How 'one step back' helped Kral earn opportunity with Penguins

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- When defenseman Filip Kral left North America for Finland last summer, he figured he'd be back. It was all part of the plan.

"I felt like one step back could help me move forward after that year," Kral told me after the Penguins' training camp practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex on Thursday.

It's fair to say the "step back" helped Kral accomplish what he wanted. After going unsigned by the Maple Leafs in 2023 after two full seasons in North America, Kral signed in Finland and spent a year dominating in the top Finnish league. When the general manager responsible for drafting Kral, Kyle Dubas, came calling with an offer with a one-year NHL contract with the Penguins, Kral jumped at the opportunity.

"When there was a chance, I was like, I have to go," Kral recalled.

Kral, 24, is a left-handed defenseman who has experience playing on both sides of a pairing. The 6-foot-2, 198-pound native of Blansko, Czechia was originally the Maple Leafs' fifth-round pick in 2018, being selected out of the WHL's Spokane Chiefs. Kral spent the first part of the 2020-21 season in the top league in his native Czechia because of COVID-19 delaying the start of the AHL season, then played a handful of games in the AHL with the Marlies to finish the year. The 2021-22 season was his first full year playing professionally in North America, and he spent all of it in the AHL, racking up three goals and 18 assists in 58 games. He made his NHL debut the following year and skated in two games with the Maple Leafs, but was limited to 24 AHL games in which he scored two goals and four assists due to injuries. 

The Maple Leafs -- now under new management after not retaining Dubas that summer -- let Kral walk in the offseason. Frustrated by an injury-riddled season and wanting to be closer to family, Kral signed with the Liiga's Pelicans in Finland.

"I was kind of tired of being in America and Canada, I would say," Kral told me of his decision. "I just wanted to be closer to home. I was injured a lot during that last season, so it was mentally pretty hard for me."

Kral, obviously, is Czech. Not Finnish. He didn't want to play in the Czech league -- which is a lower-level of competition than say, the KHL, SHL, or Finnish league -- out of fear of getting "stuck" there. He was in talks with Swedish teams, but landed on the Pelicans in Finland because of the opportunity to play on the top defense pairing and quarterback the top power play and really showcase his strengths as an offensive defenseman. He was able to do just that -- he finished No. 4 in team scoring and led his team's defensemen with five goals and 32 assists in 46 games. He won the league's Matti Keinonen Trophy for the best plus/minus at plus-28.

Beyond the offense, being in that league just helped Kral learn to settle down.

"When I was back in Toronto at the end of my time there, I just wasn't confident that much," Kral said. "Finland helped me a lot, and I feel I'm more calm right now than I was two years ago, and I don't stress that much. The calm and confidence is a little bit better."

When I spoke one-on-one with Dubas at the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo, N.Y., it was shortly after the Penguins had signed Kral. He told me that the Penguins had watched Kral in Finland "all year," and really see him as someone who could push for NHL time this season.

"He's a great character person," Dubas said. "Good size, strong power-play, played the penalty-kill, moves the puck. We just expect him to battle with John Ludvig, sort of, for those last spots on defense, try to push his way up the lineup. He's more of a puck-mover, sees the ice well, very intelligent. He's still so young at 24, we hope he can take steps this year with us.”

Kral has only played in one preseason game so far, the Penguins' 3-2 loss to the Sabres on Tuesday. He skated on the right side of the Penguins' third pairing with Owen Pickering and had a quietly good evening -- one shot attempt, one hit, one takeaway, one blocked shot and wasn't on the ice for any goals for or against -- before he left the game with a minor knee injury from a hit in the third period.

"It was my first game back from Europe, and so it was a little different from last year," Kral said of his Penguins preseason debut. "I was a little bit nervous, but got used to it pretty quickly. I just tried to make simple plays and tried to work on good things that I can do better, like wheel the puck and make a pass. Hopefully I did that well, we'll see."

Mike Sullivan thinks Kral did just that, calling his game "solid" overall. 

"When he's at his best, he's a good puck-mover," Sullivan said of Kral. "He gets back to pucks, he transitions pucks and helps us get out of our end. He joins the rush and presents that four-man attack on the entries. And he's pretty good along the offensive blue line. He's got some deception to his game. I think he can get pucks down to the net on the offensive blue line. Watching Filip, that seems to be the the strength of his game -- his puck skills and his ability to make plays."

Where Kral could stand to get better after Game 1, Sullivan said, is on the defensive side of things.

"I think he can do a better job with the use of his stick and his stick detail, when he needs to have one hand on his stick, when he should have two hands on his stick, things of that nature," Sullivan explained. "When you play the position of defense, your stick detail is essential to setting yourself up for success and being hard to play against. There are times when you should have one hand on your stick. There are times when you should have two hands on your stick. I think Filip has an opportunity to grow in that area and just recognize those situations."

Kral looks destined to at least start the year in the AHL with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. Jack St. Ivany really seems to have the sixth defenseman role sewn up. The seventh defenseman is better off being someone like Ludvig, Ryan Shea or Sebastian Aho who have a fair amount more of pro experience in North America, and not someone like Kral who should be playing top minutes and getting re-acclimated instead of sitting. If he continues to have a good camp and plays well to start the season in Wilkes-Barre, Kral could see himself in line to be one of the first call-ups.

"I'm just going to do the right things the best I can do, and just play hard," Kral said of fighting for that spot. "I think that's the biggest thing. Try to do those things that I'm good at, and then we'll see how it goes."

MORE FROM CAMP

• No update on the injured guys: Erik Karlsson (day-to-day, upper-body), Jonathan Gruden (day-to-day, upper-body), Taylor Gauthier (day-to-day, lower-body), Beau Jelsma (longer-term, upper-body), Jagger Joshua (longer-term, upper-body), Matt Nieto (month-to-month, MCL surgery).

• Jelsma, Joshua and NIeto all skated on their own before practice. Gruden skated in a non-contact capacity with a depth group. Kral was supposed to miss practice with the minor knee issue from the last preseason game, but he went on the ice to test it out and was fine and practiced in full.

• Regarding Karlsson, he has skated several times now. As I noted in the feed in the weeks leading up to camp, he was also here practicing in full in the informal skates, so obviously something seems to have happened between then and now. Again, "day-to-day" doesn't mean "out only a few days." It means that they're being evaluated on a daily basis, whereas someone like Nieto with the month-to-month designation isn't having his availability be evaluated as often. Wednesday was a planned day off the ice for Karlsson. Today they decided to err on the side of caution and give him a second day off. Sullivan said that Karlsson continue working with the medical/training staff and is "confident they'll have success" in having Karlsson ready before the season-opener. Again, that doesn't mean that the "day-to-day" designation is wrong or a lie. It means they're evaluating him day-by-day. Today that meant giving him an unplanned day off.

• The Penguins started practice divided into two clear groups of NHL guys and depth guys, similar to how they finished practice on Wednesday. The only difference in the personnel between Wednesday and today is Vasily Ponomarev moving from the NHL group to the depth group.

Drew O'Connor - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust
Michael Bunting - Evgeni Malkin - Rickard Rakell
Anthony Beauvillier - Lars Eller - Jesse Puljujarvi (Cody Glass rotating in)
Kevin Hayes - Blake Lizotte - Noel Acciari

Matt Grzelcyk - Kris Letang
Marcus Pettersson - Jack St. Ivany
Ryan Graves - Ryan Shea
John Ludvig - Sebastian Aho

Tristan Jarry
Alex Nedeljkovic

• After practice the Penguins made more cuts, assigning the following to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for the AHL training camp: Raivis Ansons, Jack Beck, Atley Calvert, Mathieu De St. Phalle, Sam Houde, Gabe Klassen, Bennett MacArthur, Logan Pietila, Isaac Belliveau, Scooter Brickey, Justin Lee, Mats Lindgren, Philip Waugh and Luke Richardson. No real surprises. Those are the guys who were always going down and didn't need to play in any more preseason games. The only ones even on NHL contracts are Ansons, MacArthur and Belliveau.

• Friday is a scheduled day off, then they'll have a game in Detroit on Saturday and one in Sudbury, Ontario on Sunday. Sullivan said that the coaching staff will be behind the bench for both games, and the lineups will be "pretty close" to two different teams, though some guys may play in both games. They'll still have three more preseason games after this weekend, so it's probably still a little early to dress a full-NHL lineup in either of those games. But it's likely we see more of the top guys start playing.