I just stumbled on this cute moment from February, and it's worth sharing.
Valtteri Puustinen, the Penguins' seventh-round pick in 2019, was skating in warmups for his Finnish club HPK when he saw a young fan with a sign with his nickname, followed by "Rock, paper, scissors, puck" in Finnish.
Puustinen and the girl went best-of-three. Puustinen won the first match, the girl won the second, and the girl won the third, and won the puck.
Here’s how the Penguins’ prospects in juniors, college, and Europe did this week:
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FORWARDS
Judd Caulfield
Position: Forward
Size: 6-4/207
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, fifth round
Team: North Dakota (NCAA)
Season totals: 29 games, 4 goals, 8 assists
Caulfield scored one goal in two games this week.
#NTDP Alumni Update. Always thought that Judd Caulfield had better hands than he gets credit for and here is an example.
Caulfield takes the pass, shields the puck with that big frame and buries the back hand in North Dakota's 3-1 win last night. #UNDproud #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/wib7Y8Ckcq
— Stars n’ Stripes Hockey (@StarsStripesHKY) February 29, 2020
Liam Gorman
Position: Center
Size: 6-3/196
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2018, sixth round
Team: Princeton (NCAA)
Season totals: 29 games, 1 goal 5 assists
Gorman was scoreless in two games.
Filip Hallander
Position: Center/Wing
Size: 6-1/190
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2018, second round
Team: Lulea HF (SHL)
Season totals: 24 games, 5 goals, 7 assists
Hallander scored one goal and one assist in four games. Both came in Tuesday's game, when the Penguins had several scouts in attendance:
Filip Hållander styr in skottet från Daniel Sondell, 2-0 till Luleå. #SHL #LHF #LetsGoPens pic.twitter.com/tkvMFrxRJb
— Anton Johansson (@antonj85) March 3, 2020
Nathan Legare
Position: Right wing
Size: 6-0/205
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, third round
Team: Baie-Comeau Drakkar (QMJHL)
Season totals: 57 games, 34 goals, 34 assists
Legare scored one goal and one assist in three games.
Linus Olund
Position: Center
Size: 5-11/183
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2017, fifth round
Team: Brynas IF (SHL)
Season totals: 46 games, 4 goals, 10 assists
Olund scored one goal and one assist in four games.
Nikita Pavlychev
Position: Center
Size: 6-8/225
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2015, seventh round
Team: Penn State (NCAA)
Season totals: 27 games, 7 goal, 7 assists
Pavlychev and Penn State did not play this week. The Big Ten tournament begins March 14.
Samuel Poulin
Position: Wing
Size: 6-1/207
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2019, first round
Team: Sherbrooke Phoenix (QMJHL)
Season totals: 44 games, 32 goals, 43 assists
Poulin sustained an injury on Feb. 23 after colliding with his own teammate, Felix Robert, and hasn't played since. His coach has said that Poulin's injury is not a concussion.
Poulin is expected to return Friday.
Valtteri Puustinen
Position: Wing
Size: 5-9/183
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, seventh round
Team: HPK (Liiga)
Season totals: 51 games, 16 goals, 21 assists
Puustinen scored one goal in four games:
x
DEFENSEMEN
Santeri Airola
Size: 5-11/165
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2019, seventh round
Team: SaiPa (Liiga), Kettera (Mestis)
Season totals: 2 games with SaiPa; 26 games, 11 assists with Kettera
Airola has been injured for the last three weeks.
Ryan Jones
Size: 6-2/186
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2016, fourth round
Team: Nebraska-Omaha (NCAA)
Season totals: 34 games, 2 goals, 9 assists
Jones was scoreless in two games. Omaha has two more games in the regular season this week, then the NCHC playoffs begin March 13.
Antti Palojarvi
Size: 6-1/172
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2017, sixth round
Team: Lukko (Liiga), Lukko U20 (Jr. A SM-liiga), Hokki (Mestis)
Season totals: 5 games with Lukko; 14 games, 3 assists with Lukko U20; 23 games with Hokki
Palojarvi was scoreless in one game with Hokki.
Clayton Phillips
Size: 5-11/183
Shoots: Left
Drafted: 2017, third round
Team: Penn State (NCAA)
Season totals: 27 games, 2 goal, 7 assists
Phillips and Penn State did not play this week. The Big Ten tournament begins March 14.
William Reilly
Size: 6-2/196
Shoots: Right
Drafted: 2017, seventh round
Team: Rensselaer Polytech (NCAA)
Season totals: 34 games, 8 goal, 14 assists
Reilly recorded three assists in two games, his final two regular season games for RPI. The ECAC Hockey tournament begins March 13.
College Hockey News wrote this feature on Reilly's senior season.
"There was a lot of talk about what I was going to do," Reilly told CHN. "I got together with my parents and kind of decided that it was probably best if I came back for another year. I can't be happier with the decision because this has been the funnest year of my life. It is tough to put into words now, but it is just fun. Winning is the best part of the game."
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