Here Come the Kids! Penguins Recall McGroarty and Koivunen
anagThe Pittsburgh Penguins’ rebuild took another step Friday morning when the team announced that they recalled a pair of their prized forward prospects. Rutger McGroarty and Ville Koivunen got the call-up Friday after the Penguins were embarrassed Thursday night by the Buffalo Sabres 7-3.
McGroarty will resume his NHL career, which started with a few games played in October. Koivunen, who was the top prospect acquired in the Jake Guentzel trade in March 2024, is poised to make his NHL debut.
Read more on McGroarty’s style and game here.
Read more on Koivunen’s game here.
Koivunen has been among the AHL’s leaders in rookie goal scoring and points. The 21-year-old scrappy winger is in his first full North American season. He leads the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with 21 goals and 55 points in 62 games. He also notched a four-goal game in January against AHL power Hershey.
His 21 goals are the most by a WBS Penguins rookie since Daniel Sprong in 2017-18.
WBS has already clinched an AHL playoff spot.
After a slow start, McGroarty has led the team in points since Feb. 15, earning 18 points in that time. Overall, he has 39 points in 60 games (14-25-39), but he also kills penalties and has worked on adding a stiff defensive game. He was scoreless in his three previous NHL games.
The Penguins acquired McGroarty from the Winnipeg Jets when the 2022 14th overall pick decided he did not want to sign with Winnipeg and opted to stay at the University of Michigan. Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas traded 2023 14th overall pick Brayden Yager to acquire him.
The Penguins are dealing with multiple injuries up front. Evgeni Malkin has missed the last couple of games, and Boko Imama missed Thursday with an upper-body injury. However, the Penguins did not announce the recalls as emergency recalls.
Categorized:Penguins Penguins Prospects
Leave the wbs pens alone Sully! You will mess up the team that is actually in the playoffs unlike your team. He will bring them up one mistake and they will ride the pine. Get rid of Sullivan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re clueless. Keep barking at the low-hanging fruit.
No, he is spot on!!!
Make sure you pay attention to the game because they are only going to get 10 minutes of action and if you blink you will miss it.
I take it Emil will be scratched and then going back to 6 D guys
Is Sullivan finally going to.let them play
No matter how many contrary examples exist, and no matter often those of us who know better try to correct it, this persistent strain remains
The flashpoint will never burn brighter than it does right now, whether justified or not.
How’s Filip Hallander doing this year?
Who cares? He isn’t an NHL player.
Never really had a shot under Sullivan, which is the point I was making.
Right and had the guts to call Sully out that young players do NOT get a chance under Sully!!!
Exactly! One mistake and your done for the day. They don’t get a fair shot with this guy.
He left the team last season and is playing overseas. I don’t think he is with the organization anymore
He will be back next year unless the Pens trade his rights
The Sullivan doesn’t let young players play group is the same folks screaming fire Tomlin. Ask them who will logically replace either and they don’t know what to tell you.
I would put my grandmother behind the bench over Sully. Idn what planet he’s on but it’s not earth. Just ask KD O that’s right he’s on that same planet as Sully. Everyone thinking the pens will be a playoff team in a couple years with all the draft picks are in for a huge disappointment. Ask Detroit how that goes. Ever since FSG pushed Mario out of the picture it’s been a steady and significant decline. They are almost to the bottom. Nope thier at the bottom of the batt.
That Tomlin comparison is funny. Because everybody knew who Tomlin was when he got the job. Ha. Thanks, I needed that.
I don’t care. There are good coaches out there and we don’t have any of them.
Because it is true!
VERY FEW exist and there are MANY more examples to support Espo 33!!!
These guys have absolutely earned this call-up, and that’s fantastic. Under different circumstances, I’d be ecstatic. But I have mixed emotions for a couple of reasons. I genuinely want to see these guys play—it’s a real reason to tune in and see how they’ve progressed since the start of the season. Now, it’s on MS to handle this properly. These two should not be playing less than 13-14 minutes a night, no matter what mistakes they make. They both need time in the top six alongside the two best centers. Sticking them with the “stiff row” crew—Lizotte, Acciari, or Hayes—would… Read more »
This. But my guess is that it doesn’t happen. “Welcome back to the bigs. Sit there. Thanks.”
Agreed!
I would have preferred they both stayed in the minors, but excited to see how they do!
there are 4 forward lines and the game is 60 minutes long. add it power play and penalty kill time and what do you get? you people with is stupid commentary. if he rolls 4 lines evenly that is 15 minutes EACH LINE. you dropping Sid’s minutes????
he could strategically move Rust down to Malkins line and have each player for a time, play with those centers. They are wings so it wouldn’t affect Crosby, we aren’t that dramatic.
How about dropping Acciari’s minutes, he is our “defensive” forward who is MINUS 26, and can’t score a goal AND making $2 million yet he has been getting 16+ minutes a game!!!
Adams 2.0.
My concern is that they learn bad (defensive) habits from the likes of Letang and Karlsson. They have been playing well for WB and it sounds like the culture there is helping their progress.
And Brunicke is joining WBS.
I’d rather they stay away from the stench of another Sullivan-led failure, but if they want to give them more NHL experience, give them an actual shot in the top 6 instead of being glued to the cement blocks on Noel Acciari’s feet for 7 minutes a night and then wondering why they don’t produce offense
They’re simply gonna have to eat some contracts. Take the cap hit and move on
Why not let them play in AHL playoffs instead of limited time with team that has pretty much given up!
WBS has 10 more games to play. They’ve cliched the playoffs already (could be fighting for seeding, but they are in).
Let the kids who are more than deserving get a shot to play in the NHL this year. Give them the last handful of games, evaluate them for roster slots next year and let them see what they need to work on in the summer. Then send them back for the AHL playoffs.
They’re going back for the playoffs.
Thank you Stanley!
Long overdue. Should’ve happened a month ago. If you don’t know what these kids can do at the NHL level, how can you decide where to parse out the $26M in cap space that is available to spend on July 1? Let’s figure out where these 2 fit on next year’s roster.
How about dropping Malkin between them and giving them 2nd line minutes?
Will NEVER happen under Sully! How about doing what they did in 2016 and firing the coach and bring up the coach from WBS who will then play the guys he knows from there(Like Sully did then-did he forget he won with young hungry players???)!!!
Would rather see Koivunen-Crosby-Rakell and McGroarty-Malkin-Rust
Seen Benstrom, AHL All star, WBS leading scorer playing 4th line after being repeatedly scratched based on his 6 minutes of ice time. Watch the deployment of these 2 YOUNG WBS wingers ! The only thing that I see to be true, is Kyle Dubas will be taking the kid from the Soo in the first round. Those Graves, Jarry and Karlsson contracts cannot be erased no matter how many draft picks you get. I would pay Dave beer money to ride his nephews bike up to uncover the Eastern Calder playoff games.
While the incessant whining of this portion of the fan base that keeps beating the same dead horse conjecture about Sullivan is great for discourse, it’s mind-numbing to see how wrong and overly vocal you are. Sullivan does not play prospects because we have no prospects. Bemstrom is an already established borderline nhl player. Poulin is a tier below that. MAYBE, mcgroarty and koivunen can stick, but no coach will guarantee14 minutes because of their “potential” and ahl glory. These guys have earned a promotion and will get to showcase their readiness in practice, game-preparation, and other off ice conduct… Read more »
Must be nice to have all the answers. 🙂 I think most of the time the AHLers are promoted is based on injuries to players at the NHL level that have contributed to the team being one of the worst in the league. Now that they’re (finally) out of the playoffs (just waiting for that “e-” next to the team name in the standings), you can take the players we think have the best chance to succeed at the NHL and get them time to acclimate (like you said). 14+ minutes a game? Yep, what are you going to do…… Read more »