Pittsburgh Penguins‘ 3rd round pick in the 2010 draft (#80 overall) right wing Bryan Rust(36) is having himself a fun and fantastic rookie run.
Despite having a great pair of final campaigns in college at University Of Notre Dame (32 goals, 35 assists in 81 games), he was an early cut from training camp and looked ready to start his pro career with a full season skating for affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.
The solid 5’11” 192 lbs. forward pretty much picked up where he left off after school putting in 10 goals and 4 assists (puck hog) in the first 25 games of the AHL season.
With the flu and injury bug shaking up the parent club’s lineup the farm team’s leading scorer received his first recall but was up and back in an overnight.
It was for his second summons a week later that he’d get his skates wet.
He was used sparingly in his debut appearance picking up a double minor roughing penalty but for his second game he came to play and popped his first NHL goal while skating 16 shifts for 10:54 total ice time and even was out there for close to a minute on the power play.
In all likelihood the still super-young 22-year old graduate will likely be returned but he’s picking up some amazing valuable experience being up so quickly and probably soaking it all in as he’s not a restricted free agent until the end of 2016.