camp (AHL):

Scooter Brickey
Mathieu De St. Phalle
Taylor Gauthier
Aidan McDonough
Chase Pietila

Of that list, only Pietila is on an NHL contract and some of the others have been injured, so no surprises to see them moved out of the NHL area at this point deep into camp.

The bigger movement came with the 2pm announcement of waivers. For the first time this season, the Penguins put players on it. Six, in fact.

Today's Waiver Wire: https://t.co/so7qgeK2D3

Sign up for PuckPedia Alerts & select waivers to get the waiver wire activity sent to your inbox each dayhttps://t.co/zZESpQlAgp pic.twitter.com/fFPwfW4otB

— PuckPedia (@PuckPedia) October 2, 2025

Sebastian Aho, Danton Heinen, Philip Kemp, Joona Koppanen, Filip Larsson and Valtteri Puustinen all hit the wire. Tomorrow at 2pm it will be announced if they clear. If so, they will likely be assigned to the AHL. Heinen is the surprise in the mix as an established NHL veteran with a $2.2 million cap hit that hasn’t seen the minor leagues since the 2017-18 season.

In addition to Bryan Rust, the injury list grew longer. Jack St. Ivany is out for six weeks after presumably breaking something in his foot last night following being struck by a puck during the game against the Sabres.

The Pens also had a perhaps telling practice today that was split into two sessions. Here was a fluid outlook from the NHL group, which included Avery Hayes, Ben Kindel and Filip Hallander up front as well as Caleb Jones on the blueline.

Penguins forward groupings at today's practice:
Crosby with Koivunen/Rakell
Malkin with Mantha/Brazeau (A. Hayes)
Novak with Kindel/Tomasino (Hallander)
Lizotte with Acciari/Dewar

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 2, 2025

Penguins defense pairings at today's practice:
Wotherspoon-Karlsson
Jones-Letang
Clifton (R) did reps with Brunicke and Graves
Shea (L) did reps with Brunicke and Dumba

— Pens Inside Scoop (@PensInsideScoop) October 2, 2025

The first practice group that skated apart from the listings above included all six players who got waived plus Aidan McDonough who assigned to the AHL today, plus Tristan Broz, Robby Fabbri, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Boko Imama, Sam Poulin as well as defenders Alexander Alexeyev and Owen Pickering.

As of now, that seems to point to a “stock down” situation for Broz and Pickering to make the team out of camp, with good news for Kindel, Hallander, Hayes and Brunicke to still be sticking with the main group during this day where some decisions were put in motion.

However, even out of that group there were 14 forwards and nine defensemen, there will have to be at least one player in today’s “main” team that doesn’t make the opening night roster, assuming no more players go to the IR instead. It should also be stressed that through injury or future decisions, the team has a few more days to steer into another direction when it comes to some of these groupings.

The Pens have their final preseason game tomorrow night at home against Buffalo. They will have to waive more players (presumably including but not limited to the likes of Poulin, Imama, Harvey-Pinard and Alexeyev) either on Friday, Saturday or Sunday to get them off the NHL roster. Younger players like Broz and Pickering do not require waivers and may be assigned to the AHL club any point before the roster is due on Monday.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/news/67554/penguins-waive-six-including-danton-heinen

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Penguins/Sabres Preseason Recap: Thoughts on a road win

The end of the preseason is approaching quickly, here’s how the Penguins were going in their second to last game of the exhibition campaign.

How we're lining up in Buffalo.

: SNP+
: 105.9 'The X' pic.twitter.com/Hwv8qPbb70

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 1, 2025

The Buffalo Sabres bring a very strong roster to the proceedings, as to be expected this time of year for the home team.

Tonight's roster vs the @penguins.

Tune in to the game on @MSGNetworks and @WGR550! pic.twitter.com/7LzCcnkuRM

— Buffalo Sabres (@BuffaloSabres) October 1, 2025

Pretty dull game early on that opened up when the Pens got the game’s first power play. Tristan Broz did his thing, poking a goal home from in front of the net after Philip Tomasino took the puck hard to the crease. 1-0.

A PPG FOR PGH! pic.twitter.com/2T1bonlOzV

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 1, 2025

The lead didn’t last long, on the next shift Peyton Krebs played Ryan Shea like a fiddle, drawing the defender in and then passing around him to Josh Norris. Shea turned, hacked at Josh Norris and the ref’s arm went up for a penalty until Norris saved them all the trouble by tucking a goal on the backhand around the leg of Arturs Silovs. Nice play by Krebs and Norris there but that’s not film Shea will want to have on tape.

ffPittsburgh returned the favor with a goal on a delayed penalty call in the second period, Ben Kindel laid over a perfect pass for Matt Dumba to lean into and Dumba hammered it home. 2-1.

HERE COMES DUMBA! pic.twitter.com/ywZe2U5kot

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 2, 2025

The Pens get another power play and convert it into another power play goal. Filip Hallander gets tied up in front of the net but pokes the puck out for Avery Hayes to lift into the net. 3-1.

Avery Hayes getting it done pic.twitter.com/Kh4vvWXF94

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 2, 2025

Josh Norris scored in front early in the third period to bring the score back to 3-2.

Ville Koivunen gets the two-goal lead back by slipping in behind the defense and getting a nice pass from Shea and converting his rush chance. 4-2.

VILLE VILLE VILLE! pic.twitter.com/n2gvn0ve6F

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 2, 2025

Buffalo’s Rasmus Dahlin makes the Pens pay with Blake Lizotte in the penalty box for high stick by skating through Joona Koppanen and Brunicke and then coolly flipping the puck by Silovs. 4-3 game.

Hallander scores into the empty net to finish it out, 5-3.

Some thoughts and stray observations:

• The #PickNicke is over…Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke got split up for the first time in a while. For a time at least, until Jack St. Ivany left the game after taking a shot off the skate scrambled all the defensemen around playing with five. As far the the youngsters, I thought their games went in different directions. Brunicke looked as confident and capable as ever, skating all over the ice like he does, controlling the puck, all systems go. Pickering..not so much. Not a smooth game, got trapped in his end, has troubles not turning the puck over breaking out, thought it was Pickering’s least impressive outing in a while.
• One shift in the first stood out as a real comedy of errors. Philip Tomasino was close to the wall and put Ryan Graves in a bad spot to fling the puck over to him but Graves had already bailed. It wasn’t a good idea to make the pass in the first place but Graves has a knack for aggravating things like that to back off and not even make himself an option for teammates. That led to a Buffalo chance, soon after Filip Hallander had some to go north with the puck and instead tried to go back to Graves and it got picked off leading to another two Buffalo chances. Ugly sequence of events.
• In fact, with St. Ivany out and the defense shuffled up, the common denominator of when the Pens got trapped in their own zone throughout the night was when the 27 of Graves was out there, with any number of different players. It can be easy to hyper-focus on his mistakes but it’s easy because it’s right out there in the open.
• It’s been said in seemingly every recap but it keeps happening and bears repeating about the impressiveness of Ben Kindel’s growth. Ironically enough it was in the same city of Buffalo a few weeks ago where he barely got a few puck touches in the first Prospects Challenge game and was hardly visible. He was great by the end of that, putting up a four-point game in the finale. Fast forward to Buffalo at (presumably) the end of Kindel’s NHL preseason and he’s out there wheeling around on the power play, confidently ripping cross-ice passes successfully through the middle of the ice or making a little between the legs back pass down low for Avery Hayes to get a chance, Kindel is looking very much like a guy picked 11th overall. There will probably be more talk considering (or maybe less charitably pandering) about if Kindel should get a regular season look. At this point, probably not. That’s a bit rich, it shouldn’t takeaway from what he’s been able to do and grow before our very eyes. Needless to say, expect big things from him back in juniors this season.
• Liked what Silovs did in this game, he’s big and tracked the play well, played in control. Flashed the glove big time on Tage Thompson. Silovs is one of the bigger unknowns heading into the season, if only since he’s new and hasn’t had a lot of NHL experience to go off of, he made a strong showing tonight. He’s got a big body and covers up a lot of the net, a lot to like as a tune up for the regular season.
• Any night by Silovs beats his counterpart considering Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen didn’t return for the second period with a lower body injury. Hopefully that was more precautionary than anything, he didn’t have any obvious incidents during the game. That’s always a preseason risk and potential bad result to see a key player go down, which speaks to why the best players only need a couple of games before the real action starts.
• Tonight marked the first time some players were on their offhand defensively. Jack St. Ivany played on the left, until he left the game in the first, and then Ryan Graves rotated in with Brunicke. Shea played on the right, as he did many a-time last season. Josh Norris really had Shea’s number; there was the goal in the first period and then Norris got in behind Shea for a point blank shot on the first shift of the second period.
• Broz is going to give the Pens something to think about. He scored his goal which is nice, he was good on the PK as well, which Dan Muse has talked towards liking his all around game. There’s certainly a conversation to be had about moving Tommy Novak to the wing and starting Broz in the NHL right off the bat.
• Avery Hayes was right there with him to find a loose puck and score a power play goal. It’s fitting that Broz and Hayes both score PPGs, both have had similarly impressive preseasons. Same thoughts apply, it’s still unanswered for just when Hayes will be in the NHL, but it ought to be sooner than later, assuming health.
• Liked the moxie from Tomasino, nothing overwhelming, just looked good aside from not tying up Norris’s stick in front of the net. Similarly, Dumba’s played a lot of preseason hockey and he looked good tonight, even besides the goal.
• On the flip side, quiet night for Heinen and Fabbri to my eye. Same for Acciari, thought being was his first game back after missing some camp time, that’s not a surprise or particularly telling. To an extent, all of those guys are known quantities as far as what they are likely to bring to the table, it’s just a matter of how much the team wants them.
• Koivunen was quiet all night and then — boom — he pops up behind the defense and scores. He’s a fun player to watch play, he picks his spots well and is always hovering, in a good way, around the play.

One more preseason game to go on Friday night at home against the Sabres. The stars should be out for the Penguins, for roster purposes it’ll be worth tracking who is joining them in the lineup.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/game-recaps/67536/penguins-sabres-preseason-recap-thoughts-on-a-road-win

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

2025-26 NHL Standings Predictions: Metropolitan Division

Another year, another year. Hockey begins next week and we’ll be looking for a more accurate Metropolitan Division prediction than last season. Go check out the earlier one from the week for the Atlantic Division.

Last season, the teams in the Metropolitan combined for 713 total points. That was down from 732 total season prior in 2023-24. This time around? Well, we’re going back to 2024-25 levels and came up with 713 points again without even trying to make it match but upon first impressions. That seemed fitting to leave the division right where it was last season and reflect that it doesn’t have as much strength as we’ve seen from top-to-bottom in the Atlantic.

2025-26 Metropolitan Division Predictions

1. Carolina Hurricanes (53-25-4, 110 points)
2. Washington Capitals (47-29-6, 100 points)
3. New Jersey Devils (42-29-11, 95 points)
4. New York Rangers (41-32-9, 91 points)
5. New York Islanders (38-38-6, 82 points)
6. Columbus Blue Jackets (37-38-7, 80 points)
7. Pittsburgh Penguins (35-38-9, 79 points)
8. Philadelphia Flyers (35-42-5, 75 points)

Maybe it should be called the Mushy Metro this year. The Carolina Hurricanes are loaded for bear, gearing up with Nikolaj Ehlers and K’Andre Miller while bringing back all the rest of their key pieces. The Hurricanes had a down regular season, by their standards, with 99 points — breaking a three year streak of having 110+ points. We’ll say that is a blip on the radar and see them returning to that form. Carolina is a machine that keeps on ticking, if there’s anything to count on this year it’s got to be them having a strong season.

The Capitals have been on quite the roller coaster lately, it looked like their window might have closed after 2022, but they were only out of the playoffs for one year. In 2023-24, they snuck in as a mediocre team but last year they jumped out to a huge lead in the division and ended up first in the conference. Washington’s strength comes from defense and depth, which makes them dangerous goaltending and skill kicks in. They may not win the division this season, but they should remain solidly in the hunt.

New Jersey makes for another team with an unpredictable path, in a way they’re the reverse of Washington to where it looked in 2023 that the Devils window had opened when they took flight and emerged from rebuilding with a 112-point season and winning a round in the playoffs. From there, it’s mostly been a false start- NJD missed the playoffs in 2024, and an injured version of their team snuck into the playoffs last year by two points. It could be assumed that this year with health and a second season of Sheldon Keefe that the Devils can regain their trajectory as a top team. All the pieces are certainly in place but we’re going to split the difference and call them as a strong but not exceptional team. Given their recent history, that might be a stable and positive next step to take.

The next team on the list, in which no one really knows what will happen, is the Rangers. The Athletic’s model has them at 94 points, many others far less than that. I’m not that bold on them however putting them with 91 points is intentional (more below). The upgrade from the way they were playing under Peter Laviolette last season to Mike Sullivan should pay dividends, as will having newly installed captain J.T. Miller for a full season. Both Miller and Sullivan will add some Type-A personalities to the mix. Beyond that, Adam Fox had his best seasons under David Quinn and now Quinn is back as an assistant coach and new free agent addition Vladislav Gavrikov will bring a solid defensive acumen. It might not be pretty at all times for the Rangers, but here’s to thinking between Sullivan and Gavrikov that Igor Shesterkin will be able to rebound into his typical form.

From there, I think the rest of the division has at least two things being true at the same time: they have low expectations and nothing really to lose if the season goes south, and they all have significant limitations that are bound to limit what they’re capable of.

In a way, I’m not sure of the order for 5-8. Pulling out of a hat might go just as well but on this I’m deferring to the team with the best goalie to lead the pack, that being Ilya Sorokin out in Long Island. The Islanders finished with 82 points last season, which wasn’t intentional to leave them back at the same place they were, but something also feels right about that as far as them being relatively stagnant at the NHL level and planning to reload with younger players for the future.

Next up, the Blue Jackets. To pick them sixth is to say one doesn’t believe in their goaltending, and I don’t. Jet Greaves could make that prediction look foolish, but that’s a big ask for an inexperienced goalie that teams are going to get more tape and figure out tendencies and weakness sooner than later. I like a lot of Columbus’s young forwards but the big adds of Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood aren’t that overwhelming for a blueline that has Zach Werenski and a lot of hope that Ivan Provorov doesn’t get content with his big contract, Dante Fabbro keeps his game above the level of a player on waivers last year and a few young players keep growing.

Then come the Penguins, and needless to say Pat Brisson is not going to be happy with how this season works out in Pittsburgh. The defense is too weak and the best players are all on the wrong side of 30. It’s nice and exciting that some young blood isn’t far from making an impact, though arguably the young player the team needed to step up most this training camp in Owen Pickering apparently didn’t do enough to make the roster. The Pens seem fine with coasting in neutral for now, not full on rebuilding but content to let the contracts of their veterans play out while stocking up on young talent. It’s hard to imagine they accomplish much else than that this season, at least until waiting to see how the lottery draft goes (which: luv ya, Gary!)

Bringing up the rear is the Flyers, their off-season hilariously summarized by Down Goes Brown in six words with: “ Fixed the goaltending with Dan Vladar”. That’s no fix at all and Samuel Ersson hasn’t looked any better this preseason. Philadelphia is bringing Todd Reirden back as an assistant under Rick Tocchet, which has to encapsulate the biggest of admiration from Pittsburgh fans for feelings of former Pens assistant coaches can possibly get. The Flyers have had even more top-50/60 picks in the past few years than their in-state rivals. They’re also playing out the string to let their contracts get closer to expiring and wait for help to come one day. And so it will go for them.

—​

Playoffs​

Based on this preview with the one earlier this week for the Atlantic Division we have predicted the following first round matchups:

Carolina (Metro 1) vs. Detroit (WC 2)
Washington (Metro 2) vs. New Jersey (Metro 3)

Tampa (Atlantic 1) vs. NY Rangers (WC 1)
Toronto (Atlantic 2) vs. Florida (Atlantic 3)

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/general/67567/2025-26-nhl-standings-predictions-metropolitan-division

 

[Pittsburgh Penguins]

Pens/Sabres Recap: Thoughts as the preseason ends

The Penguins had some decisions to make with 23 skaters for 18 spots and they came up with some interesting ones. No Blake Lizotte, no Ryan Graves, no Avery Hayes, no Matt Dumba or Ryan Shea.

Lined up and ready to roll. pic.twitter.com/9OMyvealOq

— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 3, 2025

Pittsburgh struck first in a controversial way when Philip Tomasino got some help and smashed into goalie Alex Lyon and the puck slid into the net along with the two players. No way that counts in the regular season, when the contact happens way before the puck enters the net, but hey, Tomasino got the idea right to take the puck to the paint hard and got rewarded for it.

Buffalo then scored the next three goals of the game. After the third goal, Dan Muse used his timeout and had some words for the team. That was just after the halfway point, the scheduled time to change goalies, but they elected to leave Tristan Jarry in a little longer to not let his preseason end with a sour note.

Harrison Brunicke halved the Buffalo lead by shakin, baking and working his way down the right side of the ice. He lifted a shot off the back of the Lyon’s shoulder and in. 3-2 game.

BRUNICKE GOES SHORT SIDE HIGH!

Elite move, elite shot to bring the @penguins within one pic.twitter.com/BGfcjGox5r

— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) October 4, 2025

Sergei Murashov got into the game, but he didn’t fare much better than Jarry. Alex Tuch took a shot from the outside that slipped through Murashov and sat there for Jiri Kulich to tap in. 4-2 game.

The Pens struck on the power play in the third period to draw the score back within one goal. Rickard Rakell slung the puck to the net, possibly in a centering effort but it ended up going in the net just the same.

That was enough to bring on overtime, though it only needed nine seconds to be decided. Crosby won the faceoff and Karlsson took off through the zone. After a few feints, Karlsson fed a great pass across the ice for Crosby to chip home for an easy goal. 5-4 Pens win.

9 SECONDS OF OT IS ALL SID NEEDS

IS READY FOR THE REGULAR SEASON! pic.twitter.com/9a4Tn8X5WG

— SportsNet Pittsburgh (@SNPittsburgh) October 4, 2025

Some more thoughts to close out the preseason game action:

• We’ll start with Ben Kindel, to lead with popular demand. He had some ups and downs, the biggest down moment was a learning lesson when Kindel got his breakout attempt picked off, and a few seconds later Josh Norris found Tage Thompson for a goal, since Brunicke had already shifted into going up the ice. That’s what Kindel has to learn, make a basic mistake against this type of competition and they will make you pay. If it’s just up to tonight, Kindel isn’t making it to the regular season this year. The good news for him is it might not be just up to tonight’s inputs.
• Semi-related, from seeing the last few Sabres games, Josh Norris looks ready for an incredible season. Use that info as a fantasy draft tip if it applies. He’s been looking amazing the past couple days when it comes to generating offense.
• Back to the Pens, the second topic du jour is Brunicke. I was impressed before the goal but that standout moment is going to have to stick in the minds of Kyle Dubas and Dan Muse when they’re discussing who should be on the roster. In 2025, the only defenseman Pittsburgh has that can make the play Brunicke did is Erik Karlsson. Brunicke later hit the post in the third period. I don’t know if the Pens will keep Brunicke for opening night, but it’s hard to imagine him making a better case or so perfectly illustrating what he can add to the team. Time will tell if the decision makers for the Pens think he’s ready, but he looks awfully ready with a closing performance like this.
• Staying with the defense, the Caleb Jones and Kris Letang pair got trapped in their own end for two and a half minutes on a shift. Just from watching Jones, not sure what they were trying to accomplish or see or even if this will change any minds — but as a prediction the Jones/Letang pairing either won’t last long or won’t be pretty for as long as it goes. Jones played over 20 minutes tonight, he looked the part of a guy who has been an NHL/AHL tweener for the last two seasons. That he might start out in a featured role with the Pens says more about the state of their blueline (bad) than it does about Jones being any sort of good.
• Similarly, Justin Brazeau with Evgeni Malkin might be a thing since Bryan Rust is out injured for a bit, it hasn’t paid off yet with Brazeau bringing little to the table. Not sure how that one is going to go, he doesn’t have a lot of vision or playmaking ability. He is very big and will actually use his size though, so he’s got that going for him. Not a bad player, just also not one that offers much help for Malkin.
• Muse wasn’t happy with his team at the halfway point, and it’s tough to blame him. I think they had 9 or 10 shots total. No line really looked that good. Malkin took a four-minute penalty early in the game, Sidney Crosby took an offensive zone frustrating slashing penalty. Not much urgency, it is preseason, but it wasn’t the most encouraging performance to start. They played a lot better in the second half of the game, though a lot of that was due to converting on their power plays.
• Jarry gave up three goals in his half of the game, two of them that reflected poorly on him. He literally gave the puck away behind the net on the sequence to start the second goal and on the third goal he over-committed to the right side, then was slow to get back over the to left side of the net when the puck went off the end wall. Jarry wasn’t super-sharp tonight.
• Muse made his bones as an NHL assistant that was really good directing a PK, and those PK’s usually had top forwards playing on it. Rickard Rakell was out there again in that role, he hasn’t really killed penalties as a Penguin but I’m betting we’ll see him get put out there regularly for it this year (especially with Rust out of the lineup). Just a little somethin’ to keep in mind for one difference between the last coach and this one. It’ll be interesting to see if that ever extends to Crosby or Malkin, if not as regulars then at least a little bit more situationally when it might be needed.
• Sticking with special teams, the top power play had the modern day unicorn of two defensemen on it (Karlsson and Letang) joining Rakell, Crosby and Malkin. That makes a bit more sense with Rust being gone and will also bode watching for the regular season if that stays together or not. No criticism here, that might be the five top skill players available at this point.
• Right handed Connor Clifton playing the left side (which he did only one time last season) over players like Shea and Graves was a decision worth raising an eyebrow. Even Dumba has been more of a left side guy over his career, but it was Clifton who got the nod tonight. Something has to give since the Pens have a surplus of right shot defenders, and very little quality on the left side. No matter how it shakes out there’s got to be some right shots playing on the left side this season.
• The Pens looked like this game was lost, then Rakell, Karlsson and Crosby stepped in (and emphasis on Crosby) and the game was won. That will have to be a road map a lot this year to get some positive results, one would think. The good news is that Captain Crosby looks as explosive and dangerous as ever.

Just like that, the preseason games are over. The Pens practice tomorrow and are off on Sunday and then prep to fly to New York on Monday a day before the season starts, so the whole training camp is virtually done too. We’ll see if the ups and downs from tonight’s game has any influence to change how the lineup looks come Tuesday night in Manhattan.

Source: https://www.pensburgh.com/game-recaps/67581/pens-sabres-recap-thoughts-as-the-preseason-ends