Mike Sullivan confirms starting goalie for the Pittsburgh Penguins' first pre-season game tonight

Hockey is finally back! The first pre-season games are set to take place tonight, marking the start of the 2024-25 NHL regular calendar.

In Pittsburgh, the game promises to be interesting for many reasons, but a lot of fans are hyped for the same reason: Joel Blomqvist.

The 22-year-old Finnish goaltender was drafted 52nd overall by the Pens in 2020 and impressed many people last season with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins in the AHL. He had a 25-12-6 record and was able to maintain great statistics (2.16 GAA and 0.921 SV%).

Fans seem to be happy with this decision, as we can see on X:

The Penguins also released the rest of their roster, giving other reasons for fans to tune in tonight. Indeed, Ville Koivunen, Rutger McGroarty, and Vasily Ponomarev will be in uniform, among others.

Here's the Pittsburgh Penguins full roster, as seen on NHL.com:

In addition to the Penguins and the Sabres, the St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, and Minnesota Wild will also be in action.

Tonight will also mark David Quinn's first game as the Penguins' assistant-coach. Make sure to stay tuned to find out the latest developments from this first night of what is set to be an interesting NHL season!