Poulin 'came a long way' on and off ice in last year

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Sam Poulin would have been forgiven on Saturday if he wasn't in the best of spirits.

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton practiced that morning at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex, and it was a long session. Five-on-five work, special teams, small-area work, skills drills, the whole deal. Nobody spent more time on the ice than Poulin, who was on the ice well before and well after practice to do some individual work, including extensive skating work with Penguins skating coach MacKenzie Braid. It seemed exhausting. On top of that, Poulin and the team were on their way to Cleveland of all places, with the Cranberry practice being a pit stop on the nearly seven-hour bus ride on their way to a two-game road series against the Cleveland Monsters.

And of course, Poulin was in the AHL. Not exactly where he wants to be, and not where he should be, either. Plenty of players over the years in similar situations have expressed their frustration over still being in the minors, even if they were far less deserving of a shot in the NHL than Poulin.

Poulin seemed as happy as I've ever seen him on this day, though. His smile didn't leave his face for the nearly eight minutes that he spoke in the locker room after practice.

"For a long time I didn't really enjoy playing hockey this much," Poulin said. "It just feels good to come to the rink and have a blast every day and be with the boys. I feel really good."

This is the third professional season for Poulin, who just turned 23 years old. But last season was essentially a lost year for him on the ice. He got off to a good start in Wilkes-Barre and made his NHL debut last October in Calgary, and earned an assist in a three-game NHL stint before being re-assigned to the AHL. Just over a month later he took a leave of absence to focus on his mental health back home in Quebec, and didn't return to Wilkes-Barre for over three months. He played a handful of games with Wilkes-Barre down the last stretch of the regular season, but in all was limited to just 15 AHL games.

Poulin attended the Penguins' development camp and Prospects Challenge over the summer -- not something that players with Poulin's level of professional experience often do, but something he and the Penguins decided was best for him given the challenge he was facing of getting back into his best shape. Poulin started the year in Wilkes-Barre and didn't quite looked like he missed any time at all. Had it not been for the injuries, he likely would have earned that call back to the NHL by now.

Poulin has dealt with two significant injuries over the course of this season, both lasting around a month. He suffered a high-ankle sprain on Oct. 29, and then another undisclosed lower-body injury on Feb 3. The long-term injuries weren't ideal, and that was compounded by the fact that the big club in Pittsburgh was hurting at forward as well during each stretch, making multiple call-ups each time. Opportunities presented themselves, and Poulin wasn't available.

"Anytime you get injured, it's never, never fun," Poulin said, with that smile still refusing to leave his face. "But I tried to use that time off to work on other things that I wouldn't necessarily work on. I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason, so I used that time to work on something else."

Some of that work included things Poulin could do in the gym. But he said a lot of the work he did wasn't physical at all, noting that he "still had some stuff to work on mentally, so that gave me time to work on that."

All that work Poulin put towards focusing on himself -- both during his leave last year and that continued work this year -- has Poulin in a better place mentally to deal with those inevitable frustrations like injuries that are just a part of the job.

"One of the things that I was working on was to just to deal with those," he said. "Most people think that when you get an injury, it's it's only physical. But I feel like there's a major mental side to it. You're not doing your sport, you're not doing anything that you'd like to do. That can be hard mentally. It's just a matter of learning how to deal with all those things at the same time, because obviously that won't be my last injury in hockey."

When Poulin has been healthy, he's been productive. In both cases with his injuries, he hasn't seemed to need any kind of adjustment period to get back up to the level he was playing before his injury. He has 13 goals and 13 assists through his 33 games -- a big leap from his four goals in 15 games last season, or his 16 goals and 21 assists in his 72 games as a rookie in 2021-22.

Poulin has played big minutes all season in different roles on Wilkes-Barre's top two lines, spending time at both left wing and center.

"It's obviously my best pro year so far," Poulin said. "I think my play is really consistent too every game, I feel like I bring something to the team and help the team win in a way. Sometimes it will be more defensively, sometimes it will be offensively. It doesn't matter to me as long as the team wins and I can help the team."

Kyle Dubas has made a number of trips out to see Wilkes-Barre this season, and has noted Poulin's strong play on a number of occasions, calling him "excellent as of late" last month and naming Poulin as someone who could be pushing for a full-time NHL role entering next season. That hasn't translated into an NHL call-up yet this season -- at times because of Poulin's injuries, or other factors out of his control like cap constraints -- but consensus is that he's ready.

"He's scratching at the door," Wilkes-Barre coach J.D. Forrest said. "He's got a lot of translatable skills that will definitely do him well in the NHL. ... He's right there as far as his ability and how he's playing. We're happy with where he's at today."

Poulin will certainly be in the mix for a spot next training camp, presumably at wing or center in the bottom-six. It would be nice to see him get an extended look in the NHL this season too, but cap constraints and non-emergency recall limits that exist at this point of the NHL season could prove to make that difficult. 

Whether it's this year or next, whenever that opportunity does come, it'll be a meaningful moment for Poulin after the road he's taken to get to his point. He said that it would be a different feeling from his first recall last season because of everything that has transpired since.

"I think I came a long way since last year," Poulin said. "I did a lot of work on myself to get to this point and be in this position and be in this shape. I feel like it would be just a nice way to make me realize that every time I work hard there's challenges or there's something on the way, that I'm able to get through those things."