With the Pittsburgh Penguins entering the offseason after a brief return to the postseason, TribLive will offer Penguins A to Z, a player-by-player look at all 53 individuals signed to an NHL contract — including those whose deals do not begin until future seasons — with the organization.

Starting with veteran Noel Acciari and going on through to prospect Bill Zonnon, every player will be profiled in alphabetical order.

This series is scheduled to be published every day until June 24, two days before the start of the NHL Draft. In the event of a transaction, that schedule will be altered as necessary.

(Note: All contract information courtesy of Puckpedia.)

Rutger McGroarty

Position: Right winger

Shoots: Left

Age: 22

Height: 6-foot-1

Weight: 212 pounds

2025-26 NHL regular season statistics: 24 games, six points (three goals, three assists), 11:58 of average ice time per contest

2025-26 AHL regular season statistics: 30 games, 34 points (10 goals, 24 assists)

2025-26 AHL postseason statistics: 15 games, nine points (four goals, five assists)

Contract: In the second year of a three-year, entry-level contract with a salary cap hit of $950,000. Pending restricted free agent in 2027

(McGroarty does not require waivers for an assignment to a minor league affiliate.)

Acquired: Trade, Aug. 22, 2024

This season: It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say things got off on the wrong foot for Rutger McGroarty in 2025-26.

That’s because McGroarty was off his feet – or skates – when the season started. An undisclosed injury he suffered just prior to the start of training camp kept him sidelined until mid-November and led to him landing on the injured non-roster list.

Assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Nov. 15, McGroarty made his season debut that same day and scored a goal in a 3-1 home win against the Springfield Thunderbirds.

McGroarty showed he made the most of all that downtime by scoring points in his first five games of the season, totaling seven points (four goals, three assists) in that span while primarily skating at a left winger on the top line.

That success led to a recall to the NHL roster on Dec. 1. Largely deployed on the left wing of the third line, McGroarty was a mainstay in the NHL lineup throughout December and into early January for 16 consecutive games, contributing three points (two goals, one assist).

After being a healthy scratch on Jan. 4, McGroarty collided with a teammate in practice two days later, suffering a concussion that landed him on injured reserve and cost him six games.

Once he healed, he was returned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Jan. 18. Over the final three months of the regular season, McGroarty yo-yoed between the NHL and AHL rosters a handful of times, offering far more production with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton than Pittsburgh.

Opening the AHL’s Calder Cup playoffs on the left wing of the second line, McGroarty largely remained in that station for the duration of the postseason, finishing tied for the team lead in goals over the playoffs.

The future: Depending on how active the team is on the free agent market when it opens on July 1, there would appear to be ample opportunity for McGroarty and other winger prospects such as Ville Koivunen and Avery Hayes to claim a spot on the NHL roster going into 2026-27.

McGroarty probably has the most “attention” of that group, given his status as a former first-round draft pick (No. 14 overall in 2022) and how he arrived (via trade after failing to reach an agreement on a contract with his drafting team, the Winnipeg Jets).

He needs to show something more to match that billing, however. Throughout his appearances at the NHL level in 2025-26, McGroarty was largely relegated to third-line duties and looked adequate – at best – during those deployments. Rarely did he stand out, either in a positive or negative sense.

McGroarty has a fairly fundamentally sound game, particularly from a defensive standpoint. But his skating remains – and likely will always be – an area in need of improvement.

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It’s easy to forget McGroarty is still relatively early into his career. Having just turned 22 on March 30, he just completed his second professional season and has made steady improvement since debuting in 2022.

But if he is to take the next step and become a regular NHLer – never mind an impactful NHLer – he needs to show more.