{"id":449119,"date":"2026-02-06T16:54:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/449119\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:54:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:54:52","slug":"pittsburgh-penguins-reassign-rutger-mcgroarty-avery-hayes-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/449119\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh Penguins Reassign Rutger McGroarty, Avery Hayes \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

2\/6\/26:\u00a0The Penguins announced<\/a> today that McGroarty will be spending the Olympic break with AHL Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton, as he was reassigned to the team today.<\/p>\n

McGroarty got into four NHL games since returning from injury, but he didn\u2019t play much. He managed two assists in that span, but did not receive more than 11 minutes of ice time in any of the four contests. The Olympic break will serve as an opportunity for him to get some reps in at the AHL level, where he\u2019s scored 12 points in nine games this season.<\/p>\n

The Penguins also reassigned forward Avery Hayes<\/a>, who they recalled yesterday. Hayes had a day to remember, making his NHL debut and scoring twice<\/a>, helping the Penguins to a significant road win over a quality opponent. Hayes has 13 goals, 23 points in 31 AHL games this season.<\/p>\n

1\/29\/26: The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled<\/a> forward Rutger McGroarty<\/a> from their AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton Penguins. In a corresponding move, the club placed defenseman Jack St. Ivany<\/a> on injured reserve.<\/p>\n

This recall gives Pittsburgh head coach Dan Muse an additional forward at his disposal in the wake of Bryan Rust<\/a>, who has to sit out the team\u2019s next three games due to a suspension<\/a>. The move also restores McGroarty\u2019s place on the team\u2019s NHL roster, something he lost after suffering a concussion in the first week of the month.<\/p>\n

McGroarty, 21, will re-enter the Penguins\u2019 NHL roster likely with a heightened level of confidence in his abilities as a scorer. The Penguins had McGroarty build his way back from his injury at the AHL level in part to help him regain some confidence as an offensive creator. McGroarty has been a top scorer at every level he\u2019s played at outside of the NHL. While he has just three points in 16 NHL games so far this season, he managed four points in his final two AHL games.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh is likely hoping he\u2019ll be able to hit the ground running and reach another level of production in the NHL after getting to contribute to some offense with the AHL Penguins.<\/p>\n

For the duration of Rust\u2019s absence, it\u2019s possible McGroarty will get the chance to play in the veteran\u2019s vacated role alongside Sidney Crosby<\/a> on Pittsburgh\u2019s top line. Such an opportunity would be a significant one for McGroarty, as playing with Crosby would likely put him in prime position to get the kind of scoring opportunities that are far more rare when playing in the bottom-six.<\/p>\n

If he indeed ends up playing there, and can capitalize on the opportunities naturally provided in such a role, he could further bolster his confidence in a way that would pay dividends even after Rust returns from his suspension.<\/p>\n

As for St. Ivany, who lands on IR as part of this recall, his removal from the active roster was widely expected after it was announced earlier this week that he\u2019d undergone surgery on his left hand. He\u2019s expected to be sidelined for up to eight weeks as he recovers from the procedure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2\/6\/26:\u00a0The Penguins announced today that McGroarty will be spending the Olympic break with AHL Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton, as he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5113],"tags":[5,1610,4,118,1469,100,5216,101],"class_list":{"0":"post-449119","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-penguins","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-jack-st-ivany","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-penguins","12":"tag-pittsburgh","13":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","14":"tag-pittsburghpenguins","15":"tag-rutger-mcgroarty"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116024743832699268","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449119","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=449119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}