The Pittsburgh Penguins, who seem to be dominating the headlines lately, have grabbed another one by making several transactions ahead of their game against the Boston Bruins. Kevin Czuczman has been recalled under emergency conditions, while Sam Lafferty is up under a regular recall. Drew O’Connor, who had previously been up under emergency conditions, is now on a regular recall. Zach Aston-Reese, Juuso Riikola, and Evan Rodrigues have all been placed on long-term injured reserve retroactive to their last game played, while Marcus Pettersson has been moved to injured reserve.
Anthony Angello, Frederick Gaudreau, Will Reilly, and Yannick Weber have all been assigned to the taxi squad. All of these moves were announced by interim GM Patrik Allvin.
Czuczman is expected to be in the Penguins lineup for the first time tonight, returning to the NHL after nearly seven years. The last time he suited up at that level was April 13, 2014 with the New York Islanders, but the 30-year-old defenseman at least knows the Penguins’ system from spending the last three seasons with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Perhaps the most interesting addition of all is Reilly, who joins the taxi squad before ever playing a professional game. The 23-year-old defenseman was a seventh-round pick of the Penguins in 2017 and signed his entry-level contract last spring after finishing his senior season at R.P.I. While Weber is going to meet the team in New York this weekend, Reilly is really just an injury or two from being forced into the NHL lineup for the Penguins. He was a strong performer in college, recording 22 points in 34 games last season, but there’s little reason to believe he should be jumping onto the roster at this point.
Gonna be a rough patch for Pens. Need to tighten up the fire wagon hockey and play trap and counter style to get through this. No more pinching D. Otherwise a record like 2-8 is likely
Yeah, when you are down to using your #7, #9, and #11 defensemen, your are gonna have trouble keeping the puck out of your own net. Czuczman played in his first NHL game since 2014 last night. That in itself tells you the trouble that they are in. None of the injuries are small ones apparently. Crazy local sports talk guys are already opining that they need Fleury b ack to fix the problem. A) there is no cap room for Fleury. B) Fleury’s GAA will balloon and his save % will crash having these guys trying to play defense in front of him. With all of the troubles on D, guys like Letang and Malkin are trying to open things up and is turning the puck over like crazy instead of tightening things up.