CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Valtteri Puustinen's first NHL recall was brief.
The Penguins initially recalled forwards Puustinen and Michael Chaput on Monday after Evgeni Malkin entered COVID protocol ahead of the team's road trip to Boston and Ottawa.
With Malkin exiting COVID protocol and rejoining the team's optional practice on Friday, and Drew O'Connor taking steps toward a return from his upper-body injury, both Puustinen and Chaput were sent back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton without appearing in any games.
I wouldn't be surprised to see Puustinen get a real shot at some point this season.
Puustinen, 22, was the Penguins' 2019 seventh-round pick, and has already proven to be a late-round gem. He's been Wilkes-Barre's best forward this season, and ranks No. 1 on the team in both goals (13) and points (27) through 40 games, playing right wing on the team's top line and the left circle on the team's top power play unit. In addition to his offensive production, the team is encouraged with Puustinen's defensive game and the pace he's added to his game since moving to North America this season, as I wrote about in this story.
Though Puustinen didn't get a chance to make his NHL debut yet, Mike Sullivan said Friday that the Penguins are "thrilled with Puusty's overall development."
"He's in much better shape," Sullivan said of the steps Puustinen has taken this season. "He's trimmed down, his body fat is down. He's stronger. He's playing with more pace. The development of his hockey game, I think has been terrific."
Something Sullivan spoke of in the preseason was the challenges Puustinen faced with his limited grasp of English, and how the team was helping him navigate that. They'd pair him with another Finn like Niclas Almari in practices or in the locker room, and Puustinen would have someone who could serve as a translator for him.
I asked Sullivan Friday if they enlisted Kasperi Kapanen -- the only other Finn on the roster, who also happens to be from the same hometown of Puustinen in Kuopio -- to pull double-duty as a translator during Puustinen's time in the NHL.
Sullivan said that they didn't need Kapanen to help out with any translating. Puustinen's made just as many strides off the ice as he has on the ice in the last four months.
"I think he understands (English) much better than he did when he was in training camp. And he's getting better at speaking it himself," Sullivan said. "His commitment to try to assimilate into the into the North American culture, he's worked extremely hard at that. He's really embraced the whole challenge, both on the ice and off the ice."
Sullivan expressed great respect for players like Puustinen navigating these challenges off the ice as they move to North America to chase their NHL dream.
"I couldn't imagine myself going the opposite way, trying to understand a foreign language in a foreign country with a whole different culture," Sullivan said. "That's what we're asking some of our players to do, and that's one of the challenges that European players face when they play in the NHL. I think Puusty has done a terrific job."
MORE FROM PRACTICE
• It was an optional practice. Participants were Malkin, O'Connor, Dominik Simon, Danton Heinen, Zach Aston-Reese, Mark Friedman, Radim Zohorna, Marcus Pettersson, Chad Ruhwedel and Casey DeSmith. Lemieux Complex goaltending coach Mike Chiasson filled in as the second goaltender, as he has done several times this season. Skills coach Ty Hennes and goaltending coach Andy Chiodo led the session, with Hennes working with one group of skaters at one end of the ice while others served as shooters on DeSmith with Chiodo at the other end of the ice.
• Teddy Blueger skated on his own with Hennes before practice.
• It was a lighter mood, given that the practice was optional. Pop music blasted over the speakers the whole time, and there were big celebrations after goals.
• This was Malkin's first practice with the team since testing positive for COVID over the All-Star break. Sullivan said that Malkin is technically a "game-time decision" for Sunday's game in New Jersey, but he anticipates that Malkin will play.
As far as Malkin's potential linemates when he returns, Sullivan said "we're trying to surround Geno with the right people that give them the best opportunity to be successful."
It sounds like there's a good chance that Kapanen will be one of Malkin's wingers, though.
"Kappy is a guy, for example, that has shown the ability in the past to have real good chemistry with Geno and brings a speed dimension, a playmaking dimension that I think meshes well with Geno," Sullivan aid. "The other guys that we've tried on the opposite side are players that maybe play more of a north-south game, that have a conscientious two-way game that go to the net that play in the battle areas. Because Geno and Kappy tend to be guys that play in motion. So we're looking for someone on that opposite side,that plays a little bit of a different type of game that might be complementary to the other two."
• O'Connor was cleared for contact and practice with the team during the road trip, and was again in a regular contact jersey today. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported that O'Connor was recovering from a collapsed lung suffered in San Jose on Jan. 15, but O'Connor declined to confirm that report or comment otherwise on the nature of his injury when he spoke after practice on Friday.
"I'm getting a lot more comfortable out there now, started taking some contact last couple days," O'Connor said. "So I'm feeling really good."
Sullivan said that O'Connor remains "status quo," meaning he hasn't been cleared to return yet. O'Connor said that he's hoping to get cleared by the doctor "in the next day or so," then after "a couple more practices" hopes to get back into a game.
