St. Ivany could bring size, physicality to third pairing

CRANBERRY, Pa. -- Kyle Dubas has gone out of his way to consistently praise a few of the Penguins' prospects throughout the season.

He's often named Joel Blomqvist's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's All-Star rookie goaltender. He's also often praised the play of Sam Poulin, whose season has been hampered by injuries at unfortunate moments when the Penguins need forward recalls the most.

One name that has consistently been mentioned by Dubas as a highlight in the system is that of 24-year-old defenseman Jack St. Ivany. Dubas first spoke of St. Ivany as a standout in his preseason media availability following the Penguins' Prospects Challenge, and has seemingly been brought up time and time again in his press conferences and regular radio hits with Josh Getzoff on the team's radio network. Just this Wednesday Dubas named St. Ivany as a factor that went into the Chad Ruhwedel trade. Both St. Ivany and Ruhwedel are right-handed defensemen, and moving Ruhwedel to the Rangers afforded the potential for defensemen like John Ludvig or Ryan Shea to get more playing time, or for St. Ivany to get his first taste of the NHL.

Dubas lauded the 6-foot-3, 195-pound St. Ivany as a defenseman who is "big, rangy, physical, excellent defensively, excellent on the penalty-kill, and has really come on this year with his puck play."

Dubas on Friday finally followed through on his season-long praises, recalling St. Ivany for the first time.

"It's very exciting," St. Ivany said after the Penguins' practice at the UPMC Lemieux Sports Complex on Friday. "I kind of wasn't expecting it, so it's a little bit of a whirlwind from yesterday to today. I'm just ecstatic to be here."

St. Ivany was an addition made by Ron Hextall ... twice, actually. St. Ivany was originally a Flyers fourth-round pick in 2018 when Hextall was still the general manager in Philadelphia. When St. Ivany went unsigned by the Flyers after his senior year at Boston College in 2022, Hextall brought St. Ivany to the Penguins as a free agent a few days after his rights with the Flyers expired.

St. Ivany is more of a defensive defenseman who brings some physicality along with that size and has the ability to penalty-kill. His rookie year last year with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton was a little underwhelming. He was at times a healthy scratch, and recorded eight assists and a minus-17 rating in 63 games.

This year has been a different story for St. Ivany. He's playing on the right side of Wilkes-Barre's top defense pairing and has four goals, eight assists and a team-best plus-14 rating in 52 games.

In addition to getting stronger in his puck-moving abilities, St. Ivany attributes his growth to increased confidence.

"This being my second year pro, I was able to take a lot of strides this year and be more confident out there," he explained. "I think that's just led to me having growth in all areas of my game."

The Penguins didn't do line rushes in Friday's practice, so there weren't any clues as to where St. Ivany could fit in if he does get into a game soon. Given that the Penguins are coming off of a 6-3 win over the Sharks in which both bottom-pair defensemen Ludvig and P.O Joseph had strong games, it's hard to imagine that Mike Sullivan throws St. Ivany into the mix on Saturday against the Rangers. But if that pair doesn't have a good game, or the Penguins lose to the Rangers, it wouldn't be surprising to see Sullivan give St. Ivany a shot on Sunday against the Red Wings.

Getting St. Ivany into a game on the third defense pairing would give the Penguins some balance. Ludvig and Joseph are both left-handed shots and naturally play on the left side. If one of the two get scratched in favor of the right-handed St. Ivany, it would restore the left-right configuration the coaches prefer to have. Sullivan said that St. Ivany being right-handed was "one aspect" of the decision to call him up. 

"The other aspect of it is he's played extremely well," Sullivan said. "He's been very good on the penalty-kill. He's a solid defending defenseman. He's fairly mobile, he has good size. I think he's going to bring that aspect -- just a conscientious, trustworthy game to our team. He's played well for Wilkes, so that was the conversation that our coaching staff had with Kyle."

Of course. St. Ivany is well aware of the situation he's stepping into. The Penguins have an uphill battle over these next 17 games to finish the season, sitting just five points out of a playoff spot but needing to leapfrog five teams in the standings to get there. He's hoping to be a part of that race down the stretch.

"Obviously, it's really tight here, five points out of a playoff spot," St. Ivany said. "I'm going to do whatever I can to help the team win, whether that's block a big shot, take a hit, anything. Anything to get a win."