Following two days of practice for the Pittsburgh Penguins in the lead-up to their annual Thanksgiving Eve game, here are the most recent news and updates for the team.
NO. 26 DEBUTING ON NOV. 26
Head Coach Dan Muse confirmed after practice that rookie Tristan Broz will make his NHL debut against the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night after earning his first-ever call-up. He’ll have a lot of support in the crowd, almost 20 people.
“My parents, my two sisters, all four grandparents, my mom’s sister and her family,” Broz said on who will be attending the game. “Then I got, like, five buddies coming in, too. It’s really cool. I think that will be the coolest moment, is seeing those guys and sharing it with them.”
This season in the AHL, Broz has been one of the team’s top forwards and has served as their first-line center. His 13 points (8G-5A) are tied for third on the team in scoring.
Broz will be joining fellow teammates from WBS at the NHL level in Sergei Murashov, Joona Koppanen, and Ville Koivunen. Both Broz and Murashov had the chance to catch up in Pittsburgh and embrace this moment in their young careers.
“I took Sergei out to dinner last night. I owed him dinner from last year,” Broz said. “We did a shootout competition, and he smoked me pretty good. But I was telling him how it’s also hard not to look back at the journey that it’s been. And yeah, I think it’s so cool to share it with those guys, and I’m really looking forward to it.”
Speaking of competition, the Penguins ended Tuesday’s practice with a scoring competition. The winners got pies from Soergel’s. Kris Letang was the victor from the defense group and went with a strawberry rhubarb. The forwards had a three-way tie between Anthony Mantha, Tommy Novak and Danton Heinen. “Lot of drama on the forward side!” Letang said.
PLAYER STATUS UPDATES
Forward Bryan Rust has been dealing with an illness and was absent from both practices this week. When asked about his availability for Wednesday’s game, Muse said, “You always take things a day at a time… but I’m thinking that he’ll be back, and that’s the plan.”
Goaltender Tristan Jarry, who has missed the last seven games with a lower-body injury, started skating with the team when they returned from Sweden and appears poised for a return. Arturs Silovs and Murashov have been the tandem in his absence.
“I think he’s progressing very well,” Muse said. “And so, I would expect that he is going to be available here for us tomorrow. Like, he’s had some really good days. I think he’s looked good.”
During the 2025 NHL Global Series in Sweden, close to his native Finland, Ville Koivunen played only the first game against Nashville before being diagnosed with a lower-body injury and missing the team’s last three games. During practice, Koivunen was skating in a full-contact jersey and took rushes on the third line.
“He’s another one I still want to have a little bit of follow-up there,” Muse said on whether Koivunen could play on Wednesday. “But I thought he looked good out there. Another step, same thing…. it was the benefit of having a couple of good days of practice like this.”
This was the team’s workflow at practice on Tuesday:
Dewar-Crosby-Kindel
Hayes-Malkin-Mantha
Koivunen-Broz-Novak
Koppanen-Lizotte-Heinen
Wotherspoon-Karlsson
Shea-Letang
Graves-Dumba
Clifton
