After bursting onto the scene and providing a spark in the Penguins lineup, Valtteri Puustinen has fallen off a complete cliff. The former seventh round pick was routinely appearing on the scoresheet, but now, he is nowhere to be found.

So what happened to this promising young rookie, one of the few bright spots in a bleak lineup?

Puustinen began the season in the American Hockey League. In 18 games with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Puustinen recorded 5 goals and 5 assists. On December 8th, he was elevated to the NHL roster as part of another wave of call-ups from the AHL to supplement the depth on the NHL Penguins.

Puustinen, along with Marc Johnstone and Jonathan Gruden, were moved up as Alex Nylander and Joona Koppanen found themselves headed back down to the AHL.

I actually had the chance to be in Florida that night, getting an opportunity to see Puustinen make his season debut. There, he recorded an assist on a Reilly Smith goal, Pittsburgh’s only of the night in a 3-1 loss.

From there, he recorded six points (one goal, five assists) in his first nine games. A huge benefit to getting Puustinen acclimated to the NHL was ice time. He was largely playing on the second line for Pittsburgh, where he averaged nearly 14 minutes of ice time a night.

He was playing phenomenally, and was by far the best call up the Penguins had made this year. He outlived both Johnstone, who only played one game, and Gruden, who got into four.

But now, Puustinen has just one point in his last ten games, and has gone pointless in his last nine. He’s been largely invisible on the ice as the Penguins have struggled to stay relevant in the playoff race.

Puustinen has also seen a significant drop in ice time. But unlike the common story in the NHL, Puustinen did not suffer a drop in ice time due to lack of production, rather he suffered a lack of production due to a lack of ice time.

Since New Years Eve, Puustinen has averaged 8:17 of ice time, a drop of over five minutes a nigh for the Penguins. He has seen over ten minutes of ice time only once in that ten game stretch.

Of course, this move was not entirely random. The demotion to lower lines coincided with the return of an injured Rickard Rakell. Rakell reclaimed his spot on the second line, forcing Puustinen down.

However, that has not been an excuse as of late.

Reilly Smith, who has also spent the year on the second line, hasn’t played due to injury since January 11th.

Valtteri Puustinen did virtually nothing to show that he could not hang around on the second line, so now that there is an opening, why can’t he get an ice time bump? Since Smith’s injury, Puustinen’s ice time has remained stagnant, sitting at 8:32 over that time frame.

In Smith’s absence, the Penguins have elevated Drew O’Connor to that second line role. O’Connor has performed fine, and I have no problem with O’Connor as a hockey player.

The argument for who should be playing above one another is hard; they have very similar points per game numbers, and both have had flashes in chances in the top six.

At the same time, the Penguins are exploring having Rakell on the third line. In Rakell’s place, the Penguins have tried recent call up Colin White on the second line in practices the last few days.

If the team is going to open up a spot on the second line, it has to be Puustinen. It’s nothing against Colin White – if you have followed me for long enough on here, you know I’ve sang White’s praises before. But he should not be in the top six on this team; it’s not the role for him on this Penguins team.

Puustinen needs to be the guy if there is any open spot on the second line. His body of work, to this point, proves that he is better with more minutes.

Puustinen suffers from a relatively new flaw in Mike Sullivan’s coaching style. Pittsburgh is an incredibly tough place for young players to break in. Meanwhile, Sullivan has completely reversed course on rookies; in his early years as a coach, players like Bryan Rust, Jake Guentzel, and many others who were added/called up got chances and excelled in them.

Sullivan’s willingness to play the young guys helped win the Penguins back to back Stanley Cups. Now, it’s the opposite. Sullivan has been extremely hesitant to allow young players to play big minutes.

If Puustinen does not get another crack at the second line, assuming Rakell is on the third, it would be mismanagement on the part of the Penguins.

(Featured photo by Steve Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)