CLOSE-KNIT PENGUINS “CRUSHED” BY EARLY END TO SEASON

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – It was a crestfallen scene in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins’ locker room following the team’s elimination from the 2025 Calder Cup Playoffs.

There were tears. There was dejection. But as they were all season long, the teammates were there for each other.

Much of the pervasive melancholy had subsided by the time the team reconvened at the Toyota SportsPlex for their exit interviews the following morning, though there was still a gloom in the air.

Rookie defenseman Owen Pickering was one of the players requested by media to share his thoughts on the heartbreak he experienced fewer than 24 hours ago. All year long, the Penguins touted how much of a close-knit group they were. Yet when Pickering was asked about the bonds between he and his teammates, he didn’t have to say a thing.

His hat said it all.

Pickering was wearing a custom ballcap with an emperor penguin meticulously stitched on the front, and right on the edge of the bird’s outline were three letters: RUT. An obvious reference to his fellow 21-year-old teammate, Rutger McGroarty, who had an injury prevent him from playing in the postseason.

Every hockey team claim that their locker room houses a loyal group of competitors, but this year’s Penguins embodied those oft-repeated lines without a hint of hyperbole. They were close.

From the start of the regular season, two or three practices into the calendar, their camaraderie was palpable. Loud roars when a player scored a goal in practice, big laughs in line before their turn to jump into a drill arrived, extended conversations over lunch well after their work was done for the afternoon, these all became commonplace early in the year and never subsided.

“There’s not a single guy on the team I can say a bad thing about,” said Avery Hayes. “And having young team too, everyone kind of going through a lot of this stuff for the first time together. We just had a really good team, a close team, and we had a ton of fun this year. That’s why losing this way sucks.”

That camaraderie extended far beyond those who started the season on the team, too. Any new face that stepped into the room felt the same companionship as those who had been around for months. Considering the team used a league-high 48 different skaters and seven different goalies during the 2024-25 season, that was a lot of new family members to welcome into the fellowship. Yet every time, the new addition was embraced.

“Everybody here has been so, so welcoming,” remarked Chase Stillman, who was traded to the Penguins on Mar. 7. “It’s such a fun, fun group to be around. Guys enjoy each other’s company, they want to do things after (practice) and away from the rink. It’s been super special, and everything about coming here has been a blessing so far.”

That closeness doesn’t make this year’s playoff exit more stunning than it already was, but it does make it sting more than your usual first-round exit. This team not only expected to compete for a championship, but they expected to spend more time with one another.

The idea was to battle tooth and nail for weeks, maybe months. Instead, they were engulfed by the umbra of elimination after only two games.

“They’re crushed right now,” said head coach Kirk MacDonald in the immediate aftermath of his team’s Game 2 loss. “What’s most disappointing is we don’t get to come to work together anymore. You’re never going to have the same group together again, especially at the minor-league level. You’re never going to be all together as the same group.”

Prior to their heartbreaking elimination, this year’s group of Penguins accomplished a lot together. The team won 40 games for the first time since 2017-18. Along the way, they scored 244 goals, good for second in the entire league. It was also Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s highest goals per game average (3.39) since 2008-09. Only twice had the Penguins scored at a higher clip than they did this year.

Under the stewardship of MacDonald and new assistant coach Nick Luukko, the Penguins set a franchise record for the best power-play conversion rate at 21.3%. They scored eight hat tricks, a franchise record. Four different players reached 20 goals, also tying a franchise mark. Five different goalies recorded a shutout, another first-in-team-history event.

While many of these record-breaking figures were accumulated by committee, the individual growth of the Penguins’ promising prospects played a role in those team accomplishments. Ville Koivunen, at 21-years-old, led the team in points in his first full season in North America. The young, skillful Finn showcased more and more of his playmaking schemes the more he played. Pickering adapted to an unflinching defensive role on the team’s blueline, and he became a regular staple on the penalty kill. Tristan Broz played more games than he ever had in his life – even missing a month with mono – yet he was still producing deep into that grind and posted a team-leading three-points in their two playoff games. Vasily Ponomarev, acquired along with Koivunen in a trade last February, said that he experienced a “turning point” this season as he adjusted to life in the Penguins’ system. Perhaps no one was a better poster child for individual development this season than McGroarty, who was a significantly more impactful (and confident) player by season’s end compared to when he first arrived. And Avery Hayes’ performance took him from undrafted to undeniable, leading the team in goals and earning a two-year NHL contract from Pittsburgh.

“We talked about how this makeup was kind of crazy, just how young we were,” said veteran Dan Renouf. “[MacDonald’s] got a tough job, introducing all these kids to pro hockey. … I think you see the development in a lot of these kids. I think that aspect of the AHL they killed it got Pittsburgh’s got a great future with a lot of these young kids.”

The future is bright, but by its very nature, the future is unpredictable. So in the meantime, it’s fair for fans to ask the age-old question, “What’s next?” For the Penguins, there is only one way forward. They will reload their roster with more new faces. The players will train tirelessly in the summer with this year’s disappointment fresh in mind to avoid suffering the same fate again this time next year.

When the Penguins reconvene for the start of the 2025-26 season, it will not be the same group that forged tight bonds this season. But they can maintain that same welcoming culture and keep their spirits high while achieving greater heights on the ice.

“They were a joy to coach,” MacDonald said. “It was a lot of fun to come to the rink every day.

“I really would have liked to keep coming to work for them for a few months.”

The post CLOSE-KNIT PENGUINS “CRUSHED” BY EARLY END TO SEASON appeared first on WBS Penguins.