Newly-acquired forward Alex Nylander made his Penguins debut with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Friday, recording two primary assists in a 6-5 shootout loss to the Utica Comets.
Nylander, acquired in the trade with the Blackhawks on Wednesday that sent Sam Lafferty to Chicago, skated on the left wing of the Penguins' top line alongside center Sam Houde and right wing Valtteri Puustinen.
Nylander, 23, is a 6-foot-1, 192-pound right-handed shot who can play both wing and center. He was the No. 8 overall pick of the Sabres in 2016, and has 84 games of NHL experience under his belt with the Sabres and Blackhawks.
The Penguins deployed Nylander on the top power play unit, and he set up Puustinen for the game's first goal at the 5:03 mark of the first period:
Later in the third period, Nylander made this great pass to captain Taylor Fedun to set up Fedun's first goal of the year and put Wilkes-Barre up 5-4:
Nylander nearly had a third assist in the game with this feed to Houde, but Houde whiffed on the shot:
Utica forced overtime with a power play goal midway through the third period. The Penguins sent Nylander out twice in the five-minute overtime period before the game went to a shootout.
Anthony Angello shot first for the Penguins in the shootout and scored. Nylander and Puustinen shot second and third respectively and were stopped on their attempts. The Comets scored twice in the shootout to earn the win. This was Nylander's attempt:
Nylander finished the night with one shot on goal and a plus-2 rating.
I asked Mike Sullivan on Thursday what he knows about Nylander's game. He said that he wasn't very familiar with Nylander's game himself yet, but that Ron Hextall and the Penguins' scouting staff were excited about the acquisition.
"They're really excited about his skill level, his potential to play the type of game that we're trying to play here in Pittsburgh," Sullivan said. "You know, he was obviously a real high pick. He has a lot of skill, he has real good offensive instincts."
Nylander will have to improve defensively in order to get back to the NHL.
"He's going to get an opportunity to develop his overall game on both sides of the puck," Sullivan said. "I'm looking forward to getting more familiar firsthand with his game. But I know that our scouting department and Hexy in particular is very, very excited about the opportunity that we have with Alex to try to help him improve and get to the point where he can be an impact player at the NHL level."
