The roster is starting to come into focus for the Penguins.
The team sent five players to the AHL camp.
The following players have been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton’s training camp (AHL):
Scooter Brickey
Mathieu De St. Phalle
Taylor Gauthier
Aidan McDonough
Chase Pietila
Of that list, only Pietila is on an NHL contract and some of the others have been injured, so no surprises to see them moved out of the NHL area at this point deep into camp.
The bigger movement came with the 2pm announcement of waivers. For the first time this season, the Penguins put players on it. Six, in fact.
Sebastian Aho, Danton Heinen, Philip Kemp, Joona Koppanen, Filip Larssen and Valtteri Puustinen all hit the wire. Tomorrow at 2pm it will be announced if they clear. If so, they will likely be assigned to the AHL. Heinen is the surprise in the mix as an established NHL veteran with a $2.2 million cap hit that hasn’t seen the minor leagues since the 2017-18 season.
In addition to Bryan Rust, the injury list grew longer. Jack St. Ivany is out for six weeks after presumably breaking something in his foot last night following being struck by a puck during the game against the Sabres.
The Pens also had a perhaps telling practice today that was split into two sessions. Here was a fluid outlook from the NHL group, which included Avery Hayes, Ben Kindel and Filip Hallander up front as well as Caleb Jones on the blueline.
The first practice group that skated apart from the listings above included all six players who got waived or outright assigned to the AHL today, plus Tristan Broz, Robby Fabbri, Rafael Harvey-Pinard, Boko Imama, Sam Poulin as well as defenders Alexander Alexeyev and Owen Pickering.
As of now, that seems to point to a “stock down” situation for Broz and Pickering to make the team out of camp, with good news for Kindel, Hallander, Hayes and Brunicke to still be sticking with the main group during this day where some decisions were put in motion.
However, even out of that group there were 14 forwards and nine defensemen, there will have to be at least one player in today’s “main” team that doesn’t make the opening night roster, assuming no more players go to the IR instead. It should also be stressed that through injury or future decisions, the team has a few more days to steer into another direction when it comes to some of these groupings.
The Pens have their final preseason game tomorrow night at home against Buffalo. They will have to waive more players (presumably including but not limited to the likes of Poulin, Imama, Harvey-Pinard and Alexeyev) either on Saturday or Sunday to get them off the NHL roster. Younger players like Broz and Pickering do not require waivers and may be assigned to the AHL club any point before the roster is due on Monday.
