Perseverance pays off for Penguins defenseman Taylor Fedun
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Taylor Fedun smiled through the pain.
And to be certain, the pain wasn’t related to a losing streak or the prospect of missing the playoffs.
It was literal pain.
From the stitches on the right side of his upper lip.
On Monday morning, after he was recalled from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, he stood in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ dressing room at PPG Paints Arena and could barely stifle a gap-toothed grin over the prospect of playing his first NHL game in nearly three years.
“You should see the other guy,” quipped Fedun, who caught an elbow during an American Hockey League game for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton two days earlier.
Fedun, a right-handed defenseman, saw a fair amount of ice time Monday night during a 2-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. He logged 10 minutes, 34 seconds on 14 shifts while primarily playing on the third pairing. While he was on the ice for the Senators’ first goal, Fedun recorded two shots on four attempts and blocked one shot.
“It’s been a while,” Fedun said Monday morning. “Exciting. It’s crazy how quickly things can change. A few weeks ago (with the trade deadline), it was probably the furthest thing from anyone’s mind. But here we are. Just trying to make the most of it.”
Fedun has gotten quite a bit out of his career considering he was undrafted out of Princeton and nearly was robbed of his professional career before it began.
Playing a preseason game for the Edmonton Oilers in fall 2011, Fedun fractured his right femur after being tripped and falling violently into the end boards during a race for a puck.
He missed the entire 2011-12 season but was able to rehabilitate his injury and resume his career one year later.
In the decade-plus since, Fedun accumulated 127 games of NHL experience with the Oilers, San Jose Sharks, Vancouver Canucks, Buffalo Sabres and Dallas Stars before suiting up for the Penguins.
Before Monday, Fedun’s most recent NHL contest came with the Stars during the so-called “bubble” playoffs of 2020. To be precise, he last played in a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche of Game 6 of a second-round postseason series in a quarantined zone in Edmonton that included Rogers Place.
At 34, he has far more games at the AHL level (453) than he does in the NHL. But just being a professional hockey player in any sense is something Fedun does not take for granted.
“I just love it,” Fedun said. “I still love it. I had that conversation with my wife not long ago. If we have a day off, I’m still like excited to go to the rink the next day. I enjoy it. I love being around the guys. I love the battle on the ice. It’s a nice perk in this profession that it keeps you healthy other than the injuries. But I still just love it.”
Four of the Penguins’ incumbent defensemen — Dmitry Kulikov, Jeff Petry, Marcus Pettersson and Jan Rutta — and one of their top reserves with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton — Ty Smith — had to be hobbled with injuries for Fedun to get into the Penguins lineup. Despite being fully aware of the organization’s depth, the right-handed Fedun opted to re-sign with the Penguins as an unrestricted free agent this past offseason, agreeing to a two-year contract.
The opportunity to find an organization with an easier avenue to the NHL was potentially available, but Fedun opted to stay with the Penguins for arguably more profound reasons.
“For me and my family, it was a great situation,” said Fedun, who has served as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s captain the past two seasons. “My wife is from Pennsylvania. Being (with) Wilkes-Barre, we’re fairly close to her parents. And now we’ve got two young kids. So having grandparents relatively close was huge. We love it in (Wilkes-Barre). There’s a great group, a great staff. I love the coaching staff. It was just a good fit for us last year. It was a pretty easy decision to come back.”
Fedun serves as a leader and mentor to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s younger players.
“He’s probably in the gym more than anyone that I’ve seen,” said forward Drew O’Connor, who has spent parts of the past three seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. “Not even necessarily working out but stretching. You try to take little things like that from guys that have had a long career.”
However much longer that career or his current station on the Penguins roster lasts, Fedun has a pretty firm grasp on what he needs to do to stick around.
“It’s just playing the way I always do,” Fedun said. “I try and battle hard out there, move pucks up to our skilled group in the forwards here, defend hard and keep it pretty simple.”