CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Bryan Rust does not have the profile of Sidney Crosby.
Or Evgeni Malkin.
Or Kris Letang.
Or Jake Guentzel, for that matter.
So when those players have been forced to miss games through the early weeks of this season, they might have taken away a bit of attention from the fact that Rust hasn't played since the Penguins' second game, Oct. 14 at Florida.
But the guys who share a locker room with him have been keenly aware of his absence.
Jason Zucker described him as ""a huge catalyst for our team," and assistant coach Todd Reirden was no less effusive after practice Friday.
"He's a really important player," Reirden said. "Until ... you don't have him, you don't realize how good he really is. In our room, we weren't forgetting about not having him."
Although the Penguins haven't had Rust for the past seven games, he could be back in the lineup when the Wild visits PPG Paints Arena Saturday at 7:08 p.m.
Reirden said Rust will "be a game-time choice," but he was a full participant and filled several prominent roles during practice. He skated on the No. 1 line, alongside Jeff Carter and Guentzel, and replaced Kasperi Kapanen on the top power-play unit.
"Today was a big day for him, to be able to go through a full-contact practice," Reirden said. "We liked a lot of what we saw today."
Rust declined to say whether he expects to play against Minnesota, but seemed pleased with how his return to working out with his teammates went.
"I felt good on the ice," he said. "I'm not sure how I looked ... but I definitely felt good out there. We'll see how things go here in the next little while, and just kind of go from there."
Rust sustained an unspecified lower-body injury early in the third period of the second game of the season, when Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar dropped him with a big hit as Rust carried the puck near the top of the left circle.
"I tried to make a move to the inside and he read me really well," Rust said. "Caught me with a real nice hit. We had kind of an awkward collision and I ended up getting hurt. Just unfortunate."
Rust said it was "extremely frustrating" to be injured so early in the season.
"You don't like getting hurt, ever," he said. "But obviously, that quickly in the season, maybe it stings a little bit more."
Even if some people don't seem to notice that you're missing.
MORE FROM THE PRACTICE
• Zucker deadpanned an entertaining response when asked how he ended up pitted against Rust in a fundraiser known as the Mustache Faceoff for a couple of charities, Movember and the Mario Lemieux Foundation: "I just tried to pick the weakest link on the team, so (Rust) was the one. It seems simple enough. Probably the most disliked guy in all of Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh sports, in general. Just a terrible person. Horrible mustache."
• Reirden, on assessing defenseman Jusso Riikola: "I'm looking for a little bit more of a body of work, but certainly, there's a lot of attributes there that open your eyes to things that can be accomplished, and how he can help us play the way we want to play with our defensemen."
• Rust said Friday's practice was much like those overseen by Mike Sullivan, who is in the COVID-19 protocol. "Practice seemed basically the same," he said. "Everything was very similar." Reirden noted that Sullivan has been in contact with the rest of the coaching staff to offer input on personnel moves and other such issues.
• The Penguins acquired Zucker from Minnesota Feb. 10, 2020, but Saturday's game will be his first against his old club. "I feel like I've been here for 10 years now, and still haven't played them," he said. "It's exciting. I still have a lot of good friends over there."
• Malkin had an on-ice workout with skills coach Ty Hennes before the team practice. No other players were involved. Reirden said that "things are headed in the right direction" with Malkin's recovery from knee surgery, but that he's not aware of any change in the timeline that calls for Malkin to be out until at least December.
• Personnel combinations:
Jake Guentzel-Jeff Carter-Bryan Rust
Jason Zucker-Evan Rodrigues-Kasperi Kapanen
Zach Aston-Reese-Teddy Blueger-Brock McGinn
Drew O'Connor-Brian Boyle-Danton Heinen
Extras: Sam Lafferty, Dominik Simon
Mike Matheson-Kris Letang
P.O Joseph-John Marino
Juuso Riikola-Mark Friedman
Extra: Taylor Fedun
No. 1 power play: Letang, Rust, Carter, Guentzel and Rodrigues
No. 2 power play: Zucker, Kapanen, Heinen, Riikola and O'Connor
