ELLIOT LAKE, Ontario -- Star power will be in abundance when the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators play the Kraft Hockeyville preseason game at Sudbury Community Arena on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, NHLN, SN-PIT).
The Penguins are bringing the core players from their Stanley Cup championship teams, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Bryan Rust. Joining them are Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic, the goalies likely on the roster for the regular-season opener against the New York Rangers at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh on Oct. 9. Rutger McGroarty, a 20-year-old forward acquired in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets on Aug. 22, and 20-year-old top defenseman prospect Owen Pickering will also walk the red carpet to greet fans traveling two hours west from winning community Elliot Lake.
"It's always fun to experience those games," Letang said. "Obviously, it's huge for those towns. Overall, it’s a cool experience. You kind of remember your childhood playing in those small rinks."
Anticipation was elevated during the community celebration when word spread that Crosby was making the trip. The 37-year-old Penguins captain has been mentioned more than anyone during Hockeyville and not only because he's a three-time Stanley Cup winner (2009, '16, '17) and ranks 10th in NHL history with 1,596 points (592 goals, 1,004 assists).
"What an ambassador," said Penguins television analyst Bryan Trottier, a Hockey Hall of Fame forward, six-time Stanley Cup champion with Pittsburgh and the New York Islanders and owner of a seventh ring as an assistant coach of the 2021-22 Colorado Avalanche.
"For 20 years, almost, he's been the face of the NHL. He just handles it all so well and doesn't seem to crumble under. He just embraces it, and that's Canada. He bleeds Canada."
This is Crosby's first Hockeyville in Canada, the closest thing to it a homecoming in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 10 miles from where he grew up in Cole Harbour, where the Penguins lost the Nova Scotia Showdown 3-0 to the Senators on Oct. 2, 2023. Coach Mike Sullivan has taken ownership of a responsibility to small communities, which his why the roster is loaded for this preseason game.
"When we're going to have this opportunity and this privilege to go to Sudbury to participate in an exhibition game against Ottawa, I think it's great for that community," Sullivan said. "It's terrific for our players. We all have to try to grow the game and try to connect with the people that love our game and support our game, so from that standpoint it's a great experience."
There are ties that bind both the Senators and Penguins to Northern Ontario. Jeremy Stevenson's path to the NHL started in Elliot Lake with the Contractors of the Great North U18 League. It led to 207 regular-season games for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Nashville Predators, Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars, and life in Sault Ste. Marie coaching the Soo Jr. Greyhounds. Retired NHL defenseman Trevor Daley and forward Tyler Kennedy, each played for Soo of the Ontario League and won the Stanley Cup with the Penguins; Daley today is special assistant to Penguins general manager Kyle Dubas.
Stevenson was a Mighty Ducks teammate of Senators coach Travis Green in 1997-98, when Green was 28 and a six-season NHL veteran. The signs were there he'd make a good coach who can develop young players. He has a talented core in Ottawa, forwards Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson, and defensemen Jake Sanderson and Thomas Chabot, and 2023 Vezina Trophy winning goalie Linus Ullmark was acquired from the Boston Bruins on June 24.
Stevenson said Green is the right coach to try to guide the Senators to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since Game 7 of the 2017 Eastern Conference Final, a 3-2 loss to the Penguins in double overtime.
"I was young, and he came (into Anaheim)," Stevenson said. "We actually played on the [same] line for a little bit. His development with me and how he treated me as being younger, if he does that the way he helped me, he's going to help the Ottawa Senators and he's going to pull the best from all the players."
High hopes are routine in Pittsburgh. There's also potential drama given this could be the core's final opportunity at winning their fourth Stanley Cup championship. Malkin is 38 years old and can become an unrestricted free agent after next season. Letang, 37, and Rust, 32, are signed until 2028. The Penguins have missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2002-04 and 2005-06. A return means an older group staying healthy and blending with prospects who grab their chance to take them into the next era.
"They need that youthful enthusiasm on the team, and they need guys that want to grab the rope, to be a part of something special," Trottier said.
Hockeyville is that something special where players, coaches and fans live the moment. The Senators will have 10 days left in the preseason before their opener at home against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers on Oct. 10. Going to Sudbury will be a deviation from the monotony of training camp, welcomed in many ways more fulfilling than simply playing a game.
"That will be exciting," Green said. "I've never done one of those games and I'm sure a lot of our players haven't either. We go the night before, so it's more like a road trip. It's not the regular grind of a training camp, so it will be a nice break for us, for our group."
NHL.com independent correspondent Wes Crosby contributed to this report
