Earlier this summer, Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan was asked what younger players might compete for NHL time this season. Vasily Ponomarev, acquired from Carolina in the Jake Guentzel trade, was among the names listed.
“He’s a guy that I'm excited about watching and getting to know his game a little bit more. I know our hockey operations staff was really excited about acquiring him,” Sullivan said. “He's another young player that potentially could challenge for a roster spot.”
The 22-year-old forward will be getting some solid reps ahead of training camp this weekend at the Prospects Challenge in Buffalo, which he’s looking forward to after getting injured in his fourth game with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton back in the spring.
“Sometimes this happens. It's part of our job, and you just have to go through this. (Now), I think I'm just hungry to play,” Ponomarev said. “I was missing it for a long time, and I just want to come back on the ice and just have fun with the guys, just playing the games.”
This will mark his first full season with the Penguins organization after joining the organization at last year’s deadline in March. Ponomarev learned of the trade the night before, when his roommate with the AHL’s Chicago Wolves shook him awake and told him.
Ponomarev was surprised, but excited at the same time… especially since growing up in Moscow, his favorite player was Sidney Crosby.
“Some guys are asking me why it's not Geno (Evgeni Malkin), it’s because he's a different-sized player compared with me,” said Ponomarev, who measures 5-foot-10 and 180 pounds – the same height Crosby is listed at, and a few inches shorter than the 6-foot-3 Malkin. “You can’t play the same kind of game that Geno is playing. It’s like the Moneyball movie, a cheap team can’t build their team like a rich team. That's like me, I can’t play like Geno. I have to compare myself to a guy who’s like my height and weight.”
As for his style of play, Ponomarev describes himself as a two-way playmaker, saying, "I’m trying to create more on offense and be smart in D-zone. But most of the time I am trying to make some interesting plays in the O-zone.
After finding out about the trade, Ponomarev got into his vehicle and started the journey to Wilkes-Barre from Chicago. “I like to drive in a car, and it was a 10-hour drive. Just two stops for me, it's pretty easy,” said the forward, who made calls to family and friends and listened to a kind of podcast that’s popular in Russia about history.
Ponomarev arrived in eastern Pennsylvania and debuted on March 13 against Lehigh Valley, scoring his first goal on March 18 in Cleveland. Before Ponomarev got hurt, Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas said he was the closest prospect to the NHL level out of the players acquired in the Guentzel deal, especially after making his debut in January.
That game came on Jan. 5 at Capital One Arena in Washington, where Ponomarev had watched NHL action in person for the first time. While in North America for the World Selects Invitational tournament, Ponomarev watched the Penguins versus the Capitals in Game 1 of their 2017 second-round playoff matchup. Pittsburgh defeated Washington 3-2, with Crosby scoring twice and Alex Ovechkin also getting on the board.
“That was really important, to see NHL stars on the ice and they are playing,” Ponomarev said. “Ovi and Sidney, they’re the NHL. They are what the NHL looks like right now. Maybe in the future it’s gonna be like (Nathan) MacKinnon and (Connor) McDavid. But right now, Sidney and Ovi, they’re the stars. They’re representers of the NHL everywhere.
“Because it was my first game, I was so happy… when I make my debut in the same rink, I can’t explain how happy I was.”
Now, Ponomarev is thrilled to be in the same organization as the Penguins captain, learning about Pittsburgh's style of play so that they can hopefully share the ice at some point in the near future.
“(The systems) are probably a bigger difference than I thought,” Ponomarev said. “I didn’t watch a lot of Pittsburgh games before. Even if I watched it, I didn’t pay attention on details in the game. You're just watching some particular players like Sidney, Geno or Kris Letang. But yeah, this system is gonna be good for me.”
