Puustinen a 'quick learner' on and off the ice

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Back in the Penguins' training camp, Mike Sullivan named Finnish defense prospect Niclas Almari the team's "resident translator."

Almari was one of six Finns at camp, five of whom had spent a few years in North America at that point, with the lone exception being forward Valtteri Puustinen.

Puustinen, 22, was the Penguins' 2019 seventh-round pick and beginning his first season playing in North America, and he didn't yet have a good grasp of the English language.

"We pair him up with Niclas Almari, and he's kind of a defenseman slash translator," Sullivan told me after a preseason game in Buffalo. "For sure, it's a challenge. That's never an easy thing. I couldn't imagine being a player and going to Finland and not being able to speak the language and trying to figure out what the coach is saying every day. I think Puusty does a real good job at that. We're going to work with him and try to help him in that area, and I think Niclas has done a real good job as far as acting as our resident translator."

Four months later, Puustinen's made great strides on and off the ice in his first season in North America. 

Puustinen is Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's leading scorer at the midpoint of the season, and is growing more comfortable speaking English. Now that he's able to show more of his personality, he's earned a reputation in Wilkes-Barre's locker room of a bit of a jokester.

"Honestly, from the first day I saw him in camp to right now, I feel like he's two different people," P.O Joseph said with a laugh when I asked him about Puustinen following Wilkes-Barre's practice in Cranberry on Thursday. "He's so fun to be around. Even though we have the language barrier, he's always joking and making the guys laugh, trying to get as better at English as he possibly can. He's just a great guy. He always brings good energy around, it's never negative. He's always happy."

Swedish forward Filip Hallander called Puustinen a "quick learner," and said that it seems like Puustinen learns a few new words every day.

"From the first day I met him to now, he's learned a lot," Hallander told me. "He's just getting more comfortable with just being around here and speaking. It's much better now."

Puustinen has quite a few countrymen in the locker room to help him make that adjustment, with defensemen Almari, Juuso Riikola, forward Kasper Bjorkqvist, and goaltender Filip Lindberg. He also has head coach J.D. Forrest, who spent four and a half seasons in Finland during his playing career and picked up some of the language while he was there.

"At one point I could fake it you could you think that maybe I had it down," Forrest said of his own grasp on Finnish. "But it's been a long time, you kind of lose it a bit. I do my best around those guys. But it's pretty much like, 'Hey, how are you? What's going on? Everything's good? How's the food?' Things like that."

Forrest said that he'll still occasionally hear Puustinen speaking Finnish in the locker room, but his fellow Finns -- especially Bjorkqvist -- make Puustinen speak English around them.

That goes for jokes, too. Puustinen might think of a punchline while around the team, and ask a fellow Finn for help with the translation, so he's able to deliver it in English and get some laughs.

He's even started making some appearances in the team's fun social media videos, like this one where he calls Jordy Bellerive "the guy with the big butt":

"The guys get a kick out of it," Forrest said. "He's doing his best. It's difficult. The language is so different than English. But he's got a good personality, and he's starting to learn more and more for sure."

LEHIGH VALLEY PHANTOMS

Valtteri Puustinen fights for the puck in a game in Lehigh Valley this season

Puustinen's learning quickly on the ice too.

After Puustinen's first NHL preseason game, Sullivan praised Puustinen's offensive instincts and vision, and noted that he thought Puustinen could stand to improve defensively in some areas. Sullivan was interested to see how Puustinen would continue to adjust to the style of the North American game.

"I think playing on a smaller ice surface, things happen a lot faster," Sullivan said. "So that's an adjustment and in and of itself, and just not having as much time or as much space to make a play. You've got to really have an idea of what you're going to do with the puck before you get it in a lot of circumstances. But he's a smart enough player, he has a high enough IQ that I think he'll adjust to that. He's adjusting to it on the fly."

Puustinen's scoring ability has been on display from Day 1 of the season, when he scored the team's first goal of the year in a win over Lehigh Valley:

Puustinen, who has been the team's first-line right wing all season and plays on the top power play unit, ranks No. 1 on the team in both goals (13) and points (27) through 37 games, and has a dangerous shot:

In watching Puustinen play this season, his defensive game hasn't seemed like a weakness at all. He's not a liability. He makes plays like this one, diving to break up a pass in the Penguins' end and clear the puck:

I asked Forrest recently how he thought Puustinen's handled that side of the game, and he had nothing but praise. He didn't ever think that a lack of defensive awareness was ever part of Puustinen's game.

"It's funny with Puusty, I think," Forrest said. "I don't know if he had a rap of that being a deficiency in this game, but he's committed to it. He's a smart player. He's not the biggest guy (5-9, 183), but he knows how to win battles, and make some good plays on the wall coming out of our D zone. He reads the game extremely well, and that helps us with positioning in the D zone. I'm not afraid to put him out there in any situation. He's a tough little player. As far as his D zone, he definitely understands what we're trying to do in there. He's able to play that system."

Forrest also thinks that Puustinen's picked up his pace since the start of the season.

"He looks fast, a lot faster than he did two months ago," Forrest told me. "That's a credit to him for working hard to get to that point, and then also to adjusting to the game."

Wilkes-Barre has produced a number of bottom-six-type players in recent years, but it's been awhile since the Penguins have drafted and developed a real top-six forward. Puustinen might be the closest thing the team has had to a Jake Guentzel-like player since Guentzel himself came out of Wilkes-Barre in the 2016-17 season.

Four months into his time with the Penguins, Puustinen has consistently been one of Wilkes-Barre's best forwards, if not the best forward, this season. He hasn't shown anything that would indicate that he's not ready to see NHL time sometime this season.