Rakell on a Roll

What a run it has been for Rickard Rakell.

After scoring twice in Sunday’s win over Florida, he has the longest goal-scoring streak in the NHL, having found the back of the net in five straight games. Rakell now has 11 goals in his last 10 games while hitting the 20-goal mark for the seventh time in his career.

“He's a machine right now,” Bryan Rust said. “He's been a privilege to be on the ice with, and also, watching from the bench, too, you can see that he's playing with so much confidence. He's making incredible plays. He's also working really hard. I think the combination of the skill, the effort and the confidence, you can see – he's got a gajillion goals recently, so needless to say, it's been a lot of fun.”

After Rakell put together a career year in goals (35), assists (35), and points (70) during the 2024-25 season, when Dan Muse and his staff took over for this campaign, they realized there was even more to unlock in the forward’s game instead of just being a scoring winger.

“The versatility is huge,” Muse said earlier this season. “You can put him in any situation. I think for somebody like him, he's seeing it firsthand, the benefits of being able to have that versatility and to build that trust with a new coaching staff. And I mean, he earned that right away.”

While he started the season hot with eight points (3G-5A) in the first nine games, Rakell missed the next 20 games after undergoing hand surgery.

Through all of that, Muse and his staff continued to help Rakell work on different aspects of his game that have grown all season.

“You can really tell that he's been looking at a lot of our games and our players,” Rakell said during training camp. “It feels like he's really invested, and he's picking out things in my game that he really likes and small changes that can help me elevate my game. He's not scared of bringing new ideas.”

As the year has progressed, Rakell has taken on a larger responsibility on both sides of the puck. He has had an increased role on the penalty kill and scored his first career shorthanded goal at a key time, has slotted in at the center position, and has shown up in big moments across all 200 feet of the ice when the team was without Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin.

“Of all the players on the team, he’s not one of the Big Three; he’s not Bryan Rust, who’s been here forever; he’s not Erik Karlsson, who comes in with three Norris Trophies... but when the team needs him, and we ask many different things of him... He comes and works and does a great job of connecting the group together with the way that he operates,” Penguins President of Hockey Operations and GM Kyle Dubas said.

“I think the way that Raks operates, it doesn’t get the same credit or the same praise externally as others. And I don’t think he would really want it that way, because that’s not him as a person. But it really deserves a lot. Especially at this time.”

Since March 1^st, Rakell leads the Penguins with 14 goals, has picked up 24 points in 20 games, and gotten on the scoresheet in 16 of his last 17 outings.

“If he doesn’t step up in that month the way that he does, you don’t know what the record would look like at the end of it or what our position would be,” Dubas said. “He flies under the radar. He’s zero maintenance for me and the coaching staff. Just does his work, whatever is asked of him, in whatever role, and it’s been great to see him playing his best hockey.”

Even with Crosby and Malkin back in the mix, the coaching staff has kept Rakell at the center position instead of playing wing on that top line. While he says faceoffs are still a work in progress, Rakell is enjoying the role.

“It feels good being close to the puck a lot of times and coming up the middle and just being part of the game more with or without the puck,” he said.

After the conclusion of Sunday’s game, the Penguins find themselves in a good position to return to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in three years. It would be Rakell’s first postseason with Pittsburgh since being acquired from Anaheim, where he started his career, at the 2023 trade deadline. And he is extremely motivated to make sure they get there.

“He’s a guy that plays in all situations for us and has been a huge part of everything that this team has done this year,” Muse said. “When you get to this point in the year, everyone has to elevate. I think you’re seeing him do that for us right now.”