Penguins A to Z: Vinnie Hinostroza remains an NHL-caliber player

With the Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2023-24 season coming to an end without any postseason action, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 51 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until next season — with the organization, from fourth-line center Noel Acciari to reserve winger Radim Zohorna.

This series is scheduled to be published every weekday leading into the second day of the NHL Draft on June 29.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Cap Friendly.)

Vinnie Hinostroza

Position: Center

Shoots: Right

Age: 30

Height: 5-foot-10

Weight: 180 pounds

2023-24 NHL statistics: 14 games, three points (one goal, two assists), 9:45 of ice time per game

2023-24 AHL statistics: 45 games, 35 points (16 goals, 19 assists)

Contract: Signed to a one-year contract with a salary cap hit of $775,000. Pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.

Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 7, 2023

This season: Faced with the possibility of opening the 2023-24 season without the services of All-Star winger Jake Guentzel due to an ankle injury, Penguins president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas flooded the zone by signing several “tweener” forwards who could theoretically fill the gap in Guentzel’s absence on the top line.

That led to the likes of Andreas Johnsson, Radim Zohorna and Vinnie Hinostroza all being signed in July after the initial wave of the free agent signing period. Another in Colin White was invited to training camp on a tryout basis.

Hinostroza had the best resume of all those hopefuls having already spent parts of nine seasons in the NHL and amassing more than 350 games.

But after a brief audition on the left wing of the top line with center Sidney Crosby and Bryan Rust during training camp, the coaching staff gave others such as Drew O’Connor and Rickard Rakell some playing time in that station during the preseason before realizing Guentzel would be recovered enough to open the season.

The ensuing trickle-down effect throughout the rest of the roster led to Hinostroza being waived Oct. 8. After going unclaimed, he was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton the next day.

Opening the season in a top-six role with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Hinostroza was productive, posting four points in his first five games of the season at the American Hockey League level.

Some silky mitts from Hinostroza ???? pic.twitter.com/IWOp9Ea3qX

— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) October 21, 2023

That output led to him being recalled Oct. 26 and then shuffled between the NHL and AHL roster repeatedly until Nov. 11 in a series of paper transactions meant to benefit the Penguins’ salary cap figures.

Hinostroza’s first NHL game of the 2023-24 campaign was the high point of his and perhaps the team’s season. In a 10-2 rout on the road of the squalid San Jose Sharks, Hinostroza recorded a goal and an assist while skating on the right wing of the fourth line with Noel Acciari at center and Matt Nieto on the left wing.

Pittsburgh goal!

Scored by Vinnie Hinostroza with 15:34 remaining in the 2nd period.

San Jose: 0
Pittsburgh: 4#PITvsSJS #SJSharks #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/kTKB0kmhC9

— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) November 5, 2023

Unfortunately for Hinostroza and the Penguins, the other 30 opposing teams in the NHL were better than the Sharks and Hinostroza never found the net again for the remainder of his brief service in the NHL in 2023-24.

Waived again Dec. 15, Hinostroza cleared and was moved between Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a handful of occasions and did not play another NHL contest beyond Dec. 31.

Spending the bulk of the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Hinostroza emerged as one of that team’s more consistent offensive threats. Regularly deployed in a top-six role, Hinostroza wound up being that team’s second-leading scorer.

Vinnie's lethal tonight ???? pic.twitter.com/rAD91BSwIG

— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) March 2, 2024

In the Calder Cup playoffs, during a brief two-game opening-round series loss to the rival Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Hinostroza recorded three assists in Game 2, a 5-4 overtime loss.

The future: Hinostroza was likely not satisfied with spending the bulk of the season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

It’s easy to regard Hinostroza as a borderline NHLer. After all, he was a sixth-round (No. 169 overall) draft pick in 2012 by the Chicago Blackhawks and has carved out a career as a journeyman, having played for five NHL teams over five seasons.

But in all reality, he has played in twice as many NHL contests (374) than AHL games (162) throughout his professional existence.

Largely used in a fourth-line role with the NHL Penguins, Hinostroza was largely inert in those deployments and didn’t merit serious consideration beyond New Year’s Eve while management tinkered with the likes of Emil Bemstrom, Jonathan Gruden, Jansen Harkins, Matthew Phillips, Jesse Puljujarvi and White to varying degrees of success.

If Hinostroza deserved a better look in an NHL role instead of members of that motley crew, that’s fair to debate. But his credentials certainly merit as much consideration as those others received after the calendar flipped to 2024.

Despite spending most of 2023-24 in the AHL, Vinnie Hinostroza remains an NHL-caliber player. But if he wants to make that notion a reality in 2024-25, he’ll likely have to do it somewhere else.

Follow the Penguins all season long.