On Monday, it was announced by the Pittsburgh Penguins that second-line center Evgeni Malkin was placed on injured reserve with a lower-body injury that will keep him out week-to-week.
In a corresponding move, the Penguins decided to recall winger Jesse Puljujarvi, who has three goals and nine points in 25 games with the NHL club this season.
Although, on the surface, there certainly isn’t anything wrong with recalling Puljujarvi – as the Penguins will certainly need some help getting on the score sheet – they may have missed on a opportunity to give one of their younger center prospects an extended NHL look.
Penguins prospect Vasily Ponomarev, 22, received a very brief look at the NHL level earlier this season. Across three games, he didn’t register any points and saw just 27 minutes and 36 seconds of total ice time, and his ice time was limited to, primarily, five-on-five defensive zone starts.
However, Ponomarev is producing at the AHL level this season. He does only have three points in his last six games, but he’s registered seven goals and 21 points in 27 games on the season.
In addition, he has two shorthanded goals and two power play goals, and he is deployed in – and excels in – all situations: the power play, the penalty kill, both sides of six-on-five, and starts in all three zones. He is also playing top-six minutes, centering a line with Rutger McGroarty and Avery Hayes.
With 18 points (6G-12A) in his last 19 games, Vasily Ponomarev has been one of the guys leading the charge for #WBSPens in the first half of the season.
A natural center, the plan seems to be versatility with Ponomarev – giving him minutes on the wing. https://t.co/jdvyyp2hu2
— Tony Androckitis* (@TonyAndrock) January 19, 2025
There has been some buzz about players like Matt Nieto and Noel Acciari blocking Penguins’ prospects. While that may not be entirely true for guys like McGroarty and Ville Koivunen, it is certainly true for a guy like Ponomarev.
Ponomarev’s defensive prowess, penalty-killing expertise, motor, energy, gritty work along the walls, and forechecking ability are all things that head coach Mike Sullivan likes to see out of his fourth-line guys. And Ponomarev could, potentially, bring a little bit of offensive upside to a production-halted fourth line as well, which already makes him a more enticing option than the aforementioned two players.
Bringing him into the fold also affords the opportunity for a guy like Blake Lizotte to move back up to the third line – where he’s been successful this season – upon return from an illness that’s kept him out of the last three games. Or – given Ponomarev’s positional flexibility – he could play on Lizotte’s fourth-line wing and, hopefully, help give Lizotte a bit of an offensive jolt that’s been lacking from him in that role.
But – at the end of the day – the Penguins are simply missing out on an opportunity to finally call on one of their young forward prospects for an extended opportunity at the NHL level. Again, calling up Puljujarvi wasn’t necessarily a miss when considering the need for scoring depth and the track record of the player.
However, if the Penguins are truly moving toward more youth on their roster, calling up a bottom-six center who has, pretty much, shown what he can at the AHL level – and who fills more of a positional need in the absence of Malkin and Lizotte – may have made more sense.
And this is especially true given the Penguins’ place in the standings. Ponomarev’s status as – likely – Pittsburgh’s most NHL-ready prospect should afford him some runway at the NHL level as the team’s fourth-line center because of the situation they’re in. The focus right now seems to be shifting toward the future, and the Penguins’ roster will likely look a lot different after the Mar. 7 trade deadline, anyway.
So, there’s no hurt in recalling Ponomarev and getting a head start on what the near-future could begin to look like for the Penguins.
