Penguins
Penguins Room: Rust Will Tell Anyone ‘I Don’t Want to Leave’
A busy offseason for the Pittsburgh Penguins awaits, and it’s only a couple days away. Among the roster decisions could involve winger Bryan Rust.
Rust, who turns 33 next month, has a career-high 29 goals with one game left. He has a no-movement clause in his contract, a clause that expires this summer.
He made it clear after practice Wednesday at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex that he will tell anyone who will listen – and perhaps others – what his intentions are.
He has already made it clear to the Penguins management that he does not want to be traded.
“Yeah, and I will say it to you (reporters), too: I don’t want to leave here,” Rust said. “This is home for me. This is where I intend to be, where I want to be, and we’ll talk more about that Friday.”
It’s expected that the players will have their internal interviews and pack up their gear on Friday.
Hayes Still Missing
Forward Kevin Hayes, who had a maintenance day Tuesday, again missed practice on Wednesday.
Coach Mike Sullivan said Hayes was a bit banged up. “I’d probably say day to day at this point,” Sullivan said.
Of course, there aren’t really multiple days left.
Without Hayes, defenseman P.O Joseph again filled in on the fourth line, making the lines and pairings the same as a day earlier.
Last Call (For Practice)
The Penguins held their final full-team practice of the season. Their final game is Thursday at home against Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals, and with no playoffs, that is it.
Still, team captain Sidney Crosby hit the ice with a big smile.
“It’s as good as it can be,” he said. “Let’s be honest. It’s not a great situation. You just have to come in here and try to make the best of the situation, and I think that’s what guys are doing, trying to go out there and still practice with the right intentions and with a purpose.
“We’d much rather have one more game left and get ready for playoffs, but I think (we’re) just trying to make the best of it.”
Crosby has always been known as something of a rink rat, so any chance to practice with the team is a good day, but he wasn’t the only one who thought the Penguins got something out of the workout.
“You have to always try to have fun. It doesn’t matter if it’s practice 1 or practice 101,” Rust said. “For us, we kind of reiterated that we’re all professionals in here, and there’s still a lot of guys playing for something.”
Penguins Lines
Ville Koivunen-Sidney Crosby-Bryan Rust
Danton Heinen-Evgeni Malkin-Rickard Rakell
Connor Dewar-Joona Koppanen-Philip Tomasino
P.O Joseph-Vasily Ponomarev-Valtteri Puustinen
Defense
Matt Grzelcyk-Erik Karlsson
Ryan Shea-Conor Timmons
Ryan Graves-Vladislav Kolylachonok
PP1 – Crosby, Koivunen-Rust-Rakell-Grzelcyk
PP2 – Karlsson-Malkin-Heinen-Puustinen-Tomasino
Dan Kingerski contributed to this report.
Rust is a lifer.
The Rusty Razor is awesome!
Rust is the heart and soul of the lineup, I hope he is a Pen for life and gets his 17 jersey in the rafters one day.
I love Rust as much as anyone, prob my favorite Penguin after Lemieux, Jagr, Crosby, Malkin, Flower and maybe Kaspariatis but this is a very silly take. If you retired 17, it would degrade the honor to the 3 people that r up there now, as well as 100 other people that were as important to this franchise as Rust. I wouldn’t even retire Flower or Letang. It’s an honor to be bestowed upon only a select few. Look how watered down the honor has become in Montreal and they’re the most decorated franchise of all time. As well as… Read more »
I love Rust, however if Buffalo would approach the Pens that included Peterka for Rust in some type of package. Because they are looking for elite vet precence like Rust. I would do it today and twice on Sunday.
This is the chance to play Karlsson at wing!