Philip Tomasino appeared to rediscover some of his potential after trade to Penguins

In the five-plus months that Philip Tomasino spent with the Pittsburgh Penguins after arriving via trade at the end of November, he periodically declined to go into much detail about how things ended with his former employer, the Nashville Predators, and coach, Andrew Brunette.

A first-round (No. 24 overall) selection by that organization in the 2019 NHL Draft, Tomasino showed much promise as a rookie with the Predators in 2021-22, scoring 11 goals and 21 assists over 76 games.

But over the following two seasons, Tomasino never played more than 41 games in a campaign for Nashville, instead splitting time between the NHL and American Hockey League.

Being traded to Pittsburgh constituted a change of scenery for Tomasino and the winger, who turns 24 in July, made the most of it, tying his career-high in goals (11) over 50 games in a Penguins sweater.

“It’s been my first full year in the NHL in three years,” Tomasino said April 18. “It feels pretty good, but at the same time, there’s still a lot of aspects I want to continue to grow on. There’s still a lot of positives involved, but I’m going to make sure I try to improve in every area that I can to hopefully take that next step heading into next year.”

Upon joining the Penguins, Tomasino got off to a red-hot start, scoring three goals with an assist over his first four games.

In 11 games with the Predators pre-trade, he’d managed only one assist.

Tomasino went on to find some comfort skating as one of franchise icon Evgeni Malkin’s wings, averaging 13 minutes, 27 of ice time per night and finishing the season with 23 points as a Penguin.

On the power play, Tomasino took on a significant role, seeing 1:31 per game on that unit and managing eight points (three goals) on the man-advantage.

Tomasino, a pending restricted free agent on July 1, found positives to take away from his individual game following the 2024-25 campaign.

“I’ve loved it here,” Tomasino said. “Honestly, it’s been awesome. I think my game has grown a lot from when I got here, so overall, I think there’s a lot to be happy about. At the same time, there’s a lot I want to continue to work on heading into next year. Going to have a big summer ahead of me.”

Heading into the summer, the question now becomes whether president of hockey operations/general manager Kyle Dubas will extend Tomasino a qualifying offer.

The prospects of that happening should be considered likely, seeing as the Penguins appeared to unlock some of Tomasino’s potential that’d been bottled up for whatever reasons since his rookie campaign.

Not to mention, Tomasino came cheap last season, counting only $825,000 against the books, as the Penguins took on a one-year contract for 2024-25 that he’d signed last September with the Predators.

Before Tomasino scored a goal in the Penguins’ April 17 finale vs. the Washington Capitals, he’d gone without for nine straight games.

There were other stretches of six, six and seven games over the course of the season in which Tomasino’s scoring also dried up.

While Tomasino was productive on the whole, at times now-departed coach Mike Sullivan opted to deploy Tomasino in a bottom-six role.

Sullivan also offered constructive criticism of Tomasino’s defensive game.

Ultimately, the future in Pittsburgh remains unclear for Tomasino.

But as the Penguins prepare to retool for 2025-26, Tomasino is adamant about wanting to remain with the club, as well as his belief in its prospects moving forward.

“You’ve got guys like (Sidney Crosby, Malkin, Bryan Rust and Rickard Rakell) — guys that are established in this league and stars in this league, but at the same time, we have a lot of young guys that I think can take the next step hopefully next year,” Tomasino said.

“I’ve loved it here. The people, the staff — they’ve been top-notch. Really grateful that they were so welcoming and everything about the organization has been first-class. … I want to be here.”