‘It’s a workman’s mindset coming in here’

Jack St. Ivany was on the driving range preparing for a round of golf on the morning of June 29 when he noticed he had missed a call from Kyle Dubas.

The general manager of the Pittsburgh Penguins was reaching out to inform St. Ivany that he had been moved to the Winnipeg Jets in a deal for Swedish forward David Gustafsson.

“He’s not really calling me on the regular, so I figured I was traded or that something bigger happened,” St. Ivany said before the Jets faced the Colorado Avalanche in exhibition action on Monday. “I had never really been traded. Everything unfolds quickly. It was pretty crazy. Before you know it, you’re with a new team and you turn the page.”

A series of phone calls followed, including one from Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, welcoming him to the organization.

Before long, Jets winger Alex Iafallo — who lives a few streets over from St. Ivany in his hometown of Manhattan Beach, Calif. — was on the other line with a question of his own.

“Are we planning to still surf?” St. Ivany recalled Iafallo asking. “Actually, yeah, let’s surf later, but I just got traded (to Winnipeg). Pretty cool.”

Once the shock of being traded subsided, St. Ivany embraced the new opportunity that was in front of him.

“It was kind of out of the blue,” he said. “Anytime you can get traded, it means that a team wants you.

“I know there’s a spot available, so I’m going to do whatever I can to do it. I know in the back of my head, I’m confident I can do it. It’s just about going out there and executing now.”

As someone with 53 NHL games on his resumé with the Penguins — who signed him as a college free agent in August of 2022 after he was originally chosen in the fourth round (112th overall) of the 2018 NHL Draft — St. Ivany is looking to solidify himself as a regular.

St. Ivany brings size (six-foot-four, 197 pounds) and mobility to a defence corps that stands to benefit from both of those qualities.

Thanks to his long reach and willingness to get physical, St. Ivany could also be someone who sees some additional reps on one of the special teams units.

“I think the defensive side of the game is my specialty,” said St. Ivany, who helped the United States take home a silver medal at the 2019 World Junior Championship in B.C. alongside teammate Dylan Samberg. “I’ve got a long reach and I like to use my stick pretty well, I think I can move pucks well and I can skate well. It’s really about defending hard for me and being good on the penalty kill.”

St. Ivany was limited to 20 NHL games last season as he dealt with a pair of injuries — a lower-body ailment that cost him 28 games and left hand surgery that sidelined him for another 12 games.

“My injuries last year were a bit — I would call — unlucky,” said St. Ivany, who split his NCAA career between two years at Yale University and two more at Boston College. “A couple of broken bones. That’s part of the game. There’s not a whole lot I can do other than put some more padding on.

“Getting injured like that is not something that you want to happen, but it’s all about how you respond. I felt like I put my head down and really put the work in this summer. I’m excited to push forward and see what happens.”

With Elias Salomonsson still working his way back from off-season shoulder surgery, Jets head coach Scott Arniel has spoken openly about the competition for a spot on the right side of the third pairing with Mario Ferraro.

As it stands right now, St. Ivany and Tyrel Bauer are the front-runners, though several left-handed options remain in the mix.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about him, but after watching some video and then seeing them in practice, there’s a right-handed defenceman that has ability to move and he’s played games in this league and he knows how to play,” said Arniel.

“It’s an opportunity for him against some other guys to fight for that spot. Probably more than anything, you can see he’s got NHL games, so he’s not a guy coming in here as a first-timer and scrambling to figure out what to do. There’s a learning curve for him coming to our organization, but other than that, I think he’s filled in well.”

St. Ivany recognizes what he needs to do in order to break camp with the big club while earning the trust of the coaching staff.

“Every training camp is a little different. This year, there are a lot of new faces in here,” said St. Ivany, who made his NHL debut against the Dallas Stars in March of 2024 and chipped in his first NHL point by setting up a goal by Evgeni Malkin on April 2 in what was his seventh game with the Penguins.

“But everyone is competing for a spot. It doesn’t matter if you’re an 18-year-old and it’s your first camp or if you’re a veteran, everyone is here to be better and learn the systems.”

St. Ivany might be new to the group, but he’s noticed a common theme since training camp opened.

“You can really tell that guys are hungry coming into camp,” he said. “It’s a workman’s mindset coming in here. From the first whistle of camp, everyone has been flying. We’re putting the work in. Guys really felt disappointed with how last season finished, so everyone is excited to get going.”

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