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Did the NHL choose to make an example of Rust after his hit to the head of the Vancouver Canucks' Brock Boeser? Steph Chambers / Getty Images
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Penguins aren’t run by people who make public statements very often.
Fenway Sports Group, which has owned the team since 2021, speaks publicly on behalf of the Penguins maybe once a year. We’ve yet to hear from the team’s next owners, the Hoffmann family, apart from a statement announcing the formal agreement to buy the team. President and general manager Kyle Dubas speaks with the media but avoids controversy. Head coach Dan Muse isn’t one to ruffle feathers. Neither is longtime captain Sidney Crosby, for that matter.
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So, it might not be loud, but the Penguins are seething about the three-game suspension handed down to Bryan Rust last week.
There is a feeling throughout the organization that the NHL chose to make an example of Rust after his hit to the head of the Vancouver Canucks’ Brock Boeser. The Penguins aren’t necessarily upset that Rust was suspended — most of the team sources I spoke with believe a game or two was reasonable enough, given the head contact — but they feel a three-game suspension is out of line with Rust’s history and how the NHL has handled other incidents this season.
A different decision from the league on Sunday added some salt to the wound.
Tom Wilson made plenty of waves on Saturday night for a hit to the head of Carolina’s Logan Stankoven. Wilson did not receive a hearing from the NHL Department of Player Safety for the hit and thus will not be suspended.
The Penguins believe he should have been suspended and don’t think Wilson’s size difference — the Capitals forward is 6 feet, 4 inches; Stankoven is 5-foot-8 — is a green light to deliver head shots.
Of course, the Penguins have a history with Wilson that goes back more than a decade. That said, team sources told me they believe that, as with Wilson, Rust’s history should have been more of a consideration in the decision.
Rust, in his 12th NHL season, has played 685 career games. In his first 684, he was never fined or suspended for any kind of incident. He is considered a competitive but honest hockey player. Even a Canucks team source told me they were “absolutely stunned” that Rust received three games.
The Penguins tend to stay quiet about these types of rulings. This time, Muse did acknowledge publicly that the organization isn’t happy. From my conversations, it sounds like Muse was being polite.
Mike Sullivan’s detractors used to seethe at the former Penguins coach’s perceived disinterest in playing young players.
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In an interview late last season with The Athletic, Sullivan made it clear that he heard the criticisms and that he believed them to be unfair. The two-time Stanley Cup-winning coach’s explanation was pretty simple: If the Penguins had young players worth playing, he would have played them. But years of trading top draft picks and prospects caught up to the Penguins, and Sullivan believed lineups consisting of mostly veteran players were the way to go.
I’m not here to debate whether Sullivan was right. He’s made his feelings known. But when I mentioned 18-year-old Ben Kindel to Sullivan after Saturday’s game at PPG Paints Arena, the coach knew exactly why.
“He’s very good,” Sullivan said, unleashing a big smile.
This isn’t a great era for NHL goaltending, and Marc-André Fleury continues to be in demand despite retiring after last season.
Fleury was on the ice in Minnesota last week, getting a workout in.
“I like to get a sweat every now and then,” he joked with me on Saturday after the Penguins’ win against the Rangers. He was in town for the pregame celebration honoring the Penguins’ 2016 Stanley Cup-winning team.
Fleury had a long goodbye. After retiring from the NHL last summer, he played in the World Championships, then joined the Penguins on a professional tryout agreement and played in a preseason game here.
I’ve spoken with Fleury and several people close to him in recent weeks, and while I don’t doubt he misses life in the NHL, I don’t think we’ll see him playing in the league again. The Flower seems very content in retirement, and I take him at his word.
Evgeni Malkin’s left shoulder is clearly bothering him. It was easy to see during breaks in action on Saturday as he flexed his arm over and over again.
He’s going to attempt to tough it out and play the next three games before the Olympic break, at which time he’s going to get a nice, long rest as Russia is not competing in the Games. The break will be much needed.
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Continue to keep your eye on right-handed defensemen on the NHL trade market.
The Penguins didn’t have the greatest depth there to begin with. Then, Kris Letang sustained a fractured foot and is going to miss four weeks, and maybe more. A few days earlier, Jack St. Ivany broke his hand and is out for nearly the rest of the NHL’s regular season. Harrison Brunicke is playing junior hockey for the rest of the season. Erik Karlsson is healthy, but while the majority of his teammates get some rest, he will be playing for Sweden in the Olympics, where players are bound to suffer injuries.
That doesn’t leave the Penguins with much on the right side, other than Connor Clifton, who has played well as of late but who is a bottom-pairing defenseman.
The Penguins understand the situation and know they don’t have much on the right side in AHL Wilkes-Barre. They were not overly impressed with Matt Dumba’s performance earlier this season.
I sense Dubas is going to keep the future as his priority. That doesn’t mean he’s against making his team better right now.
A team source recently told me Dubas’ success is in doing what Ron Hextall could not: making the Penguins better in the short term and the long term. It’s not supposed to work that way.
Everyone I’ve spoken to within the organization is blown away by the momentum Dubas has created.
The Penguins absolutely love Ryan Shea, who leads the team in plus/minus at plus-22. I don’t think they’ll let him get to free agency on July 1 without a new deal. They view him as a wonderful locker room presence and one of the NHL’s steadier defensemen.
They’d like to keep him here.
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Josh Yohe is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. Josh joined The Athletic in 2017 after covering the Penguins for a decade, first for the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and then for DKPittsburghSports.com. Follow Josh on Twitter @JoshYohe_PGH
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