Penguins task defenseman Jack St. Ivany with refining game in AHL

The Pittsburgh Penguins’ estimation of young blue liner Jack St. Ivany rose considerably at the end of last season, when he joined the club for their final 14 games, helping a valorous but ultimately futile push for the playoffs.

St. Ivany, 25, cracked the Penguins’ NHL roster out of training camp, a significant step toward earning an everyday role in Pittsburgh.

However, following 19 games played with the Penguins, St. Ivany was reassigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League on Tuesday.

The transaction partially could be attributed to forward Cody Glass’ activation from injured reserve, with St. Ivany’s waivers exemption making him an enticing candidate for reassignment as opposed to another player the Penguins could have lost on the waiver wire.

That said, on-ice performance was a significant factor, with higher expectations existing for St. Ivany.

“We don’t think Jack has had his best game here for a while,” coach Mike Sullivan said Wednesday following practice in Cranberry. “We tried to give him an opportunity to play through that process here, and we just felt as though that’s not an easy thing to do for a young player. Most recently, he’s been in and out of the lineup a little bit but, for a long stretch, he was in the lineup and we were trying to give him an opportunity to find his way and capture his best game.

“When that didn’t happen, we felt that this might be the best course of action for him where he can go to Wilkes-Barre, just play and not have to worry about, if he makes a mistake, does it end up in the net, and is he under the microscope, so to speak, that the NHL world is all about.”

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St. Ivany, a 6-foot-4 right-handed shot, primarily worked on a third defensive pairing with Ryan Graves this season, averaging 16 minutes, 22 seconds of ice time and posting one assist Nov. 11.

He also alternated at times with Ryan Shea in the lineup, serving as a healthy scratch for nine games.

St. Ivany was also a regular on the penalty kill, ranking fifth among Penguins players with 2:17 of short-handed time on ice per game.

Of late, he’d been increasingly relegated to healthy-scratch status, as he did not suit up for the Penguins in five of their prior 12 games leading into Tuesday’s win over the Florida Panthers.

In the AHL, the Penguins are hoping St. Ivany can refine certain aspects of his play in a lower-stakes environment.

“As far as the areas of (improvement of) his game, I think it’s two-fold,” Sullivan said. “I think he has the ability to defend better and some of that is just details: his gap control coming off the offensive blue line, the use of his stick on the entries defending the rush, net-front play, closing on people on the corner, when to have one hand on your stick, when to have two hands on your stick, boxing out at the net-front — all the things we talk about with all our defensemen on a constant basis.

“… We think that those are the areas where he has an opportunity to capture the best version of himself.”

St. Ivany signed a three-year deal with the Penguins in May that runs through 2026-27 at $775,000 annually.

Small group practices

The Penguins’ Wednesday afternoon practice was sparsely attended, with nine skaters plus goalies Tristan Jarry and Alex Nedeljkovic.

Per Sullivan, that was intentional as the Penguins approach back-to-back games Friday and Saturday vs. the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs.

“It was not optional,” Sullivan said. “We had a group of players that had a formal active recovery off the ice, and we had a group of players that were on the ice. A lot of it was just based on workload — cumulative workload over the course of games and then workload in the short-term.

“Some guys we felt needed more touches on the ice, some guys we felt it was a good opportunity to get them in active recovery off the ice leading up to a back-to-back stretch here coming up. It was not optional. (Players) were told where they were going and what they were doing.”

The skaters in attendance were as follows:

Forwards: Noel Acciari, Matt Nieto, Cody Glass, Kevin Hayes, Jesse Puljujarvi, Blake Lizotte

Defensemen: Ryan Graves, Ryan Shea, Owen Pickering

4 Nations reveal

Final 23-man rosters (20 skaters, three goalies) for the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off between the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden are being revealed Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Penguins captain Sidney Crosby was named to Canada’s preliminary roster over the summer, with defenseman Erik Karlsson earning a spot with the Swedes.

Crosby has enjoyed an extensive international hockey career representing Canada, winning two Olympic gold medals (2010, 2014), in addition to gold at the 2015 World Championships, 2016 World Cup and 2005 World Junior Championships.

Karlsson helped Sweden to a silver medal at the 2014 Olympics and won a pair of bronze medals at the 2010 and 2024 World Championships, in addition to silver at the 2009 World Junior Championships.

The 4 Nations Face-Off will be Feb. 12-20 in Boston and Montreal, featuring seven games in a round-robin format and culminating in a one-game final between the two teams with the most points accrued.

Sullivan is leading the U.S. squad, which will release its own roster along with the Canadians starting at 6:30 p.m. on TNT and SportsNet.