Penguins' 2024 Second Spherical Choose Turning Heads in Preseason

When the Penguins opened coaching camp on September 18, they invited 69 gamers. After some roster cuts and choices, that quantity is now right down to 50, and it’s shrinking by the day till the season opens on Oct. 9 towards the New York Rangers.

However there may be one younger participant who – considerably unexpectedly – finds himself within the combine for a roster spot throughout the late levels of coaching camp.

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Defenseman Harrison Brunicke – the Penguins’ forty fourth general choose in 2024 – has been a pleasing shock throughout coaching camp. He’s the only junior participant left on the coaching camp roster, and he’ll stick round for a minimum of another evening to tackle Detroit in a preseason rematch of Monday’s recreation.

“For me, the largest factor is simply making the most of being right here,” Brunicke stated. “It is clearly an important workers, and there is nice gamers to study from.”

A kind of gamers is veteran defenseman Marcus Pettersson, who Brunicke was paired with on Sunday towards Ottawa and might be once more tonight.

“I see how calm he’s with the puck,” Brunicke stated. “He is aware of these little refined particulars that perhaps not all the common guys would discover. So he simply makes it very easy for me. He is very talkative, communicates properly, so I take pleasure in taking part in with him, and I am simply going to study much more from his recreation.”

And Pettersson is taking discover of his younger protection companion’s recreation as properly.

“He is a very good participant,” Pettersson stated of Brunicke. “He isn’t scared on the market, and he is not going to shrink back from the puck or conceal himself on the market. And I believe that claims rather a lot in regards to the younger participant that he’s.”

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Sometimes, it’s evident when a participant is junior-level. You may see it of their skating, of their reads, of their incapacity to maintain up with the tempo of play, and extra – however none of that’s true for the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Brunicke, who registered 10 goals and 21 points in 49 games with the Kamloops Blazers of the WHL final season.

He seems snug, calm, and picked up. If somebody did not know he was a junior-level participant, and so they watched him play on Sunday towards Ottawa’s NHL lineup in Sudbury, he’d look identical to everyone else on the market.

And that is a very good factor, each for him and for the Penguins. It means he’s transitioning and studying his place sooner and higher than he was anticipated to, which is a part of the explanation why he is earned an prolonged look in coaching camp.

Whereas head coach Mike Sullivan stated there are nonetheless some issues for Brunicke to work on – comparable to stick particulars, making reads contained in the dots, and positioning himself off of the offensive blue line – they’re very inspired by his means to hitch the frenzy, his skating, his attain, and his willingness to study new methods to enhance his recreation.

“When he sits with [defensive coach David Quinn] and has some one-on-one and watches video, we are able to see what he is watching with the teaching workers, and we are able to see that utility and that studying course of happen with the subsequent recreation, the subsequent apply, or no matter it could be,” Sullivan stated.

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He continued: “The aptitiude that he is proven since he is been right here is absolutely encouraging as a result of it suggests to us that this can be a man who’s going to enhance and get higher by way of the method. In order that’s one of many explanation why we have given him the seems that we have given him. He is actually earned them by way of his efficiency.”

Between his spectacular efficiency and Erik Karlsson’s unsure damage standing, it stays to be seen whether or not he earns an much more prolonged look; maybe, within the type of a nine-game “trial run.”

Gamers who’re eligible for junior hockey and underneath the age of 20 can play in 9 NHL common season video games with out consequence to their entry-level contract. In the event that they play 10 video games, the primary season of their ELC kicks in, and so they change into ineligible to be despatched again to juniors.

With the logjam of defensemen in entrance of Brunicke on the depth chart and his waiver exemption, that is unlikely. Nonetheless, he is nonetheless in Pittsburgh, and he is nonetheless taking part in in preseason video games alongside a top-four NHL defenseman and instead of an injured future Corridor-of-Famer – so if he continues to indicate he belongs within the league tonight towards Detroit, something is feasible.

Regardless, Brunicke is completely satisfied to get the expertise and continues to get higher every single day.

“I am taking it daily right here and doing no matter I can to simply be the perfect model of myself,” he stated. “Whether or not that is recovering on the rink on off days or simply attempting new issues in apply, I am studying new issues each single day. I’ve simply gotta get that one p.c higher every day.”

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