Penguins/NHL
| Player | Points | TOI | SOG/Att | 5vs5 CF% | 5vs5 SCF% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| V.Koivunen | 0 | 17:28 | 2/5 | 63 CF% | 63 SCF% |
| R. McGroarty | 0 | 16:26 | 3/7 | 66 CF% | 74 SCF% |
Rutger McGroarty made his return to the NHL, while top forward prospect Ville Koivunen made his NHL debut in Pittsburgh’s 1-0 OT win over the Ottawa Senators on Sunday night. Both had strong games.
Mike Sullivan’s doesn’t like young players? He put both in ideal situations/scenarios all game and I’d look for that to continue rest of the way. In fact, Sullivan was the one behind the scenes pushing for the recall of Koivunen/McGroarty while management as of last week was leaning towards a combo callup of To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
McGroarty was a possession monster on the night. On the ice for 27 shot attempts and 14 against, McGroarty boasted the 3rd best possession #’s among Penguins forwards. The McGroarty-Crosby-Rust line was 77% in driving possession in nearly 13 minutes and had a huge Scoring Chance For% — @ 86 CF% –.
Meanwhile, Ville Koivunen was very impressive. A number of teams believed they offered a better prospect than Koivunen last year in the Jake Guentzel trade talks and a view around the league at the time was Pittsburgh overvalued Koivunen. Each step of the way Koivunen over the last 12 months has made the Penguins look right.
Koivunen in his debut flashed everything that’s matched the scouting report. He showed strong hockey sense in getting to the right spots in all three zones and offensively he excels at getting to the soft spots. It was quite clear he has the hockey IQ to be plugged in immediately with skilled talent. The coaches putting him with the Top Power Play unit shows what they think of him, and I really liked where Koivunen got to open lanes with the first unit. There were very few jitters in his game. The biggest adjustment one game in is going to be the backpressure To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Two players 21 years old being able to play Top 9 roles next season is going to be quite the development for the Penguins. Pittsburgh is one impact signing/trade of a legitimate first-line or second-line forward from becoming an interesting group upfront. Of the two, I still see Koivunen as a more Top-6 level player when it comes to the overall tools than McGroarty. McGroarty is going to be a very useful player next season, there’s no question about that. But perfect world the best-case scenario for the Penguins would be McGroarty evolving on a third line to build around him next season. A McGroarty-Novak-Tomasino third line could be a starting point and develop into a formidable line. To read this insider news, subscribe to get “Inside Access”!
Evgeni Malkin’s spot as #2 Center up in air next season?