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.)
Taylor Fedun
Position: Defenseman
Shoots: Right
Age: 35
Height: 6-foot-1
Weight: 200 pounds
2023-24 AHL statistics: 43 games, 12 points (one goal, 11 assists)
2023-24 AHL postseason statistics: Two games, zero points (zero goals, zero assists)
Contract: In the second year of a two-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $762,500. Pending unrestricted free agent this upcoming offseason.
Acquired: Unrestricted free agent signing, July 28, 2021
This season: Taylor Fedun being here is pretty remarkable.
To be clear, being a 30-something who is regularly a healthy scratch for a slightly above-average American Hockey League team is nothing special.
But for Fedun, being a professional hockey player and having that gig for more than a decade is arrestingly remarkable.
Especially considering how his professional existence started.
In the 2011 preseason, after signing with the Edmonton Oilers as an undrafted free agent out of Princeton, Fedun fractured his right femur and was forced to undergo extensive surgery to repair the injury.
— EN Videos (@ENVideos19) May 8, 2024
After missing all of the 2011-12 season, he returned to the ice in 2012-13 and managed to carve out a 13-year career primarily at the AHL level.
The past three of those have primarily been with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, serving as that team’s captain.
While certainly respected and valued for his leadership qualities on and off the ice in providing guidance to the Penguins’ legitimately rising prospects, Fedun struggled to stay in the lineup this past season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton as he appeared in only 43 of the team’s 72 regular season game.
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Part of that was due to the surplus of veterans and the AHL’s rules for how many veterans can be in a lineup while injuries also played a role on occasion. And to be frank, the AHL Penguins simply had better options for the lineup on many nights.
Typically deployed on the bottom two pairings, Fedun scored his lone goal of the season during a 3-1 road win against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on March 24.
Oh Captain My Captain! ???? pic.twitter.com/9j4BlItIsB
— Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (@WBSPenguins) March 24, 2024
In the lineup for the final six games of the regular season, Fedun appeared in his 500th career AHL game on April 19. In the postseason, he dressed for the Penguins’ only two games in a first-round loss to the Phantoms in late April.
The future: Just given his age – he’ll turn 36 on June 4 – and his limited deployment this past season, it’s hard to see Fedun being re-signed by the Penguins. Even the prospect of getting another NHL contract from any other team seems a bit far-fetched at this juncture.
He’s a good human and leader to have around legitimate prospects on the rise, but he is limited as a player.
As far as the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins are concerned, considering head coach J.D. Forrest and assistant coach Kevin Porter did not have their contract renewed, it seems likely that more changes will unfold with that team, particularly with a veteran like Fedun, who is almost as much of a coach as he is a player at this stage of his career.
Having not played in any NHL games since he appeared in four for the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2022-23, Fedun could very well retire this upcoming offseason.
If that’s the case, that’s fine. Fedun has been a professional hockey player for a long time against some long odds and there is plenty to celebrate over that.
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.