Regular-season success in 2023-24 returned the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup Playoffs.
Two quick losses to begin those playoffs led to a long summer that included a change behind the bench.
Exit J.D. Forrest. Enter Kirk MacDonald.
MacDonald, the 12th head coach in franchise history, led the Dubuque Fighting Saints to last season’s Eastern Conference championship in the United States Hockey League, the highest level of junior hockey in the country. He also has coaching experience professionally with Reading in the ECHL and on the college level at RPI.
As is true in minor league sports, there will be many new faces besides MacDonald when the Penguins take the ice Saturday night for the season opener at Mohegan Arena at 6:05 p.m. against the Charlotte Checkers.
MacDonald guided the Penguins through a 3-0-1 record in the preseason, but the preseason lineup has many differences from the one that will take the ice Saturday. Players have been added from the parent Pittsburgh Penguins and others have been shipped out to the Wheeling Nailers of the ECHL.
The lineup changes continued through Friday evening when the team announced that reigning ECHL Goaltender of the Year Taylor Gauthier was being returned to Wheeling.
Gauthier led the ECHL with four shutouts and a .923 save percentage while ranking second in goals against average at 2.23 and fourth in wins with 24. In 24 career games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Gauthier is 9-5-7 with a 2.90 GAA and .904 save percentage.
Three days earlier, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton added forward Boris Katchouk and sent two other players to Wheeling.
Katchouk, the Syracuse Crunch’s leading scorer in 2020-21, played in the National Hockey League the last three seasons. He has 176 career NHL games with the Tampa Lightning, Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators, scoring 15 goals and 21 assists.
When Katchouk came in, forward Logan Pietila and defenseman Philip Waugh were sent down.
Pietila was the leading preseason scorer with a goal and four assists.
Following the opener, the Penguins immediately hit the road, making the overnight trip to be in Springfield for a Sunday afternoon game against the Thunderbirds.
The Penguins went 39-24-8-1 to place third out of eight teams in the Atlantic Division.
In other roster moves in the past week, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton received defenseman Sebastian Aho and left wing Boko Imama from Pittsburgh. Forwards Jack Beck, Atley Calvert, Mathieu De St. Phalle, Kyle Jackson, Gabe Klassen and Bennett MacArthur and defenseman Mats Lindgren were assigned to Wheeling.
Rookie goalie Sergei Murashov stopped 53 of 61 shots as the starting goalie in the first three preseason games.
Other newcomers to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton roster are: forwards Tristan Broz, Emil Bemstrom, Jimmy Huntington, Imama and Ville Koivunen; defensemen Aho, Scooter Brickey, Nate Clurman, Mac Hallowell, Filip Kral, Owen Pickering and Dan Renouf; and goalie Filip Larsson.
The Penguins bring back many more familiar faces up front.
Sam Poulin is the top returning scorer after finishing fourth on the team with 16 goals and 15 assists in 41 games.
Corey Andonovski, Jagger Joshua, Jonathan Gruden and Sam Houde are among the others who are back.
A preseason injury to Pittsburgh goalie Alex Nedeljkovic means that Joel Blomqvist, who made the All-Star Game as a rookie last season for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, opens the new campaign with the big club.
Blomqvist made his first career NHL start on Thursday night and picked up a win over the Detroit Red Wings.
The AHL season got underway Friday.
Local News
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