The Pittsburgh Penguins have recalled former first-round pick Sam Poulin from their AHL affiliate and placed center Noel Acciari on the injured reserve.
The 23-year-old Poulin was taken 21st overall by the Penguins in the 2019 NHL entry draft and has spent the bulk of his professional career playing in the AHL with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins. His callup is no surprise given that he has found traction this season posting 13 goals and 14 assists in 36 games. Several Penguins pundits speculated that Poulin would get an extended look after the NHL trade deadline as the Penguins are looking toward next season and which of their younger players can make an impact soon. Poulin has yet to dress for an NHL game this season but did have an assist in three games last year during a short NHL audition.
Acciari on the other hand is back on injured reserve for the third time this season as injuries have limited him to just 55 games in which he has produced just four goals and three assists. The 32-year-old was signed last summer to a three-year $6MM contract as a free agent but hasn’t had the kind of season he or the Penguins were hoping for. Not much is known about Acciari’s injury other than that it is a lower-body injury that will keep him out of the lineup until at least the last game of the regular season as he is designated as LTIR according to Seth Roarbaugh of Tribune-Review Sports.
The Penguins welcome Jake Guentzel back to Pittsburgh tonight for the first time since trading him to the Hurricanes just before the NHL trade deadline.
Keep pumping youth into this team the rest of the season whenever circumstances allow and give them continued looks. Whatever it takes to break the obvious staleness of the operation
I really hope that’s what they do, but it’s more likely Sam gets his 6-7 minutes and then benched as soon as he makes a mistake