Goalie prospect Joel Blomqvist among players Kyle Dubas expects to push for NHL next season

Pittsburgh Penguins president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas has made no secret of his belief that the organization needs to get younger fast.

In a perfect world, the Penguins will develop and acquire youthful talent that will crack the NHL, learn from the club’s current core of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang while helping elevate the franchise icons back to Stanley Cup contention in the closing chapters of their careers.

Who Dubas adds to the equation through future trades and the NHL Draft remains to be seen.

But several in-house players appear to be knocking on the door of joining the Penguins as early as next season, perhaps none more so than goaltender Joel Blomqvist.

Blomqvist put together a superb first season of North American hockey at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with a 25-11-6 record, 2.14 goals-against average and .921 save percentage to date.

This week, he earned a spot on the AHL’s All-Rookie Team.

Heading into Friday’s matchup vs. Hartford, the 22-year-old Finn is one win away from tying Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s record in a single season by a goalie, set in 2004-05 by Marc-Andre Fleury.

With Alex Nedeljkovic set to become an unrestricted free agent and Tristan Jarry, despite internal votes of confidence from Dubas and coach Mike Sullivan, ending the season as a backup, Blomqvist offers an appealing option at goalie entering 2024-25 preseason camp.

Selected 52nd overall in the 2020 NHL Draft by the Penguins, Blomqvist’s performance in the upcoming Calder Cup playoffs will be watched eagerly by Dubas.

“We have a situation where we have a young goaltender who is also pushing in Joel Blomqvist,” Dubas said Friday in Cranberry. “We are going to use this next stretch, the last two games — he will play one game this weekend. Then we have the playoffs with Wilkes. How does Joel play? Can he assert himself at that level? Then we will have more information with how we want to go ahead with our goaltending.”

Blomqvist won’t be the only player the Penguins are keeping an eye on during the AHL postseason.

Defenseman Jack St. Ivany was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Thursday specifically for that purpose.

St. Ivany, 24, made his NHL debut in late March after being called up and impressed, earning a consistent spot in the lineup for the remainder of the season.

“Jack St. Ivany, obviously, he’s come up and played well in this stretch, so I expect the messaging to him was, ‘Go down, dominate as you have this next (stretch) through the playoffs, help Wilkes to win and then, that will put you in a better spot to make it in camp next year,’” Dubas said. “So certainly, I expect him to be in that mix.”

Joining St. Ivany in getting reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was forward Valtteri Puustinen, another player Penguins management is hoping will keep developing.

Puustinen entered the season with just one game of NHL experience but went on to log 52 games this season, contributing five goals and 15 assists primarily as right wing on the third line.

Another player Dubas expressed confidence in is forward Sam Poulin.

Dubas went as far as predicting Poulin will make the NHL roster next year “as a full-time guy.”

The club’s first-round pick (21st overall) in 2019, Poulin earned a call-up to Pittsburgh at the end of March but only saw limited action in three games.

Poulin, in significant part to falling ill, was unable to make much of an impression.

But he continues to perform well enough at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with 15 goals and 15 assists in 39 games.

All can use the Calder Cup playoffs as an opportunity to generate momentum heading into the offseason.

“They’ve got an opportunity to play in a high-stakes environment,” Sullivan said. “I think that’s an invaluable growth opportunity for young players. We’re watching to see how they do.”

Further reinforcements

The Penguins were no doubt excited to get a good look at forward Vasily Ponomarev upon the 22-year-old Russian’s arrival in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as the main prospect Dubas acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes in the Jake Guentzel trade.

Unfortunately, Ponomarev suffered a significant injury (high-ankle sprain) after just three games.

Drafted one spot (No. 53 overall) ahead of Blomqvist by the Hurricanes in 2020, Ponomarev made his NHL debut in January, scoring a goal and adding an assist.

“He came over, he was playing well and just got a bad injury that’s going to take precise care to come back (from),” Dubas said. “But he’s someone who’s already played in the NHL and played well in the NHL and who was playing well for us. It’s unfortunate, still a number of weeks away. But we expect him to push for the roster (next season) as well.”

Dubas also issued an appeal to two of the Penguins other top prospects, forward Brayden Yager and defenseman Owen Pickering, to get ready to make a run at the NHL roster in the fall.

Yager, 19, is serving as alternate captain with the Moose Jaw Warriors of the junior Western Hockey League.

The Penguins’ first-round (No. 14) draft pick last year, he has flashed major potential, scoring 97 goals with 135 assists in 187 career WHL contests, but he hasn’t seen any action in the NHL.

As for Pickering, in his second season as captain of the Swift Current Broncos of the WHL, he played eight games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in 2022-23.

The 6-foot-5 defenseman and No. 21 overall pick by the Penguins in the 2022 NHL Draft looks to be nearing the next stage of his developmental.

Dubas, Sullivan and Co. are actively getting a good look at both prospects, as the Warriors and Broncos are battling in the WHL playoffs, with Yager and Moose Jaw a win away from going to the Eastern Conference Final.

Dubas hopes Yager and Pickering take note of the younger players who got a chance with the Penguins toward the end of this season.

“I expect those two younger kids, Yager and Pickering, to push, assert yourself, have a huge summer — assert yourself,” he said. “We’ve shown here in this last stretch, if you’re a young player and you’re willing to push through the summer, you have a massive opportunity. You can have a shot here with us. And that’s what we need, desperately.”