A while back, I documented which ex-Penguins were playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as Pittsburgh sadly spent the second year in a row out of them.

It’s a testament to how quickly life moves in the National Hockey League that I could form an entire team of ex-Penguins who were competing in the playoffs.

Of course, that was when the field was 16 teams strong, and even though I definitely couldn’t still form a whole roster, I decided to check back in on all of the ex-Penguins that are still in the postseason, now that we’re in the conference finals.

Derrick Pouliot, Dallas Stars

A former eighth overall pick by the Pittsburgh Penguins, Derrick Pouliot just never panned out with his draft team. The defenseman split three seasons between the NHL and AHL after turning pro, but he could never stick on Pittsburgh’s blue line long-term.

In all, he played 67 games for the Penguins over the course of three years, before he was traded for pennies on the dollar in 2017. In Vancouver, his career did experience a brief rebound, and for a glimpse Canucks fans saw in him what Penguins fans hoped for him to be.

In the end though, it was not to last, and since his time in Vancouver he has bounced around several organizations and served as an AHL/depth defenseman. The same can be said for his time in Dallas, where he played in just 5 regular season games for Dallas, and 64 games for their AHL affiliate, the Texas Stars.

He has yet to play in a postseason game for Dallas, but remains on the roster.

Cody Ceci, Edmonton Oilers

Pittsburgh might be credited as the turning point in Cody Ceci’s career. He signed a one year deal with the Penguins for the 2020-21 season after experiencing some harsh years up north in Toronto and Ottawa.

However, the Ceci signing proved to be amazing for the Penguins. Not only did Ceci clean up a lot of the problems in his defensive game, posting a +18, he also chipped in on the blue line with 17 points in 53 games.

His stellar play earned him a much more lucrative contract in Edmonton with the Oilers, a deal he is still playing under today.

Ceci played in 79 regular season games and recorded 25 points, with a +12 rating, but the playoffs haven’t been as kind to Ceci, where he has just 2 points and a -7 in 11 games.

Dmitry Kulikov, Florida Panthers

Remember him? Dmitry Kulikov was a very, very short-lived Penguin..6 games to be exact. The defenseman was a part of a trade with Anaheim last season that saw Brock McGinn and a third rounder go to the Ducks.

The trade was a bit of a cap dump for the Penguins, who wanted to get out of McGinn’s contract, which paid him $2.75 million against the cap until the end of the 2024-25 season. Kulikov’s contract was a similar price, but his deal expired at the end of the 2022-23 season.

As a free agent, he signed a one year, $1 million deal with Florida, where in 76 games he had 20 points and had a +15 on a very stellar Panthers team. Florida actually drafted Kulikov back in the first round in 2009, and played the first seven years of his NHL career with the Panthers.

For the price he was signed to and the experience he brought down south, Kulikov’s reunion with Florida has been great for both sides.

In 11 playoff games, he has yet to record a point and is an even 0.

Evan Rodrigues, Florida Panthers

When the Conor Sheary reunion deal happened in that weird 2020 trade deadline for the Penguins, Evan Rodrigues was a depth piece involved in the deal. But after Sheary left and Rodrigues continued to perform well, he became the main piece of that deal.

Rodrigues has always been the perfect Swiss army knife type player, and that has continued since he left Pittsburgh, first in Colorado and now in Florida.

Rodrigues matched last season’s point total in the regular season with 39 points in 80 games. He has since recorded a career high 6 points in an also-career high 11 playoff games for Florida.

Louis Domingue, New York Rangers

It is ironic that Louis Domingue wound up with the team that he very nearly upstaged two years ago in the first round of the playoffs.

After Tristan Jarry started the playoffs injured and Casey DeSmith was forced to leave midway through Game 1, Domingue was forced into action and was a part of that electric triple overtime win.

The Penguins got out to 3-1 series lead with Domingue in net, but midnight struck rather fast on that Cinderella story, and the Rangers beat Domingue’s Penguins back to back to force a Game 7, and by that point, the Penguins rushed Jarry back into action.

After the 2021-22 season, Domingue signed with the Rangers organization to fill the same role he did for Pittsburgh, as their third string goalie. He filled in for one game for the Rangers this season, and played 28 games for their AHL team in Hartford.

Domingue is with New York on an emergency loan, though it’s highly unlikely he’ll see any playing time with the Rangers on this run.

Chad Ruhwedel, New York Rangers

The headliner trade that happened for the Penguins was the Jake Guentzel deal, but a more under the radar deal was Pittsburgh sending defenseman Chad Ruhwedel to the Rangers for a fourth round pick all the way in 2027.

Ruhwedel was a long-time member of the Penguins’ blue line, serving from a depth defender all the way to a top four guy over his many years in Pittsburgh, but no matter the role he executed it well.

With a bit more depth on the blue line in New York, Ruhwedel spent a lot more time in the press box. He appeared in 5 games for the Rangers down the stretch this season, and has yet to appear in a postseason game for the club.