CRANBERRY, Pa. -- If you ask Mike Sullivan what a specific player needs to do to crack the roster out of training camp, his answer is always going to be the same -- "Make an impact."
How one would define an "impact" depends on the player. And for Valtteri Puustinen, what he needs to do is clear. He has to score.
Puustinen, who turned 25 years old in June, was a pending free agent entering the offseason. He and the Penguins came to an agreement early into the long summer on a two-year, two-way deal.
"Of course, I wanted to come back," Puustinen said at the Penguins training camp at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex.
Puustinen has put together a decent little body of work here at the NHL level. After making his one-game NHL debut in the 2021-22 season, he spent all of 2022-23 in the AHL before coming into last year's training camp seriously ready to push for a spot on the NHL roster. He spent some time in the AHL -- 24 games over the course of the season, picking up five goals and eight assists -- before carving out a role in the Penguins' bottom six and playing in 52 games.
With that experience, Puustinen clearly seems much more comfortable in this camp. For one, he's much more comfortable just living in North America, and his English is getting better at such a high rate. But he also feels like he knows what it takes to play in the NHL.
"This camp is a little bit different, because I trust myself now a little bit more," Puustinen said. "I played last year in (52) games, and I know I can keep it playing here now. I am so hungry this year. I want to play all the games here and play better and help the team."
Puustinen's production was fine last year for his role -- five goals, 15 assists. But that's not going to cut it this year. The Penguins have more forwards -- including more young wingers -- pushing for spots on the NHL roster, and it's going to be that much harder to solidify a spot on the NHL roster. He's got to produce more, and he's got to start scoring in the preseason games to prove himself.
"He's a guy that has good offensive instincts," Mike Sullivan said of Puustinen. "He's shown an ability to score in the American League. The next step for him is he has to score some goals in the National League. He's proven that he's capable of being an NHL player. For me, I think he needs to take the next step, and he's got to bring some finish. He's got to bring some some offensive influence to the line that he's on, and at the same time, he's got to be able to have some conscientious play away from the puck."
Sullivan credited Puustinen's coaches in Wilkes-Barre with instilling that defensive awareness in him over the years. He also thinks that Puustinen's added some speed each year that he's been in the system. His overall game is getting better, and the scoring needs to follow.
Puustinen's greatest competition for a role on a bottom-six wing is likely Jesse Puljujarvi, who has already scored in a couple training camp scrimmages and added a hat trick in the preseason opener against the Sabres. Puustinen's only skated in the first of the Penguins' two preseason games so far, and was scoreless in the 7-3 loss.
The Penguins have five more preseason games to go before the regular-season opener on Oct. 9. Puustinen will likely get in a couple more. He'll need to put up some points, or he could be destined for waivers and a trip to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
"I can try my best in all practices and all games," Puustinen said. "Guys want to see what we've got here. I'll play to my game ... but a little bit better."
MORE FROM CAMP
• Jonathan Gruden (upper-body) and Filip Kral (lower-body) didn't skate today and are both considered day-to-day. They both left last night's game in the third period after hits -- Gruden crashed hard into the boards, and Kral fell awkwardly and hurt his knee. Kral told me after the game that he felt fine, with the disclaimer that he'd wait and see how he felt today. Must not have felt 100%.
• No real updates to the other injured guys -- Erik Karlsson, Taylor Gauthier, Beau Jelsma, Jagger Joshua and Matt Nieto. Karlsson had a planned day off from skating, and Jelsma, Joshua and Nieto all skated on their own. This was the first day back on the ice for Jelsma, who is out longer-term with an upper-body injury sustained in the Prospects Challenge.
• Team 1 used the following lines and pairings:
Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Rutger McGroarty - Vasily Ponomarev - Jesse Puljujarvi
Anthony Beauvillier - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari
Tanner Howe - Tristan Broz - Emil Bemstrom
Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang
Owen Pickering - Scooter Brickey
Ryan Shea - John Ludvig
Dan Renouf - Harrison Brunicke
Tristan Jarry
Joel Blomqvist
• Team 2 used these lines and pairings:
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Kevin Hayes - Lars Eller - Cody Glass
Valtteri Puustinen - Joona Koppanen - Avery Hayes
Ville Koivunen - Jimmy Huntington - Sam Poulin
Ryan Graves - Jack St. Ivany
Marcus Pettersson - Sebastian Aho
Isaac Belliveau - Nathan Clurman
Finn Harding - Mac Hollowell
Alex Nedeljkovic
Sergei Murashov
• First power play: Kris Letang, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Rickard Rakell
• Second power play: Matt Grzelcyk, Michael Bunting, Cody Glass, Kevin Hayes, Lars Eller
• It's still too early, I think, to offer any meaningful assessments of the power play in this setting. This was only the second practice where the power play even got any time, and Karlsson is still working through an injury and not practicing. The most interesting takeaway from that portion of practice was that it was Marcus Pettersson and Jack St. Ivany first tasked with working the penalty-kill against the top unit. Ryan Graves started against the second unit with Ryan Shea.
• The second portion of practice moved to a clear division of NHL guys on one sheet, depth guys and prospects on the other sheet. Worth noting that Puljujarvi, Ponomarev, St. Ivany, Aho, Ludvig, Shea were among the borderline guys to skate with the NHL group. Poulin and Puustinen were among those to skate on the other sheet. Nothing's set in stone and the groups change a little bit daily, but it's something to take note of.
• Jeff Carter was around again watching practice from the bench. He still doesn't have an official role with the team, he's just hanging around. It wouldn't be surprising to see him eventually come on in some sort of development or hockey operations advisor role.
