Penguins Trim Roster

The Penguins have made a second wave of significant cuts, slashing the roster by 17 players.

Among the 15 farmed out to the Baby Pens? Forwards Corey Andonovski, Raivis Ansons, Drake Caggiula, Jamie Devane, Filip Hallander, Nathan Legare, Alex Nylander, Valtteri Puustinen, Drew O’Connor and Kyle Olson, along with defensemen Xavier Ouellet, Jack St. Ivany and Colin Swoyer and goalies Filip Lindberg and Dustin Tokarski.

First-round pick Owen Pickering and fellow d-man Nolan Collins were returned to their respective junior clubs.

Although there weren’t any huge surprises among the cuts, Caggiula and O’Connor were thought to be in hunt to make the opening night roster. The fact that the latter is still waiver exempt no doubt influenced the decision to send him to the Baby Pens as GM Ron Hextall shuffles the deck in an effort to become cap compliant.

Andonovski, Hallander, Legare, Lindberg, Puustinen and St. Ivany showed at least reasonably well at times, but were obviously caught in a numbers game.

Caggiula, Nylander, Ouellet and Tokarski will need to clear waivers before being assigned.

Twenty-eight players survived the cut, including fringe forwards Josh Archibald, Jonathan Gruden, Ryan Poehling and Radim Zohorna and top prospect Samuel Poulin, who’s had a strong camp and preseason. Defensive hopefuls Ty Smith and Pierre-Olivier Joseph remain with the team as well.

Big Z Oops

After the fact, it’s been confirmed that Zohorna has also been placed on waivers with the intent of assigning him to the Baby Pens. Bringing the total number of players in camp down to 27.