{"id":435158,"date":"2026-01-29T23:47:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:47:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/435158\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T23:47:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:47:10","slug":"lines-shuffled-mcgroartys-work-solovyov-debut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/435158\/","title":{"rendered":"Lines Shuffled, McGroarty’s Work, & Solovyov Debut"},"content":{"rendered":"

CRANBERRY \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> wrapped a full morning skate Thursday, following their offday on Wednesday, and did so with a couple of new faces in the lineup. And plenty of changes to compensate for Bryan Rust\u2019s three-game suspension. <\/p>\n

McGroarty, 21, will play in place of the suspended Rust. Based on coach Dan Muse\u2019s <\/a>early line combos at the skate, there will be a trio of changes. First, Muse flipped Justin Brazeau to the top line right wing in place of Rust. <\/p>\n

McGroarty will take the third-line spot beside Ben Kindel<\/a>, vacated by Brazeau, and Muse flipped Anthony Mantha to the right side. <\/p>\n

McGroarty admittedly needs a bit more offense to stick in the NHL, beginning with his latest, albeit likely short, stay with the Penguins. <\/p>\n

This season, McGroarty has played 16 NHL games and largely acquitted himself well, though his offensive totals are paltry. His NHL run ended when Evgeni Malkin\u2019s <\/a>return from a shoulder injury coincided with him suffering a concussion. <\/p>\n

When McGroarty was ready to return, the Penguins reassigned him to the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins<\/a>. It\u2019s been a bit of a yo-yo season for McGroarty, who has been back and forth from WBS, as he is still putting the puzzle together. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think, more in the (AHL), it\u2019s kind of just like (working on) puck possession and on my balance down low, and just continuing just to control the play with the puck,\u201d McGroarty said. \u201cAnd be really good without the puck, and then continue to work on PK and the power play. I mean, honestly, at this age, I\u2019m just trying to grow my game all around. There are definitely things that I know I have to work on that are my main focuses, but at this age, I\u2019m just trying to circle everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fortunately for player and team, there is little doubt McGroarty will soon claim a full-time ride in the big show. He just has to keep working on a few things. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think the guy is getting chances. I think whenever you\u2019re looking at a player, you\u2019re looking at: are you getting into certain areas? Are you getting the chances? I\u2019ve said that with other guys \u2026 I think it\u2019s like, are you getting into the areas where you know you have the ability to create?\u201d Muse said. \u201cHe creates right around the net. He\u2019s got a heavy shot, he\u2019s got a good release. You\u2019ve seen that this year. He got the ability to score from a little bit on the outside and from distance. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think it\u2019s all about just that consistency of putting yourself in good areas \u2026 I think it\u2019s finding those little things like changing the angle at the last second. It\u2019s maybe getting that release off a little bit quicker. Maybe it\u2019s putting yourself in those spots, in those areas, a little bit faster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ilya Solovyov<\/p>\n

The Penguins acquired the big-boned defenseman from the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for minor-league forward Valtteri Puustinen more than a week ago, and Solovyov will most likely make his Penguins debut Thursday. <\/p>\n

Solovyov, at 6oot-3, 207 pounds, will take the third pairing left side, with Ryan Shea moving to the right. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a guy that we\u2019re excited to see. He\u2019s a guy that we traded for\u2013from what I\u2019ve seen, from what the organization has seen, he\u2019s a guy that we feel like there\u2019s some elements there, from a physicality standpoint, from a defending standpoint, from a puck moving standpoint,\u201d said Muse. \u201cObviously, we were excited to bring him into the organization. And so it\u2019s finding the right time and right opportunity to get him in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solovyov, 25, was in good spirits Thursday. Muse held him out of the lineup on the road trip while he got acclimated to his new team and system. It seems Thursday is go time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really excited. Like it\u2019s almost \u2026 honestly, I can\u2019t wait to step on the ice with this group of guys. It\u2019s unbelievable,\u201d Solovyov said. \u201cIt\u2019s been almost a week. So, yeah, you\u2019ve got to expect it\u2019s going to be a little bit harder for me for the first few minutes, but I have to be dialed in and putting everything on the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

With some irony, Solovyov has a nearly identical stat line to McGroarty, with one goal and two assists in 16 NHL games this season. He had split time between Colorado and their AHL affiliate before the trade. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTags: Ilya Solovyov<\/a> Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> rutger mcgroarty<\/a> <\/p>\n

Categorized:Penguins Notebook<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CRANBERRY \u2014 The Pittsburgh Penguins wrapped a full morning skate Thursday, following their offday on Wednesday, and did…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[377],"tags":[5,11999,100,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-435158","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-hockey","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-ilya-solovyov","10":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","11":"tag-rutger-mcgroarty"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115981062140919719","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}