Valtteri Puustinen's value to the Penguins is easy to understand

Some language barriers still exist for Valtteri Puustinen, even after two-plus years in North America.

But the Finn’s sentiments are easy to understand for his teammates.

“Any time you get him outside the rink and you get him kind of going on Google Translate trying to have a conversation with him, he’s always coming up with some funny things on there,” said Penguins forward Drew O’Connor, a native of New Jersey. “He’s always kind of making his jokes, whether you understand him or not.”

While some things may get lost in translation with his whimsy, Puustinen’s enthusiasm is easy to understand.

Especially because he’s enjoying his longest stretch on the Penguins’ NHL roster since he was a seventh-round pick (No. 203) in 2019.

“I am so excited,” Puustinen said Monday in Cranberry. “I am back here now. I am here. I give my best.”

The Penguins recalled Puustinen on Dec. 8 because of undisclosed injuries to incumbent top-six right wingers Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust.

That allowed him to take up a temporary residence on the right side of the team’s second line — centered by franchise pillar Evgeni Malkin — as well as on the team’s top power-play unit.

Thus far, the results have been positive, albeit modest. In three games, Puustinen has two assists — both of the secondary variety — while averaging 13 minutes, 55 seconds of ice time.

“That’s awesome,” Puustinen said of his assignment. “It’s a really, really good task for me to play with (Malkin). And power play with these guys because (they are) top players in this league. This is awesome for me.”

The power play has been far from awesome for most of the season, having scored only 11 goals on 82 opportunities (13.4%). But four of those goals have come in the past two games.

Puustinen has been on the ice for three of those goals and picked up a secondary assist on a goal by forward Jake Guentzel that snapped the Penguins’ franchise-record 13-game slump without a power-play score.

During a 4-2 home win against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday, Puustinen fed a puck off the left half wall of the offensive zone to forward Sidney Crosby, stationed to the left of the cage. Maneuvering behind the net, Crosby dished a pass to the left circle where forward Guentzel ripped a wrister.

“(Puustinen) made a great play to support the pocket there,” Guentzel said. “It worked out well.”

It remains to be seen how long Puustinen will continue to work in his current roles. Rakell appears to be close to a return from his ailment and is eligible to be activated from long-term injured reserve Saturday.

But for the time being, management appears to be satisfied with what Puustinen has offered in his first multi-game stretch with the NHL club.

During the 2021-22 season, he was summoned to the NHL roster and appeared in one game, recording one secondary assist. Since then, he has been the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ leading scorer in each of the previous two seasons but never merited a recall until earlier this month.

“When you play on a line with (Malkin) and (left winger Reilly Smith) or you play in the top-six (forwards) like that, there’s pressure to perform,” coach Mike Sullivan said. “He handles it extremely well. He has a quiet confidence about him. He knows he’s a good player. He has fit right in with those guys. He doesn’t look out of place.

“He’s more comfortable in this call-up than he was in the first one that he had. And I think his play shows it. He’s a confident kid, and he has real good offensive instincts.”

Part of that confidence comes through a greater level of comfort with communicating in English.

“My first year, I say maybe ‘Hi’ in the morning and ‘My name is Valtteri,’ ” Puustinen said. “That’s it. (Now) I talk so much more and talk (in) English.”

It really isn’t all that hard to understand what that confidence has offered Puustinen and the Penguins.

“It kind of goes hand in hand,” said O’Connor, who was Puustinen’s occasional linemate during their time with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. “As a player, he’s always had that offensive side to his game. As the language has come, he kind of understands more of how we’re supposed to play a little bit and the systems. It’s definitely not easy to understand if you don’t speak the language.

“It’s helped him as a player and a person.”

Notes: The Penguins placed forward Vinnie Hinostroza on waivers. … The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and defenseman Libor Hajek mutually agreed to terminate his AHL contract.

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