Brutal message sent to Pens’ Rutger McGroarty after trade demand and bad attitude!

When the Pittsburgh Penguins acquired Rutger McGroarty after the trade by the Jets earlier this offseason, they knew what had happened in Winnipeg. The rookie forward did ask out of Winnipeg with pundits and media members reporting that he had a bad attitude. It was also said that when the Jets first attempted to move him, McGroarty had caused the deal to fall apart due to unreasonable demands, “including a guarantee of substantial playing time and a role on the power-play.”

And here we are today. The Penguins have assigned McGroarty to the baby Penguins in the AHL, which only caused fans to mock him and say that he would again demand a trade, this time out of Pittsburgh.

The move comes as the Penguins host the Buffalo Sabres later tonight and are set to play McGroarty’s former team, in Winnipeg, on Sunday afternoon.

While jokes are being made on the move sending McGroarty down, his demotion shouldn’t come as a surprise considering he didn’t play against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday.

The 20-year-old winger has taken part in three contests since the start of the 2024-25 season in Pittsburgh and before it got underway, general manager Kyle Dubas has mentioned how he did not want the young player sitting in the press box, instead for him to get some playing time.

In the three games he did see some minutes, McGroarty was pointless with a minus-1 rating. The message is clear to him though it can be hard to hear when you wanted out of the team that selected 14th-overall in the 2022 NHL Draft because they kept you in the minors and now… here you go again.

McGroarty was not only a top pick of the class of 2022, but also a Hobey Baker Award nominee. He had 91 points in 75 games with the University of Michigan in the past two seasons.

His first impression in Pittsburgh may not have been the greatest, but it all matters on how he responds to his demotion.