The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2024-25 campaign ended after Thursday night’s victory over the Washington Capitals at PPG Paints Arena.
However, the same could not be said for their American Hockey League affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, who qualified for the Calder Cup playoffs.
Beginning Friday against the Hershey Bears, two regular-season contests remain for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, with postseason seeding implications on the line.
With that and the upcoming playoffs in mind, the Penguins reassigned a multitude of players back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Friday afternoon: forwards Vasily Ponomarev, Joona Koppanen, Sam Poulin, Ville Koivunen and Valtteri Puustinen, plus defenseman Filip Kral.
Ponomarev, 23, appeared in seven NHL contests this season over three separate recalls to Pittsburgh, recording no points in a predominately bottom-six role.
With Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, he contributed 15 goals with 25 assists in 54 appearances.
Koppanen appeared in 11 games with the Penguins, notably scoring his first NHL goal March 18, his first contest after being called up from the AHL.
With Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, the 27-year-old scored seven goals with 15 assists in 55 games.
Poulin was solid in the AHL this season, scoring 19 goals with 24 assists in 56 games.
Recalled by the Penguins on Thursday for their regular-season finale, Poulin played in seven NHL games in 2024-25, recording one assist.
As for Koivunen, he completes a successful first rodeo in the NHL, having managed seven assists in eight games with the Penguins since his debut March 30.
The 21-year-old winger became a regular on Evgeni Malkin’s second line before joining Sidney Crosby after Rutger McGroarty suffered an injury April 8.
Now Koivunen returns to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, for whom he was an AHL All-Star in his first season of North American professional hockey.
He remains Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s leading scorer this season, with 55 points (21 goals, 34 assists) in 62 games.
After a promising 52-game campaign with the Penguins in 2023-24, Puustinen spent the vast majority of this season in the AHL, scoring 16 goals with 19 assists.
In 13 games with the NHL Penguins, Puustinen managed a pair of goals with one assist.
McGroarty’s availability for the Calder Cup playoffs remains to be seen.
When coach Mike Sullivan announced that the 21-year-old would miss the Penguins’ final three games due to a suspected foot injury, he left the door open for McGroarty to be able to suit up again for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in the postseason.
Whether that happens will be contingent on how far Wilkes-Barre/Scranton advances.
McGroarty was not among the contingent of players reassigned to the AHL Friday.
At any rate, McGroarty, who cracked the Penguins’ roster coming out of training camp to begin the season, was a major architect of Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s success, scoring 14 goals with 25 assists over 60 games.
In eight NHL contests, McGroarty scored one goal — in the last minute of regulation April 3 to force overtime against the St. Louis Blues — with two assists.
Kral, 25, competed for a spot on the blue line during training camp last fall but was ultimately cut and assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, where he became a regular in the lineup.
In 59 games, he managed seven goals with 22 assists.
Called up from the AHL on April 14, Kral did not see any game action with the Penguins, serving as a healthy scratch in the finale vs. Washington.
Of the aforementioned players, Koppanen ($775,000), Ponomarev ($795,000) and Kral ($775,000) are on expiring contracts.
Koppanen and Kral will enter unrestricted free agency while Ponomarev is set to become a restricted free agent.
Poulin ($775,000 annually), Koivunen ($805,833) and Puustinen ($775,000) are signed through 2025-26.
McGroarty’s entry-level contract signed this past August runs through 2026-27 at $950,000 annually.