Key Prospect Earning Regular Role in Penguins Lineup
Valtteri Puustinen has been playing well enough to keep himself on the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL roster.
For the second consecutive season, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the oldest team in the NHL and the only team with an average age over 30 to kick off the season.
While there hasn’t been much of an attempt to decrease that number, the Penguins may have a young face force his way as an NHL regular.
Valtteri Puustinen was recently given a recall to the NHL roster nearly two entire years after his NHL debut.
This time around, however, Puustinen has played in three games and is already proving to be more confident and more useful than most of the Penguins recalls this season.
Puustinen hasn’t scored a goal, but notched a pair of assists and ever since he was implemented on the top power play unit, they’ve scored four times in two games.
Head coach Mike Sullivan has praised Puustinen’s work at the NHL level on a couple of occasions now and there seems to be a confidence in the prospect from the coaching staff.
Having only a pair of games played in the NHL and being placed on the top power play unit is a good sign there’s a level of expectation.
Sullivan said they wanted a right-handed shot in that position, but there are still other options they could have given a shot to, but they went with the youngster.
Puustinen says he feels more confident this time around and it shows every time he touches the ice.
His spot may not be guaranteed when the Penguins return to health, but Puustinen continues to make valid arguments for his role.
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