If Mike Sullivan wants to change 'narratives' about using young players, Rutger McGroarty provides that chance

In a recent interview with TribLive, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan adamantly pushed back against the suggestion he doesn’t trust young players enough. He did so by citing the amount of faith he put in the likes of Jake Guentzel, Conor Sheary and Bryan Rust when he first took over the team.

There were others that didn’t come up in the conversation such as Matt Murray, Scott Wilson and Tom Kuhnhackl.

Well , that was eight years ago, and some of those guys were his players in Wilkes-Barre before they got Pittsburgh.

Sullivan also pointed at Jack St. Ivany and Drew O’Connor as players who he has trusted on the current roster.

Well , St. Ivany played in just 14 games by the end of last season when injury and desperation dictated a need. And O’Connor is already 26 years old and has been bouncing back and forth from the minors and up and down the lineup for four years now.

And if Jeff Carter didn’t retire, I’m sure Sullivan would’ve found a way to have him in Wednesday’s opening night lineup against the New York Rangers. Not to mention Noel Acciari or Matt Nieto (if he was healthy).

But I digress.

If there is a reason why Sullivan has been justified in not leaning on young players more often in recent years, it’s that there haven’t been very many intriguing ones to promote.

That happens when a franchise constantly trades draft picks and prospects in hopes of scrounging up one more Stanley Cup run before an aging core departs.

This is why the presence of Rutger McGroarty is so interesting. McGroarty actually is intriguing. He was a coveted first-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 2023. The Penguins just gave up their own No. 1 pick from that draft (Brayden Yager) to acquire him.

McGroarty can play the wing or center. He can score. He can grind. He can shoot. He can play in front of the net. In college and on the U.S. National team, he was good on the power play.

McGroarty is on the opening night roster. How long does he stay? What does Sullivan do with him? Can McGroarty work his way into a regular role even when Rust comes back from injury? Will Sullivan put McGroarty in a position to score and show off his skills?

Or is this just a pre-planned cup of coffee while Rust is hurt? Is McGroarty just going to get a few third-and-fourth-line minutes per game, eat a few pucks on the penalty kill and head to the minors soon enough?

I hope for the former. I expect the latter.

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“We’ve got to make sure we manage the workloads of players game-to-game, where we’re putting them in positions to play to their strengths,” Sullivan said this week, “but also casting guys in roles where you know they have something they can hang their hat on — their contribution to helping the Penguins win.

“We think Rutger is a guy that could help us both on the penalty kill and on the power play. We’ll feel that out and see where we think he fits best. But his aptitude and his overall hockey sense suggests to me that he’s capable of doing both.”

I’ll believe it when I see it.

This can’t just be about putting McGroarty out there for a token shift or two in high-leverage situations and then burying him on the bench when he makes his first mistake while veterans make similar errors and never have any repercussions.

General manager Kyle Dubas insists he won’t hover over Sullivan when it comes to McGroarty’s playing time — even if in this instance, he probably should.

“With regards to who’s in and out of the lineup, who’s playing with who, I think that has to be the coach’s domain. In regards to why (McGroarty) is on the line that he’s on, and why he is in (the lineup), Sully is going to give you a better answer,” Dubas said Monday. “Just my observation of Rutger, he’s earned that (roster spot). There was nothing guaranteed to him whatsoever. All the way during camp, every practice, every single (preseason) game I thought he continued to get better and better as the level raised.”

To be fair to Sullivan. This has to be a two-way street. McGroarty can’t just be good early. He has to be at his best. He can’t give Sullivan an excuse to avoid playing him in favor of a veteran that he trusts more. McGroarty has to play well enough to keep an NHL spot once Rust and Blake Lizotte are ready for action.

“I feel like I’ve done a good job adapting to the speed and that my game has translated pretty well,” McGroarty told reporters Tuesday. “The only way you can learn is from playing in that amount of preseason games or playing in the actual NHL. … Just continuing to work on my game, stay consistent and just play my game — don’t try to be something that I’m not.”

I’m not sure what that is, because the scouting reports on McGroarty are that he is quite a lot — including a scorer from various parts of the ice.

I just hope he’s allowed to show that early in his Penguins career.

LISTEN: Tim Benz and Brian Metzer host their first hockey podcast of the season as the Penguins open 2024-35 Wednesday night against the New York Rangers .