Late last October, from the outside looking in, Rutger McGroarty appeared to be struggling in his first professional hockey campaign.
McGroarty had joined the Pittsburgh Penguins in August after general manager Kyle Dubas swung a blockbuster trade of former first-round prospects, shipping winger Brayden Yager to the Winnipeg Jets for McGroarty.
After partaking in the Penguins’ training camp, McGroarty cracked the NHL roster to begin the regular season, only to be sent down to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League after three relatively quiet games.
A few weeks later, goals and assists weren’t yet happening for McGroarty.
Yet his coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, Kirk MacDonald, offered a vote of confidence in the forward, who turned 21 in March.
“He’s a guy that, late in games, he needs to be on the ice whether we’re winning or losing,” MacDonald told TribLive. “To me, the stat sheet is really not indicative of what he’s doing right now. Once one goes in for him, I think a lot are going to go in. To me, the stats are almost like, eventually they’re going to take care of themselves. It’s a long season.”
Judging by how the remainder of McGroarty’s season went in the AHL, in addition to the end-of-year NHL call-up he received from the Penguins, MacDonald’s words proved prescient.
After managing only one goal and two assists over his first 12 games with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, McGroarty started producing at a much more robust pace from late November onward.
McGroarty wound up contributing 13 goals and 23 assists over his final 48 games, finishing his first AHL campaign with 14 goals and 25 assists in 60 contests.
When the Penguins called him up to the NHL at the end of March, he proved ready for the challenge.
While his season ultimately was cut short on April 8 due to a foot injury sustained by blocking a shot in the defensive zone against the Chicago Blackhawks, McGroarty felt as if significant development had transpired dating to October.
“I feel like it’s completely night and day,” McGroarty said of his overall game April 18. “At the start of the year, I was just surviving. Now, I feel like I was making an impact, which was really cool for me to see. Overall, my defensive game, (penalty kill), power play and honestly, just my B Game, too.
“Every night, especially at this level, you’re not going to have your A stuff, so developing a B Game, being impactful on the penalty kill, power play, in the (defensive) zone, making good wall plays, I feel like my overall game has just grown so much.”
Along with fellow rookie winger Ville Koivunen, McGroarty injected some end-of-year youth, energy and excitement into the Penguins’ nightly lineup.
Coach Mike Sullivan also opted to throw the two into the fire with top-six deployments alongside franchise pillars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, plus heavy minutes on the power play and in key situations.
Averaging around 11 minutes per night in early October in his first taste of NHL action, McGroarty saw closer to 18 over his five spring appearances.
In that clip of games, McGroarty contributed two assists.
He also collected his first NHL goal April 3 at St. Louis and in style, depositing a game-tying goal against the Blues with under a minute left in regulation, forcing overtime.
RUTGER MCGROARTY‼️
His first in the NHL ties this game up late! pic.twitter.com/2K7ALGWIiz
— NHL (@NHL) April 4, 2025
In total, through his first eight NHL games, McGroarty contributed three points, averaging 14 minutes, 37 seconds of ice time while deploying on both the penalty kill and power play.
For McGroarty, who was paired with Crosby and Bryan Rust on the Penguins’ top line before suffering his foot injury, skating with a future Hall of Famer and a productive 11-year NHL veteran in Rust didn’t prove at all overwhelming.
“I felt really good,” McGroarty said. “That was something I really wanted to bring, was just coming in with some confidence. Obviously, there’s times where you look over, it’s (Crosby and Rust) and you want to get them the puck. But I wanted to bring my game, what I can bring, by winning battles, my 5-foot passes, just my compete (level), my hockey IQ, too — just hopping in different spots and areas.
“I wanted to go in and play my game, show what I can do and just help them and help the team win. Overall, I felt confident on that line. It was a lot of fun while it lasted.”
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There had been some hope of McGroarty healing up sufficiently, provided Wilkes-Barre/Scranton went on a deep enough postseason run, to rejoin his teammates on the ice and lend a hand.
Unfortunately for McGroarty, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s Calder Cup run ended almost as quickly as it began.
The Penguins fell 3-2 to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms on Friday night to drop the best-of-three series, 2-0.
Their early exit means the next hockey McGroarty will play won’t be until the preseason in September.
However, McGroarty’s five end-of-season appearances with Pittsburgh created buzz around his potential entering 2025-26 preseason camp.
Along with Koivunen, forwards Vasily Ponomarev and Tristan Broz, defensemen Owen Pickering and Harrison Brunicke, plus goalies Joel Blomqvist and Sergei Murashov, McGroarty is in the vanguard of a Penguins youth movement that may yield some fierce battles for roster spots this upcoming fall.
“I feel like camp’s going to be ultra-competitive, especially when you have (Crosby) driving the bus,” McGroarty said. “It’s always going to be a competitive camp. Especially with the young group, too, right now, it’ll be a lot of fun. A lot of guys will want to put their best foot forward, and I know a lot of guys are going to have a lot of big summers.”