The Penguins are down to the point where the opening-night picture is starting to sharpen, but they are not there yet.
Pittsburgh cut six players from its NHL roster yesterday, with defensemen Owen Pickering, Caleb Jones and Jake Livanavage among those sent out. Even after those moves, the Penguins still have work to do before opening-day rosters are due tomorrow.
Players have to go on waivers today if they’re going to clear in time to be reassigned, and the Pens are sitting at 32 players. That means they still need to get down by nine more.
Here is where the roster stands right now:
Forwards (20): Justin Brazeau*, Tristan Broz, Egor Chinakhov, Sidney Crosby, Connor Dewar, David Gustafsson, Filip Hallander, Ben Kindel*, Ville Koivunen, Andrei Kuzmenko**, Hendrix Lapierre, Blake Lizotte*, Evgeni Malkin, Rutger McGroarty, Tommy Novak, Rickard Rakell, Nick Robertson, Bryan Rust*, Elmer Soderblom, Bill Zonnon
Defenseman (9): Harrison Brunicke, Declan Carlile, Sam Girard, Ryan Graves*, Erik Kalrsson, Kaeden Korczak, Kris Letang, Ilya Solovyov, Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goalies (3): Joel Blomqvist, Sergei Murashov, Artus Silovs
- Injured, possibility to open season on injured reserve ** Currently away from team for personal reasons
A few names appear to be in clear position to head to the AHL without needing waivers, based on the recent moves: McGroarty, Zonnon, Brunicke and Blomqvist. From there, the most obvious path would be for Lizotte and Kindel to land on injured reserve, with Brazeau, Rust and Graves potentially joining them. That would account for nine names all by itself, which might be enough to handle the required cuts.
If more room is needed, the Penguins could also move Kuzmenko to the “non-roster player” designation while he remains in Russia following the death of his father. That would remove him from the 23-man roster, though he would still count against the salary cap. Another option would be putting Gustafsson on waivers today if one of the other injured players does not need IR placement.
There are still health questions to sort through, and that leaves some moving parts in play. But the roster is clearly coming into focus, and the Penguins are getting closer to what their opening-night group will look like.
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For a team trying to sort out its lineup right out of the gate, the timing is less than ideal. Pittsburgh will have to absorb those absences in a hurry, and the injuries could force the coaching staff to lean on players who were hoping to earn their way into bigger minutes later rather than sooner. It is the kind of depth test that can shape the first stretch of a season before the schedule really settles in. [Read more 🡒]