Penguins Prospect Watch: Valtteri Puustinen extends scoring streak to six games
A weekly look at how Penguins prospects and minor leaguers have fared over the past seven days:
In Finland’s top-tier Liiga, forward Valtteri Puustinen had a goal for HPK in a 2-1 road win against SaiPa on Saturday. That goal extended a season-best scoring streak to six games for Puustinen.
A seventh-round pick in 2019 (No. 203 overall), Puustinen, 21, has yet to sign with the Penguins.
• Elsewhere in Finland, in the second-tier Mestis league, the Hermes team has been quarantined until March 1 due to coronavirus concerns.
Goaltender Joel Blomqvist, a second-round pick (No. 52 overall) in 2020, and defenseman Antti Palojarvi, a sixth-round pick (No. 186 overall) in 2017, are each members of Hermes.
• In the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), forward Nathan Legare scored a game-winning power-play goal for the Val-d’Or Foreurs in a 2-1 home win against the Shawinigan Cataractes on Monday.
On Saturday, Val-d’Or Foreurs followed that up with a 6-2 home win against the Sherbrooke Phoenix. Legare had two assists for Val-D’Or while forward Sam Poulin also had an assist.
The 20-year-old Legare (third round, No. 74 overall) and 19-year-old Poulin (first-round, No. 21 overall) — each drafted in 2019 — are each signed to three-year entry-level contracts with the Penguins that have yet to begin.
• In the American Hockey League, goaltender Max Lagace made 27 saves on 29 shots for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in a 3-1 road loss to the Hershey Bears on Saturday.
Lagace, 28, is signed to a one-year two-way contract.
• In Sweden’s second-tier HockeyAllsvensken league, goaltender Calle Clang made 27 saves on 30 shots for Kristianstad IK in a 3-2 home loss to HC Vita Hasten on Wednesday.
Clang, 18, was a third-round pick (No. 77 overall) by the Penguins in 2020 and has yet to sign with the team.
• In the NCAA, forward Judd Caulfield had an assist for North Dakota in a 7-1 home win against Omaha on Saturday.
A fifth-round pick (No. 145 overall) in 2019, Caulfield, 19, has yet to sign with the Penguins.
Statistics
(Players currently on the NHL roster and taxi squad are excluded.)
Forwards and defensemen
Goaltenders
*-Current team
(All figures are through Sunday.)
Seth Rorabaugh is a TribLive reporter covering the Pittsburgh Penguins. A North Huntingdon native, he joined the Trib in 2019 and has covered the Penguins since 2007. He can be reached at srorabaugh@triblive.com.
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