Frederick Gaudreau is enjoying his moment with the Penguins

Frederick Gaudreau almost had a moment Sunday.

In the third period of a home game against the New Jersey Devils, with the score tied 1-1, the reserve forward cut through the slot of the offensive zone toward the right wing. With goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood moving to his left in congruence with the sequence, Gaudreau launched a wrister to the far side. The puck sailed just a handful of inches wide of the far post.

A few audible gasps from the fans on hand could be heard as the puck clunked off the end boards with 13:27 remaining in regulation.

A goal there would have given the Penguins a late lead in a tight defensive affair and potentially lead to a win. Instead, the Devils claimed the game in overtime, 2-1.

It could have been a big moment for Gaudreau.

Of course, the Penguins have seen him have big moments before.

Such the 2017 Stanley Cup Final.

As a member of the Nashville Predators, Gaudreau stepped into an injury-ravaged lineup and led that team with three goals during the series against the Penguins.

Two of Gaudreau’s goals were the winning scores in the only two games the Predators won during that series.

They were arguably the biggest moments of his career.

These days, after nearly two years between games as an NHL player, Gaudreau is grateful for any moment he can experience at this level.

With injuries having pockmarked the Penguins’ forward ranks over the past week, Gaudreau has been pressed into service for the past three games, primarily on the fourth line but also with the penalty kill.

His first game was a 3-2 road loss to the Devils on Thursday. Before that, his most recent NHL contest came as a member of the Predators on March 30, 2019.

“It felt good,” Gaudreau said. “It’s been a while. Almost two years now that I have (last) been in this league. … just to get out there for my first game in a while, it feels really good.”

Gaudreau has been a pretty good player at the American Hockey League (AHL) level having reached the 20-goal mark twice with the Milwaukee Admirals. So when the Penguins were looking to fill out the bottom rungs of their forward depth in free agency this past autumn, they pursued Gaudreau fairly vigorously, signing him to a one-year, two-way contract with a salary cap hit of $700,000 at the NHL level as well as a $350,000 salary for whatever time he spends in the AHL, a fairly large price tag for that league.

For the 27-year-old Gaudreau, who was undrafted, something more profound about the Penguins was attractive to him when signed with the team Oct. 10, the second day of the free agent signing period.

“First of all, that day of free agency was kind of a crazy day,” Gaudreau said. “I had more offers than I thought, especially on the first day. So I kind of had to make a decision quick. My things that I thought were important was to join an organization that I felt that their values were the same as my values. From everything that I heard from this organization was that they were a class organization. They were giving what they (felt) the guys were deserving. Where sometimes you can feel like you’re getting caught in a business. That’s kind of not what I was wanting. I wanted to … feel like I would get what I deserve. So every time you come to the rink you work for something, at one point it’s going to come back to you.

“So basically everything I heard from this organization was A-class. That was really appealing. I would say what I heard previously, I see it now. It’s been great so far.”

Partially due to the rules the NHL has adopted this season due to the pandemic, Gaudreau has spent much of the season being shuffled between Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL, the taxi squad and the NHL roster for the benefit of the team’s day-to-day management of the salary cap. As a result, he hasn’t played much this season, either in the NHL or AHL.

In addition to the three games he has played for the Pittsburgh Penguins, he has appeared in four games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

In otherwise normal circumstances, he would likely either be a steady fourth-line presence for an NHL team or a top-six forward with an AHL squad.

Despite limited action, Gaudreau hasn’t lost perspective on the fortune of being a professional hockey player — even if he hasn’t actually played that many games — in the context of a global pandemic that has had far more dire consequences for others.

“I think a lot of people in this life, especially right now in today’s reality, it’s hard for a lot of people, whether they lost their job or things like that,” Gaudreau said. “I think we’re just so fortunate really right now to be able to be on the ice pretty much every day.”

Given the Penguins’ injury situation, Gaudreau realizes being in the lineup — any lineup, really — cannot be taken for granted.

“I’ve been in pro hockey for quite a lot time,” said Gaudreau, who made his professional debut in 2014. “I know things can turn quickly. My focus, I don’t want to put it on the fact that I’m not playing (always) but rather on it’s an opportunity to get better in order to be ready when that time will come. It just happens really quick in his business. One day you wake up, something happens that you didn’t expect, the next day it’s a completely different thing.

“I’m just staying positive because I think it’s the best way for me to get better when that time comes. I’m staying optimistic that this time will come.”

That time arrived over the past week with the Penguins’ injuries. Gaudreau has averaged 10:04 of ice time per contest. And with leading penalty-killing forwards Teddy Blueger and Brandon Tanev each sidelined, the right-handed Gaudreau has seen a fair amount of short-handed ice time, averaging 1:39 per contest. He’s even been in the black on faceoffs, winning nine of the 16 draws he had taken (56.2%).

“Freddy’s done a real good job,” coach Mike Sullivan said following Sunday’s game. ”He’s a competitive kid. He’s won some faceoffs for us, he’d done some penalty killing for us, he’s had some scoring chances. His line had some offensive zone time, he’s generated some scoring chances. He hit the crossbar (Sunday). He had that other chance where he cut across the slot (with) that shot moving against the grain moving away from the goalie’s motion. He’s played pretty well since we’ve asked him to come into the lineup here.

“He’s competitive and he also has hockey sense. So he has the ability to play multiple positions, we can move him around. We’ve needed him at the penalty kill position with some of the guys that we have out and we think he’s done a pretty good job there.”

No matter how good a job he does, Gaudreau realizes he could easily be scratched or assigned to the taxi squad or Wilkes-Barre/Scranton by the time the Penguins’ next game rolls around Wednesday.

For now, he’s just enjoying the moment.

“It’s the reality of the season,” Gaudreau said. “It’s obviously different. You’ve just got to take it day by day, really. There’s so many things that can happen. One day, you wake up and they send you to Wilkes-Barre and you go play some games there. Then the next day, you’re back on the taxi squad. You don’t really play much, you just practice. Every day, no matter what, I think is a great opportunity to try to improve. … It’s obviously different than the previous seasons. But, like I said, every day is an opportunity to improve and get better.”

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