Penguins Send Defenseman Jack St. Ivany to WBS on Conditioning Loan

Jack St. Ivany is taking the final step back toward Pittsburgh. The Penguins assigned the 26-year-old right-shot defenseman to AHL affiliate Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a 14-day conditioning loan Monday morning, with St. Ivany remaining on injured reserve while he works through up to six games over the next two weeks.

The conditioning assignment is standard protocol for a player who has spent most of this season on the shelf. St. Ivany missed time to start the year with a lower-body injury that kept him out until December, then managed a 17-game stretch before suffering a left-hand fracture on January 25 against the Vancouver Canucks, an injury that came while blocking a shot and ended his season a second time.

Those 17 games were genuinely encouraging. Playing primarily alongside Ryan Shea, the 6-foot-4 blueliner posted seven assists with a plus-7 rating while averaging 15:39 of ice time per night. He logged occasional penalty kill minutes and delivered 2.35 hits per game. That production had him tracking toward what looked like a settled role as the third right-shot option behind Erik Karlsson and Kris Letang on Pittsburgh's blue line.

The advanced numbers tell a more complicated story, though. His 106.1 PDO was running hot, and his possession metrics were underwater across the board at 5-on-5, suggesting some regression was coming regardless of the injury.

WBS has six games scheduled over the next two weeks, giving St. Ivany a legitimate runway. He can practice with the team before his first potential game, a matchup against the Hershey Bears on Friday.

The more interesting question sitting underneath this transaction is what happens when St. Ivany is ready to come back to Pittsburgh. While he was out, right-shot forward depth got reshuffled and it has been Clifton stepping into a larger role on the right side, with lefties Solovyov and Graves occasionally playing on their off-side to fill gaps. Clifton has not just filled a roster slot, he has outplayed his assignment statistically. He owns a 54.5 percent expected goals share at 5-on-5 and leads the entire team in hits per game by a significant margin at 4.03, while also earning more penalty kill trust than St. Ivany had in his 17-game run.

A conditioning loan does not guarantee a recall, and the Penguins have not indicated a timeline for when St. Ivany comes off injured reserve permanently. But the last step before an NHL return has been taken. How that return complicates Pittsburgh's right-side depth chart is a conversation that starts Friday in Hershey.