No matter what you say about the Penguins, fan or not, the organization’s ability to locate darkhorse talent in both the minor leagues and college ranks is simply unrivaled — even if it doesn’t always seem like it at first.
Dating back to my time as a student reporter for Onward State at Penn State University, to my subsequent jump to covering the Nittany Lions’ men’s hockey team professionally, I’ve been following Nikita Pavlychev’s journey going on three years now. Like any person about to welcome to their team an intimidating 6-foot-7 player (without skates) hailing from one of the oldest cities in Russia, I was excited to see just what the kid could do with a frame that big.