Well black-and-gold fans, it’s official. With the start of the 2021 NHL regular season just around the corner, the Penguins finalized their roster today.
Forwards — Teddy Blueger, Sidney Crosby, Jake Guentzel, Mark Jankowski, Kasperi Kapanen, Sam Lafferty, Evgeni Malkin, Jared McCann, Evan Rodrigues, Bryan Rust, Colton Sceviour, Brandon Tanev and Jason Zucker.
Defensemen — Cody Ceci, Brian Dumoulin, Kris Letang, John Marino, Mike Matheson, Marcus Pettersson, Juuso Riikola and Chad Ruhwedel.
Goaltenders — Casey DeSmith and Tristan Jarry.
No real surprises there. However, the six-man taxi squad might contain a couple. Most notably left wing Drew O’Connor, a rookie pro who obviously made a favorable impression during camp, and promising defenseman Pierre-Olivier Joseph.
Here’s the complete taxi squad.
Forwards — Anthony Angello, Frederick Gaudreau, Drew O’Connor.
Defenseman — Pierre-Olivier Joseph.
Goaltender — Alex D’Orio, Maxime Lagace.
Among the noteworthy demotions, 2019 draft picks Nathan Legare and Samuel Poulin were returned to their junior clubs. Defensemen Kevin Czuczman and Cam Lee and forwards Josh Currie and Radim Zohorna were assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, along with physical left wing Jordan Nolan, who was released from his professional tryout contract.
Zach Aston-Reese, still recovering from off-season shoulder surgery, Josh Maniscalco, Sam Miletic and Zach Trotman (who may be injured) will be assigned tomorrow.
What We Can Expect
During Monday’s practice, coach Mike Sullivan used the following combinations. Again, no real surprises.
Forwards: Guentzel-Crosby-Rodrigues, Zucker-Malkin-Rust, McCann-Jankowski-Tanev, Lafferty-Blueger-Sceviour.
Defense: Dumoulin-Letang, Matheson-Marino, Pettersson-Ceci, Riikola-Ruhwedel.
Kapanen figures to be a lock to join the first line upon his return, which would likely drop Rodrigues to a bottom-six role (or the press box).
A stray thought. With Joseph looming on the horizon and by most accounts NHL-ready, could Pettersson…who appears to have been demoted to the third pairing…possibly be considered trade bait? Of course, there’s the not-so-small matter of his $4.025 million cap hit, which may be too rich for opposing GMs to swallow during these difficult financial times.
Still…things that make you go hmmmm.
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