Penguins forward Ryan Poehling finding ways to stay in the lineup
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After the Pittsburgh Penguins’ third game of the preseason, coach Mike Sullivan still did not know what he had in forward Ryan Poehling, acquired via trade in July.
Was he a center? Or was he malleable enough to be used as a winger?
The coach had some initial impressions, however.
“I think his natural position is as a center,” Sullivan said after a 6-2 home win against the Detroit Red Wings on Sept. 28. “We’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out depending on what the needs of the team are. But I think his natural position is at center.”
One day later, that notion was reaffirmed out of necessity.
During a practice in Cranberry, the team’s fourth-line center, Teddy Blueger, suffered an undisclosed injury that would keep him sidelined for the next 48 days.
Blueger’s absence created an opportunity for Poehling to be a regular in an NHL lineup for the first time in his four-year NHL career.
A first-round pick (No. 25 overall) by the Montreal Canadiens in 2017, Poehling never came close to living up to the immense expectations typically affixed to first-rounders in Montreal.
In 85 games with the Canadiens, Poehling collected only 22 points (13 goals, nine assists) and none of them came at the start of the season.
Before the 2022-23 campaign, Poehling never had been in the lineup for the first game of an NHL season.
Blueger’s injury created the opportunity to dress for the season opener, and Poehling has been a fixture in the lineup ever since. In fact, he has been one of 11 players in the Penguins lineup who have appeared in all 17 of the team’s games this season.
Poehling’s numbers this season haven’t been earth-shattering. They’re probably below par for any player who was drafted as highly as he was. He has all of four points (two goals, two assists) while averaging 11 minutes, 58 seconds of ice time per contest. In the faceoff circle, he only has won 46.1 % of his draws (88 wins, 103 losses).
With regards to puck possession, he is in the red, having been on the ice for 135 shot attempts for and 145 shot attempts against.
But just being in the lineup this much is a considerable victory for a player who was unable to open the 2021-22 season at the NHL level for the Canadiens, a team that finished a league-worst 22-49-11.
If there was a juncture this season when Poehling was in danger of being a healthy scratch, it would have been the past two games.
Once Blueger was finally healthy — and the team actually had the salary cap flexibility to activate him from long-term injured reserve — it was reasonable to assume Poehling might have been a spectator starting with Tuesday’s 5-2 home loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Instead, it has been perpetually disappointing forward Kasperi Kapanen, himself a first-round pick (No. 22 overall in 2014), who has been a healthy scratch the past two games.
Over the past two games, Poehling has moved from center to wing on the fourth line with Blueger and Josh Archibald on the right wing. On Thursday, in a 6-4 road win against the Minnesota Wild at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., that trio combined to score the Penguins’ second goal of the contest with Poehling, a native of Lakeville, Minn., finishing the sequence with his second goal of the season in front of his family and other loved ones.
“It’s special,” Poehling said to media in St. Paul. “It shows me how blessed I am as a person. It’s exciting. To have all the support that I do have, it means a lot to me.”