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Rutger McGroarty's Latest Interview Will Have Penguins Fans Buzzing
The Pittsburgh Penguins have brought up a pair of highly regarded prospects, and Penguins fans are going to love what Rutger McGroarty had to say following practice. As the year begins to wind down for the Pittsburgh Penguins, they've decided to make a key roster change.
They've re-called forwards Ville Koivunen and Rutger McGroarty from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins while assigning Joona Koppanen to the AHL in their place.
McGroarty explained following his recent practice session in which he skated alongside Sidney Crosby that he's become mentally stronger as opposed to his days playing at the college level.
I'd say, for me the biggest thing was...I feel like I'm a good self-evaluator but I'm also very hard on myself when it comes to me playing a bad game or something like that. I feel like in college, when you play on Friday and Saturday and you had a bad game Saturday, you'd have to think about it all week.
Early on, if I had a bad game I'd let it affect me and dwell on it the next day and the next day. Mentally, I feel like I've become so much stronger overall. Just taking it one day at a time, one shift at a time, one game at a time. I feel like overall, that helped me so much. No matter if I have a really good game or a bad game, I'm going to attack the next game just like I did and continue to go.
Early on, if I had a bad game I'd let it affect me and dwell on it the next day and the next day. Mentally, I feel like I've become so much stronger overall. Just taking it one day at a time, one shift at a time, one game at a time. I feel like overall, that helped me so much. No matter if I have a really good game or a bad game, I'm going to attack the next game just like I did and continue to go.
As far as his Penguins teammate Koivunen is concerned, McGroarty expressed happiness for him and said he deserves the opportunity.
Ville deserves every second of it. You guys see what he does numbers-wise. But you guys don't see the behind the scenes. He's one of the first guys in the rink, one of the last to leave... it's super cool to see him get this opportunity.
Koivunen leads the WBS Penguins in scoring with 55 points (21G, 34A) in 62 games; McGroarty had 39 points (14G, 25A) in 62 games.
Koivunen was originally selected by the Carolina Hurricanes but was included in the trade to the Penguins last year that sent Jake Guentzel back to Carolina in return. He's in the 2nd year of a 3-year entry level contract.
Meanwhile, McGroarty was an original Winnipeg Jets draft pick who was traded to Pittsburgh for Brayden Yager in August 2024.
| POLL | ||
MARS 30 | 121 ANSWERS Rutger McGroarty's Latest Interview Will Have Penguins Fans Buzzing Which Penguins prospect has the higher ceiling? | ||
| Ville Koivunen | 43 | 35.5 % |
| Rutger McGroarty | 78 | 64.5 % |
| List of polls | ||