MONDAY FEATURE: Sikura Showing Penguins His Versatility

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WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Tyler Sikura is no stranger to the American Hockey League (AHL). He entered his eighth season of hockey at the professional level with 313 games of AHL experience under his belt in addition to 115 games played in the ECHL.

But when it came time to sign with a new team over the summer, Sikura found himself without a home. It wasn't until the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins circled back and came calling in early October that Sikura secured himself an AHL contract for the 2022-23 season.

"To be completely honest, it sucked," Sikura told InsideAHLHockey.com after a win over the Philadelphia Flyers' AHL affiliate on October 28, a game in which he scored the game-winning goal and his first as a member of the Penguins organization. "A lot of months of waiting and being close, but nothing coming to fruition."

Sikura had actually packed his bags and was going to head to Providence as the Bruins top minor league affiliate had offered him a professional tryout contract (PTO), but the day before he was scheduled to leave he got a call from the Penguins. And as they say, the rest is history.

"I hadn't really talked to them much, other than at the start a free agency, and everything came together pretty quickly," Sikura said of his discussions with the Penguins in the beginning of October. "I had to get insulated to the team pretty quickly - I missed [most of] training camp."

Sikura has suited up in all of the Penguins' opening 10 games of the regular season to date, playing in the middle with primarily first year pros Ty Glover and Corey Andonovski on his wings.

"I mean, you could say he's been on our fourth line, like, that's where his name is, [but] he's a really good hockey player," head coach JD Forrest said of Sikura, making sure to point out he's not what you typically think of when you think 'fourth line guy'. "He's got some valuable experience that we thought would help us up front with a lot of young guys," he added, expanding on Sikura's abilities to win face-offs and explaining that while he's been placed in a defensive forward - and penalty killing - role they know they can get offensive contributions from him as well.

After all, Sikura recorded 15 goals and 21 assists on a lowly Cleveland Monsters team last season - good for third on the team in both goals and points after putting up 21 points (11 goals, 10 assists) in 29 games in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season with the Monsters.

An undrafted forward who finished his collegiate career at Dartmouth as the team's captain his junior and senior year, Sikura has had to earn his opportunities at the pro level - turning pro in the ECHL first for two years before breaking into the AHL full-time with the Rockford IceHogs and putting up a career-high 23 goals as an AHL rookie in 2017-18.

"Part of my value, especially in this league, is just, you know, over the course of a 76-game season, guys are gonna go up and down and in and out," Sikura began explaining to InsideAHLHockey.com. "And I kind of broke into the league as a defensive forward and as I earned more trust, and started to score a little bit more, I played an offensive role for the last couple of years."

Sikura is certainly hoping to do the same thing with the Penguins this season, and while he didn't kill penalties last season in Cleveland it's a part of Sikura's game he isn't afraid to showcase.

"It's a situation I like playing and I like being trusted," Sikura said of being trusted to help kill penalties. "And like I said, I'm on a winning team, there's a lot of a lot of big draws a lot of big moments. I'm happy to do that. But I'm also looking to contribute up front."

Through 10 games, Sikura has a goal and three assists with the Penguins so far this season.

Just five weeks ago, he was still searching for a place to play.

"I landed on my feet for sure," Sikura said. "We have a great group. It's nice to be on a winning team. It's nice to be in every game, and and get that good feeling of the group - especially early on in the season."

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