- Jason Zucker has been cleared for contact and re-joined the Pittsburgh Penguins group in a regular sweater today. Head coach Mike Sullivan called it a “significant step in the process” for the veteran forward, who has played just one game since the middle of December and just 31 total this season. Notably, the Penguins were 13-2-1 in the last 16 games Zucker played before going down to injury and will certainly look like an even deeper forward group when he’s back at full-strength.
Penguins Rumors
Pittsburgh Penguins Sign Ty Glover
The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to aggressively pursue undrafted college free agents, a strategy that they’ve used for years now to supplement their prospect pipeline that is often bereft of draft picks. The next college player to join Pittsburgh will be Western Michigan University sophomore Ty Glover, who has agreed to a three-year entry-level contract.
The deal will start in 2022-23 and carries an average annual value of $859K at the NHL level. He will now report to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an amateur tryout for the rest of the season.
Glover, 21, recorded eight goals and 21 points in 39 games this season for the Broncos, whose season ended with a loss to Minnesota over the weekend. It’s been a winding road for the young forward, who failed to make the OHL–he was drafted by the Flint Firebirds in the 15th round–played two seasons of Junior B, a year in the OJHL, and a year in the USHL before heading to college. Despite landing 215th on NHL Central Scouting’s list of available prospects in 2019 he went undrafted but has now obviously done enough in two years of collegiate hockey to earn an entry-level deal.
Standing 6’3″ he represents another big body for the Penguins to try and develop, even if there likely isn’t a huge offensive upside available at the next level. The team has continually squeezed NHL minutes out of players who were otherwise overlooked, and Glover represents another one of those opportunities for Pittsburgh.
Brad Elliott Schlossman of the Grand Forks Herald broke news of the deal on Twitter.
Pittsburgh Penguins Sign Colin Swoyer
The Pittsburgh Penguins continue to comb the ranks of the undrafted college free agent, this time signing Colin Swoyer after Michigan Tech’s season came to an end over the weekend. Swoyer has agreed to a one-year entry-level contract that will be for the 2022-23 season and carries an average annual value of $750K at the NHL level. He’ll now join the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins on an amateur tryout for the rest of this season.
Swoyer, 23, spent four years at Michigan Tech, following a part of seasons in the USHL. Completely overlooked by scouts during his draft years–Swoyer wasn’t even listed on NHL Central Scouting’s top-200 North American skaters–his development in college has now led to an outstanding opportunity for the young defenseman.
The Penguins, known for their willingness to take chances on college free agents, have just seven defensemen in the entire organization signed through 2022-23 (eight now). While several of the younger minor league options will get new deals as restricted free agents, there is always room for a player like Swoyer to make an impact in an organization that sheds draft picks so frequently.
Whether he can make that impact remains to be seen, but the soon-to-be 24-year-old will get at least a year to try. Despite turning 25 before his entry-level contract ends, Swoyer will not qualify for Group VI unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2023; he will be a restricted free agent when this first contract expires.
Malkin A Game-Time Decision Sunday
- According to Pittsburgh Penguins’ Head Coach Mike Sullivan, Penguins’ forward Evgeni Malkin is expected to be a game-time decision for tonight’s game against the Detroit Red Wings (link). Malkin missed Friday night’s game against the New York Rangers, a 5-1 loss for Pittsburgh, with a non-COVID illness and has been away from the team since. The star forward has played a key role for the Penguins this season after missing the first three months with an injury, recording 28 points in 29 games since returning.
Malkin Game-Time Decision For Sunday, DeSmith Will Be Available
- Penguins center Evgeni Malkin is set to be a game-time decision for tomorrow’s game against Detroit, notes Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The veteran was a late scratch last night due to an illness, one that kept him away from practice today as well. Meanwhile, after leaving last night’s game after just 4:19, goaltender Casey DeSmith was cleared to skate today and is expected to be available for tomorrow’s contest.
Pittsburgh Penguins Acquire Rickard Rakell
The Pittsburgh Penguins have acquired forward Rickard Rakell (at 35% retention) from the Anaheim Ducks, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. In return, Anaheim receives forwards Zach Aston-Reese and Dominik Simon, along with goalie prospect Calle Clang and a 2022 second-round pick.
Rakell is a 28-year-old winger who’s a decent offensive play-driver. He’s having a very nice rebound season analytically after his 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons, where he really struggled to put the puck in the net.
He has 16 goals and 12 assists this year for 28 points in 51 games, and his 11.8 shooting percentage is much closer to his career average of 11.3%. In his past two seasons, where he scored just 15 and 9 goals, he shot a combined 7.3%. His new cap hit in Pittsburgh with retention is now just $2.463MM, and he’s an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season.
While this is a good add for Pittsburgh, Anaheim and general manager Pat Verbeek got a good return for Rakell, adding to what’s been a great deadline season for them. If they can re-sign Aston-Reese, he’d be a fantastic addition to the organization. The 27-year-old undrafted free agent carved out a great start to his NHL career in Pittsburgh, developing into an elite defensive winger. He’s got 62 points so far through 213 NHL games.
Simon is on a league-minimum deal and is also an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. He has just nine points in 55 games with the season, and this could potentially be the end of his career in North America.
AHL Shuffle: 03/21/22
It’s certainly a busy day in the NHL today with the trade deadline just hours away plus four games on the schedule. There will be considerable roster movement on the trade front while there will be plenty of paper moves made prior to the 2 PM CT deadline made to give players eligibility to play in the minors down the stretch. We’ll keep track of those moves here.
Atlantic Division
Metropolitan Division
- The Penguins announced (Twitter link) that they’ve sent winger Radim Zohorna to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL. The 25-year-old has three points in a dozen games this season with Pittsburgh while adding 15 points in 31 minor league contests.
- The Washington Capitals re-assigned forward Brett Leason to the Hershey Bears of the AHL (link). Leason had just been recalled by the Capitals yesterday, but the re-assignment could be to simply keep Leason’s AHL eligibility for the remainder of the season intact.
Central Division
- The Predators have sent defenseman Jeremy Davies back to Milwaukee, per the AHL’s transactions log. Davies was brought up on Saturday but with Nashville adding Jeremy Lauzon from Seattle late on Sunday, the 25-year-old can head back to the minors.
- The Dallas Stars have sent goaltender Adam Scheel back to the AHL after acquiring Scott Wedgewood yesterday. Scheel, 22, has up as an emergency backup and never actually saw any NHL action. The young netminder is in his first full season of professional hockey.
- The Winnipeg Jets have reassigned Ville Heinola, Jeff Malott, and Kristian Reichel have all been reassigned to the minor leagues, making them eligible. Notably, Cole Perfetti is not with this group, suggesting that his time in the minor leagues is over after impressing so far.
- After making several trades in the past 24 hours, the Arizona Coyotes have recalled two players from the Tuscon Roadrunners of the AHL: forward Michael Carcone and goaltender Josef Korenar. Carcone has played just two games at the NHL level, both coming this season, however he has been a productive AHL player, tallying 24 goals and 17 assists in 48 games with Tuscon this season. Korenar has not played in the NHL yet this season, but did play in 10 games for the San Jose Sharks in 2020-21 and was moved to Arizona this offseason as part of the Adin Hill trade.
- Having traded goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to the Minnesota Wild, the Chicago Blackhawks have recalled goaltender Collin Delia from the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. Delia has had a solid season playing for Rockford, but has only appeared in two NHL games thus far in 2021-22.
Pacific Division
- The Kraken announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled winger Kole Lind from AHL Charlotte. Lind has played in seven games with Seattle this season after being their pick in expansion from Vancouver but has spent most of the year in the minors. Seattle has also activated winger Joonas Donskoi off injured reserve.
- The Edmonton Oilers have recalled Brad Malone from the AHL after he played a game with the Bakersfield Condors over the weekend. The 32-year-old is actually the captain of the minor league club, but after converting his contract to an NHL deal has played six games for the Oilers.
- Jake Leschyshyn and Brayden Pachal are heading back up to the Vegas Golden Knights. Leschyshyn’s seen a lot of NHL opportunities this year, getting into 27 games this year and notching his first five NHL points. Pachal made his NHL debut recently before immediately getting sent back down, but he may get another chance here in some NHL games.
- The San Jose Sharks announced they have re-assigned goaltender Zach Sawchenko to the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL. In addition to this, the team recalled forward Sasha Chmelevski and defenseman Ryan Merkley from the Barracuda, and activated Radim Simek off of injured-reserve.
- After placing Michael Amadio and Zach Whitecloud in COVID protocol and trading away Evgenii Dadonov, the Vegas Golden Knights announced they have called up four players: forwards Paul Cotter and Jonas Rondbjerg and defensemen Daniil Miromanov and Zack Hayes. Of this group, only Hayes does not have any NHL playing experience, spending this season and last in the AHL with the Henderson Silver Knights, and the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL before that.
- The Vancouver Canucks also made a flurry of AHL assignments, primarily for the purpose of keeping players’ AHL ability alive. The organization announced it assigned forwards Sheldon Rempal, Vasily Podkolzin, and Nic Petan, as well as defenseman Noah Juulsen to the Abbotsford Canucks. Podkolzin and Petan were immediately recalled back to Vancouver.
- The Anaheim Ducks announced they have recalled forward Danny O’Regan from the San Diego Gulls of the AHL. O’Regan, 28, has played parts of four seasons dating back to 2016-17, including four games this season with Anaheim.
This post will be updated throughout the day.
Penguins Acquire Nathan Beaulieu
The Penguins have added some low-cost defensive depth as TSN’s Darren Dreger reports (Twitter link) that they’ve acquired Nathan Beaulieu from the Jets. In return, Winnipeg receives a conditional seventh-round draft pick. CapFriendly provides the specifics of the condition – for the Jets to get the pick, Pittsburgh has to make it to the Stanley Cup Final with Beaulieu playing in at least half of their games.
It has been a tough year for the 29-year-old as Beaulieu has played in just 24 games this season while being scratched 21 times. His role has been diminished when he has been in there as he’s averaging just under 11 minutes per game in those contests, nearly five minutes below his career average while picking up just four assists in that stretch.
On top of that, Beaulieu is currently on LTIR with an undisclosed injury with his placement coming back on March 9th. That means that he’s out for the rest of the month at a minimum and potentially longer. His $1.25MM AAV will slide into Pittsburgh’s current LTIR space with Jason Zucker still on there for the time being although he is expected to be activated in the coming weeks. If Beaulieu does return between now and the end of the season, the Penguins would have to make some roster moves to get cap-compliant but if he’s only able to return for the playoffs, they won’t have to worry about the cap then and they’ll have themselves a veteran of over 400 career NHL games for next to no cost.
Pittsburgh Penguins Extend Mark Friedman
The Pittsburgh Penguins have completed some contract work that has nothing to do with the impending trade deadline, signing Mark Friedman to a two-year extension. The deal, which keeps him in Pittsburgh through the 2023-24 season, is a one-way contract that carries an average annual value of $775K. Penguins’ general manager Ron Hextall released the following statement:
Friedman is an impactful defenseman who has strong offensive instincts and plays with an edge. He’s added depth to our defense corps and we are excited to see his continued development over the next two years.
Claimed off waivers last season Friedman has been a nice find for the Penguins, playing regular–if limited–minutes down the lineup. In 20 games this season the 26-year-old defenseman has one goal and five points while racking up 17 penalty minutes. Though he certainly isn’t an imposing figure, standing just 5’11”, Friedman is actually quite physical and willing to drop his gloves on occasion. While that doesn’t make him an incredibly important piece, he does seem to fall into the category of player that Penguins’ executive Brian Burke has always coveted.
For such a small cap hit, Friedman can continue in his role as a sixth or seventh defenseman for the Penguins but his time in the minor leagues is likely over for the next while. He would have to clear waivers in order to be assigned there, and Pittsburgh isn’t generally one of the teams that like to pay one-way contracts to players in the AHL (though, they have done so recently).
There’s no comparison between a player like Friedman and Kris Letang, though the latter’s situation will always be discussed when the Penguins are completing something with a defenseman. Letang is a pending unrestricted free agent and could, if he chooses to go elsewhere, leave a giant hole on the right side. While Friedman won’t be logging 25 minutes a night and leading a powerplay, getting him locked up now at least secures some depth at the position.
Penguins Have Shown Interest In Robert Hagg
- The Penguins have shown interest in Sabres defenseman Robert Hagg, reports Josh Yohe of The Athletic (subscription link). Cap space will be an issue for Pittsburgh with all of their current space coming from Jason Zucker who’s on LTIR but will return next month but if Buffalo is able to retain half of Hagg’s $1.6MM AAV, his cap hit would be just above the league minimum which is something they should be able to afford.