Dubas names St. Ivany, others as candidates for 2025-26 Penguins roster

Kyle Dubas wants at least three AHL defenseman to push for a spot in Pittsburgh next fall.

Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty began their auditions for the 2025-26 Penguins roster with their April call-ups.

They might not be the only members of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins getting a shot in Pittsburgh in the near future.

During his end-of-season press conference on Monday, general manager Kyle Dubas named several other players he expects to “make a push” for a roster spot out of training camp:

• Jack St. Ivany, D: St. Ivany spent the end of the 2023-24 campaign in Pittsburgh, mostly on a pairing with Ryan Shea, for a 14-game stretch during which the Penguins made a late push and came just short of the playoffs. That helped earn him a three-year extension last May. But St. Ivany wasn’t as successful early this season, and after starting the campaign with the Pens he was sent back to the AHL in December.

Dubas said on Monday that St. Ivany likely would have gotten another shot with the Penguins this month had it not been for “an ill-timed injury.”

St. Ivany said earlier in April that he believes he was sent down in December in part due to a lack of confidence (h/t The Hockey News’ Kelsey Surmacz.) Now that St. Ivany has taken on a major role with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Pens, where he has spent time on the team’s top pairing, Dubas says the Penguins “would expect Jack to push for sure” next fall.

• Owen Pickering, D: Pickering made his NHL debut in November and averaged 14:19 through 25 games with the Penguins before he was sent back down to the AHL. Dubas indicates he wants the 2022 first-rounder to push for a bigger role next fall.

“He’s got to have a real strong playoff here for Wilkes-Barre, and he’s got to have a great summer... we can’t have him, same as when we he had him go down, settle in a 12, 13 minute a night role,” Dubas said. “He needs to come in and push his way into 17, 18, 19, 20 minutes and earn that.”

• Harrison Brunicke, D: Dubas said Brunicke has been “playing very well” at the AHL level since he was assigned from the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton at the end of March. A strong playoff for the WBS Pens could help earn him a look in next fall’s training camp.

Mike Sullivan said last season that the Penguins were considering giving Brunicke a nine-game trial in the NHL (h/t Surmacz.) That’s the maximum the Penguins can play him before his entry-level contract kicks in. He’s not eligible to join the AHL full-time until 2026-27, so he will be spending next season either in Pittsburgh or back in the WHL.

• Tristan Broz, C/LW: Dubas indicated that Broz, like St. Ivany, would have been up with the Penguins at the end of season had it not been for his health status. After putting up 12 goals and 19 points in his first 27 games of the WBS Penguins’ season, he missed over a month of the season with mononucleosis and has struggled to reach his previous production levels since. Dubas complimented his “very strong start to the year” when mentioning the former University of Denver star on Monday.

“We probably could have brought him up last week. I just didn’t think those types of games should be his first recalls into the NHL... best to have him stay down in Wilkes and come up next year if he can earn it with a legitimate opportunity,” Dubas said.

Dubas also said the players who got chances with the Pens at the end of this season— likely Koivunen and McGroarty in addition to other call-ups like Vasily Ponomarev— would also get their own chances to make the roster during camp.

Sidney Crosby was working on helping some of those players on Monday in Cranberry:

Penguins fans are meanwhile still waiting to find out when the NHL draft lottery will take place. This year’s event hasn’t been announced yet, but the 2024 edition was scheduled for May 7.