From "Little Rust" to Big Achievements in Pittsburgh

Bryan Rust hit a pair of impressive milestones to begin the new year. First, he reached 600 career games when the puck dropped on Friday in Florida, which have all come with the Penguins.

“One, it means I'm getting old. Two, it's crazy how time flies,” said the 32-year-old forward. “I think it definitely brings me a lot of pride, kind of knowing that I’ve been in the league this long and that I've played now 600 games. Hopefully, there's many more.”

Rust then picked up his 400^th career point in that same contest. He became the ninth player in franchise history to record his first 400 career points with the team, joining an impressive list that consists of Mario Lemieux, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jaromir Jagr, Kris Letang, Jean Pronovost, Kevin Stevens, Jake Guentzel, and now Rust.

“Any time you can get a milestone... obviously it's not Sid's 9,000th assist, but it's something for me, which is nice,” Rust said with a grin. “Hell, it means a lot to me. Any time you can play for one team for a long time and be able to stick with an organization, I think that says a lot. I have a lot of pride in that, that there was no change of scenery needed, at least of yet [laughs]. Hopefully that’s never the case. Obviously, I love this organization. It’s done a lot of really good things for me, if you can tell – 600 games and 400 points is pretty cool.”

Rust was born and raised in Oakland County, Michigan, and grew up a fan of the Red Wings, listing Martin LaPointe as his favorite player. Rust was drafted by the Penguins a year after the franchise beat his hometown team in their 2009 Stanley Cup Final rematch, taken in the third round (80^th overall). Despite his Detroit roots, Rust has become a player who personifies what it means to be a Penguin.

“He's an honest player who brings an honest effort every game. You know what you're going to get from him,” head coach Mike Sullivan said. “He plays on both sides of the puck, he plays in every situation. He made his mark in the league being a penalty killer and a checker, and he's evolved offensively to the point where he's a 20-plus goal scorer.

“So, for me, he's just a complete player. He's a Stanley Cup champion. He's been here a long time.”

Sullivan, who appeared in over 700 games as an NHL player before racking up over two decades of NHL coaching experience and counting, often says that in all of his years in this league, he’s never seen a player develop their offensive game to the level that Rust has.

“I just think it's his drive, you know? His passion to play the game and his drive to continue to get better. Rusty is willing to put the work in, and it's a daily endeavor,” Sullivan said. “I don't think there's a lot of players that are willing to put the work in on a daily basis to continue to improve and get better and grow. He’s one that is.”

The catalyst for that came the summer of 2012 following his sophomore year at Notre Dame. Bryan chose to join the Fighting Irish in hopes of starting to make his own way in the hockey world, with his brother Matt – who is three years older – playing at Michigan.

“My brother was this hockey stud, and my entire life, I was always Little Rust,” Bryan said. “So, at that point, it was - do I still continue that path and play with my brother, which would have been extremely fun and awesome, or kind of make my own path and go to a different school? Then as soon as I visited Notre Dame, I kind of just fell in love with it.”

His freshman year went fine, but the following season was a wakeup call for Bryan. “Basically, got told to kick your butt in gear. I think I owe a lot of credit to my older brother, because he went with me that entire summer, and taught me how to work hard,” he said. “I think ever since then, I've just been able to kind of take that and remember that if you're not working hard, you're probably not getting better.”

The challenge Bryan faced corresponded with a somewhat bumpy time for Matt, coming off his first year of professional hockey. Matt had been taken by Florida in the fourth round of the 2007 NHL Draft before starting a four-year career with the Wolverines. He didn’t end up signing with the Panthers, instead inking a PTO with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and playing 43 games in the American Hockey League, and three with Wheeling of the ECHL.

“A lot of what I was going through at the time was in many ways similar to Bryan,” Matt said before adding with a smile, “We worked hard, and he probably has a couple generous things to say about that on my account, but we just had so much fun that offseason, and we got to do it together. The older you get, the more you recognize how special that time is.”

“I think anyone that's competed at a high level has a story about when the game gets hard. These are defining moments in your career that require you to believe in yourself and weather the storm. I think that time was special for us both. Obviously, it worked out a little differently for me. But I think the important part of that time, and maybe why it has kind of stuck with us both, is that it was just the purest form of our story as brothers who loved playing the game together.”

The boys regrouped back at home, moving in with their parents, mom Betsy and dad Steve. They also had Matt’s former Michigan teammate Ben Winnett staying with them that summer. The three of them would work out early in the mornings, usually around 7 AM, at the local Powerhouse Gym.

“It was right down the street. We would show up to Powerhouse with all of our athletic gear on and going way too serious for the scouts in this public gym,” Matt said, laughing. “We were doing the whole offseason program, all of the plyos, the conditioning, and weightlifting.. Just in the middle of everything, laying down cones and doing agility drills, sprints. It was a riot. We had an absolute blast. Honestly, it was the best offseason I've ever had. We were brothers being brothers.”

Matt, Betsy and Steve watching Bryan play in their home state of Michigan on New Year's Eve (photo courtesy of SportsNet Pittsburgh).

While Bryan’s next step was clear – return to South Bend for a bounce back season – Matt was at a crossroads. He wasn’t sure where to take his game, ultimately deciding to attend grad school at Michigan, and worked for a global investment firm Brookfield Asset Management in New York City before returning back to Michigan to be closer to family.

Bryan has said that if he wasn’t a hockey player, he would have gone that route as well. But he was able to learn from Matt’s experiences to stay on the path he’d envisioned for himself.

“I think he was able to find a different motor and new level of commitment and belief in himself and for his own game,” Matt said. “I think what was unique about that point in time for us both, after reflecting on it a little more, was the ability for us to learn some things together. I think he took some wisdom away from, frankly, how it all played out for me. And I’m proud of that. It’s a great story, right? It comes full circle. Little Rust doesn't just carry the torch, he is the torch.”

Bryan’s approach has always been to prove people wrong and prove a point, especially at the professional level, where his projected ceiling was a bottom-six energy guy. He smashed through that, winning a couple of championships along the way with clutch playoff performances. After moving up the lineup, Rust had stretches where he struggled to find consistency production-wise, which has become a thing of the past.

“I think there's always something more,” Rust said. “You achieve a goal, and instead of being satisfied, I’m like, all right, well, what can I try and do next? Now I’ve been in this league a long time, and I’ve had my fair share of success at a team and individual level, but there's always more.”

Rust continues to will himself forward, buoyed by the foundation he builds in the summers, which happens in a much different setup compared to his Powerhouse Gym days. He’s spent the last few years working out at former teammate Trevor Daley’s home gym in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, where Bryan’s wife Kelsey is from, with Trevor and his wife Kristy actually setting the couple up.

Bryan – who’s in the process of building his own gym at the Rusts’ home in the area – structures his workouts around his family’s schedules, as he now has two boys of his own. It’s been amazing for those around Bryan to see him develop into not only a terrific NHL player, but a husband and father as well.

“I think the proudest thing that I carry with me in the larger Bryan Rust saga, if you will, is just who he is as a person. He's a good man,” Matt said. “He loves his family, he loves his teammates, he loves the game. He just does things the right way, no shortcuts. There isn’t a position or a role on that team he is too big for. In my opinion, that’s what it’s all about. He loves being in Pittsburgh. He's really proud he's been able to grow into his career and be a part of that organization.”

“He's a class act with the way he conducts himself, and with some of the philanthropic and the foundational initiatives that he's really leaned into. At the end of the day, it's about way more than the game. He’s so fortunate to be in the position he's in, and I don't think he's ever lost sight of that. But make no mistake, he’s put in the work for it, and he should feel really good about that.”