‘I Think It’s Going To Be Something Special’: Penguins’ Playoff

It’s no secret that the Pittsburgh Penguins have a wealth of playoff experience on their roster.

Five of them – Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang, Bryan Rust, and Sam Girard – have Stanley Cup rings. A few more have gotten a taste of the Stanley Cup Final, only to have fallen just short. Many have limited playoff experience but playoff experience nonetheless.

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But there are a handful of players – six of them, to be exact – on the Penguins’ active roster who have never been graced with the opportunity to experience the greatest postseason in all of sports. Ben Kindel, Egor Chinakhov, Elmer Soderblom, Ryan Shea, Jack St. Ivany, and Ilya Solovyov will finally, in some capacity, have that opportunity when the Penguins face the Philadelphia Flyers in round one of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, which begins Saturday at 8:00 p.m. ET.

And a player’s first time in the NHL playoffs is something that they can only experience once.

“It’s, obviously, been a whirlwind of a season, but this has always been the goal since making the team,” Kindel said. “Really, really excited to have this opportunity to go into the playoffs with this group of guys and see what we can do.”

Kindel, a rookie, made the team out of training camp and was given the chance to stick around through the entirety of the regular season. And some of the other players in a similar situation didn’t join the squad until midway through.

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Chinakhov is one of those guys, as he was dealt from the Columbus Blue Jackets to Pittsburgh on Dec. 29. He has played in five NHL seasons up to this point, and all have ended in futility.

To come to the Penguins’ organization mid-season and be thrust into the Stanley Cup Playoffs has been a whirlwind for him, but he’s happy to finally have gotten here.

“I’m excited to play in the playoffs,” Chinakhov said. “I played in the KHL [playoffs], and I know it feels different than the regular season. Yeah, just need to prepare and be ready for Game 1.”