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Penguins Activate Evgeni Malkin, Reassign Jesse Puljujarvi

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have activated star forward Evgeni Malkin off of injured reserve. Malkin missed the Penguins’ last four games with an upper-body injury. He was named a game-time decision for the team’s Tuesday bout against Seattle, and his activation seems to be a good indication that he’ll play. Malkin was placed on injured reserve on Sunday, retroactive to his last appearance in the lineup on January 5th. To make room for the move, the squad has also assigned winger Jesse Puljujärvi to the minor leagues. Puljujarvi successfully cleared waivers on December 30th, and will now carry waiver exemption status through the month of January.

The Penguins will relish in Malkin’s return to the lineup. They’ve gone 1-3-0 in the four games he’s missed, getting confidently outscored 17-to-10. Malkin was on a hot streak leading up to his injury, with seven points in his last nine games. Despite that, the future Hall-of-Famer has been tame on the year as a whole, so far sat with eight goals and 32 points in 41 games this season. That puts him on pace for 64 points in 82 games, which would mark a career-low in seasons where Malkin played more than 50 games. He even surpassed that mark last season, when he scored 27 goals and 67 points while continuing his iron-man streak through its second consecutive season. Malkin’s role has been unwavering despite the slight dip in scoring. He’s averaged 18:35 in ice time this year, the exact same average that he posted in each of the last two seasons. Malkin sits just 14 games shy of his 1,200th NHL game. When he hits it, Malkin will join partner-in-crime Sidney Crosby as the only two to reach that mark with Pittsburgh. If he stays healthy, he’ll hit the milestone in Philadelphia on February 8th.

Meanwhile, Puljujarvi will head back to the minors after playing in his first five games since early December in Malkin’s absence. The former top draft pick only managed one point – an assist – in the matchups, while averaging nearly 12 minutes of ice time each game. He now has just nine points in 25 games this season – surpassing the four points he managed in 22 games last year but still far from the mark Pittsburgh would hope for. This assignment will likely set Puljujarvi up to play in his first AHL games of the season. He appeared in 13 games and scored nine points with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins last year. They were Puljujarvi’s first minor league appearances since the 2018-19 season, when he was assigned to the minors for four games and scored at point-per-game pace. While this move is fairly inconsequential, given Puljujarvi’s waiving in December, it could be the start of an extended minor-league assignment – bringing a tough end to Puljujarvi’s chase for a role with the Penguins.

Penguins Place Evgeni Malkin On IR, Activate Philip Tomasino

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The Pittsburgh Penguins have placed star Evgeni Malkin on injured reserve with an upper-body injury. Malkin has already missed Pittsburgh’s last three games, and will now be forced out of at least four more games. He had previously played in Pittsburgh’s first 41 games of the season, and was red-hot in the winter months. Malkin had seven points in nine games leading up to his injury.

In a corresponding move, Pittsburgh has also activated Philip Tomasino off of injured reserve, returning him from a four-game absence due to a lower-body injury. Tomasino has been one of the brightest spots of Pittsburgh’s middling year. Acquired for a fourth-round pick in a late-November trade with Nashville, Tomasino has since posted four goals and seven points in 16 games with the Penguins – the highest scoring pace of his career. He’s looked properly alive in the Penguins lineup, filling a much-needed top-six role after four up-and-down seasons in Nashville. Tomasino was a first-round draft pick in 2019, and made the jump into a full-time NHL role two seasons later. He scored 11 goals and 32 points in 76 games as a rookie – a very encouraging start for the then-20-year-old forward. But Tomasino struggled to maintain that into his sophomore year, and would only reach 20 points one more time – in 41 games of the 2023-24 campaign – during his time in Nashville.

Malkin’s absence will leave a glaring hole in the Pittsburgh lineup. The future Hall-of-Famer has, once again, been one of Pittsburgh’s most utilized forwards at both even-strength and on the power-play. The need for another top-unit forward could pave a golden path for Tomasino upon his return, giving the young center yet another chance to show Pittsburgh what he can do with a proper role. Pittsburgh has turned towards Anthony Beauvillier to fill the top-six vacancy over the last three games, though he hasn’t managed any scoring in the boosted role.

In other Penguins news, forward Michael Bunting will also miss the team’s Sunday game after being involved in a car accident outside PPG Paints Arena per Seth Rorabaugh of Tribune-Review Sports. Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan told Rorabaugh that Bunting isn’t expected to miss extended time. Bunting has been another red-hot Penguin, with four points in his last five games.

Evgeni Malkin Out Day-To-Day

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The Pittsburgh Penguins announced that star center Evgeni Malkin is out day-to-day with an upper-body injury. The news came out unexpectedly just minutes before the Penguins were set to take on the Columbus Blue Jackets this evening. In Malkin’s absence, Cody Glass will center the Penguins second line tonight, and forward Jesse Puljujarvi will draw back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last month.

Malkin has been surprisingly healthy in the latter stages of his career, having played 82 games in each of the last two seasons. The 38-year-old isn’t having one of his better offensive seasons, but he remains a capable second-line center for Pittsburgh and the drop-off with him out of the lineup will be substantial. Pittsburgh has been fortunate to have both Malkin and Sidney Crosby dress in every game over the past two and a half seasons, but it hasn’t helped them in the standings as the team has missed the playoffs for two straight years and is in a dog fight to make it this season.

Malkin skated with the Penguins today, so its isn’t exactly clear what the issue is or when it occurred. He last played on Sunday against Carolina and was held without a point in 17:44 of ice time.

The former second-overall pick has eight goals and 24 assists in 41 games this season and has been better defensively for Pittsburgh than in previous years. Despite more attention to his defensive game, Malkin has struggled with turnovers as he no longer has the footspeed to create open ice for himself and has tried to force a lot of plays that result in giveaways.

Pittsburgh enters tonight tied for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference and will need to beat teams like Columbus if they hope to break their two-year playoff drought.

Oilers, Canucks Among Teams With Interest In Penguins’ Marcus Pettersson

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The Oilers and Canucks have demonstrated interest in acquiring defenseman Marcus Pettersson from the Penguins ahead of the March 7 trade deadline, Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports Tuesday.

At least on paper, Edmonton and Vancouver have much more precise needs for a right-shot defender than a lefty like Pettersson. He hasn’t logged significant time playing on his off side since his first NHL stint with the Ducks in the 2017-18 season, either.

That being said, both clubs need to add at least one defenseman – preferably one with historically strong possession impacts like Pettersson – to be in great shape heading into the postseason in Edmonton’s case and a passable shape in Vancouver’s case. There’s a far more apparent need for Pettersson in British Columbia than in Alberta, where he’d be competing for top-four minutes with Darnell Nurse and likely pushing Brett Kulak to the latter’s offside.

The Canucks would immediately have Pettersson slot in as their No. 2 left defender behind Quinn Hughes, giving them a much more competent and well-rounded top-four group once Filip Hronek returns to the lineup from his lower-body injury. Acquiring arguably the best pure defensive blue-liner that’s set to be available on deadline day, especially one who’s controlled over 50% of shot attempts when on the ice at even strength in all of his seven seasons with the Penguins, would be a significant boon to a Vancouver squad that’s only controlling 49.4% of shot attempts and 48.7% of scoring chances at 5-on-5.

Over in Edmonton, Nurse has proved that reports of his demise are only slightly exaggerated this season. He’s got 17 points through 36 games, up from last season’s pace, and has been one-half of Edmonton’s best shutdown pairing this season when deployed with Kulak on his right. That duo only allows 1.83 expected goals against per 60 minutes, seventh-best in the league among pairings with over 200 minutes together, per MoneyPuck.

Still, Pettersson’s raw shot attempts numbers this season (52.5 CF%) are better than Nurse’s (50.8 CF%) at even strength, as are his relative impacts on a much weaker possession team in Pittsburgh. Acquiring him would allow the Oilers to roll out the effective Nurse-Kulak duo against lesser competition in a third-pairing role while pairing Pettersson with one of Ty Emberson or Troy Stecher.

Yohe reports that more teams will undoubtedly call the Pens about Pettersson’s services, and a trade is a matter of when, not if. Even with Pittsburgh hanging around a playoff spot, the club “only has so many players without no-trade clauses” and is “almost certainly as good as gone” as a pending unrestricted free agent.

That leaves the question of which club is in a better position to take on his $4.025MM cap hit, although the Penguins still have a pair of retention slots open and would likely be willing to slash that cap hit to $2.01MM for additional assets since it’s an expiring deal. The Oilers can only swing if Evander Kane remains on long-term injured reserve for the remainder of the season; otherwise, they only have $1.02MM in projected deadline space, per PuckPedia. The Canucks are in a similar boat with Hronek on LTIR and only project to have $1.33MM in deadline space, although both clubs will up those numbers with some minor moves in the days leading up to March 7.

Al MacNeil Passes Away At Age 89

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A legendary member of the Calgary Flames organization, Al MacNeil, has passed away at the age of 89 as announced by the Flames.

Before starting his coaching and executive career in the National Hockey League, MacNeil spent 11 years as a player. He suited up for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, and Pittsburgh Penguins from 1955 to 1968 recording 17 goals and 92 points in 524 games with another four assists in 37 postseason contests.

After a brief hiatus in the CHL and AHL, MacNeil was named assistant coach for the Canadiens ahead of the 1970-71 season. After starting the season with an 11-8-4 record through 23 games, then-head coach Claude Ruel resigned leaving the keys to MacNeil for the remainder of the season.

Montreal rebounded immensely under MacNeil’s stewardship, finishing the regular season on a 31-15-9 tear with a +58 goal differential. After knocking off the defending Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs, the Canadiens defeated the Minnesota North Stars and Chicago Blackhawks to win the organization’s 15th Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Despite coaching the team to a Stanley Cup championship, Montreal hired fifth-year head coach Scotty Bowman after leading the St. Louis Blues to three out of the last four Stanley Cup Finals. The Canadiens had no intentions of MacNeil leaving the organization, naming him head coach of the AHL’s Nova Scotia Voyageurs. He enjoyed success with the Voyageurs, winning three Calder Cup championships in six seasons behind the bench.

After finishing as Director of Player Personnel for the Canadiens in the 1978-79 season, MacNeil became the head coach of the NHL’s Atlanta Flames for the 1979-80 season. He would spend the next two decades with the Flames organization.

MacNeil became the last head coach for the Atlanta Flames while being the first head coach for the Calgary Flames. He finished with a record of 105-93-44 in 240 games but failed to coach the Flames beyond the Conference Finals.

He was promoted to Calgary’s front office after the 1981-82 campaign and became the team’s assistant general manager in 1985. Despite a brief 11-game return as the Flames’ head coach in 2002-03, MacNeil held the role of the assistant general manager until his retirement after the 2005-06 season. MacNeil won the fourth Stanley Cup ring of his career when Calgary dispatched his former employer, the Canadiens, in the 1989 Stanley Cup Final.

Although many will think of franchise icons such as Jarome Iginla, Theo Fleury, Al MacInnis, or Lanny McDonald when pondering the Flames’ success since moving to Alberta, MacNeil remains one of the most historical figures in franchise history. PHR extends our condolences to Al’s friends, family, and the organizations he’s been a part of for the last 70 years.

Penguins Activate Kris Letang, Place Philip Tomasino On IR

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are making a few roster moves before their game against the Carolina Hurricanes tonight. Pittsburgh announced they’ve placed forward Philip Tomasino on injured reserve while later adding they’ve activated defenseman Kris Letang in a corresponding move.

Considering the Penguins had a full 23-man roster before tonight’s game, this transaction was expected. Wes Crosby of NHL.com reported earlier that the Penguins expect Tomasino to miss the next week or two with a lower-body injury while Letang became a game-time decision.

Tomasino’s injury dampens the young forward’s hopes for the 2024-25 season. The former 24th overall pick of the 2019 NHL Draft was traded from the Nashville Predators to the Penguins for a 2027 fourth-round pick earlier in the season appearing to turn a corner with the second organization of his career.

He scored three goals and four points in his first five games as a Penguin averaging 15 minutes of ice time per game, nearly two minutes more than his season-high with the Predators. Unfortunately, Tomasino’s production has cooled off dramatically with one goal and three points in the next 11 contests. Thanks to Pittsburgh’s 10-5-2 record in their last 17 games, Tomasino should rejoin a team on the hunt for a spot in the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs which is more than what could be said of his former teammates in Nashville.

At the cost of some forward depth up front, the Penguins will get an addition to their defensive core in the form of Letang. Unfortunately, it won’t be quite the addition as it would have been in years past.

Letang is squarely in the middle of the worst statistical output of his lengthy NHL career. Assuming he plays in Pittsburgh’s remaining 42 games and continues his current offensive production, he’ll finish with 35 points in 76 games this season which would be the lowest since his tertiary campaign in the 2008-09 season.

Things don’t get any better on the defensive side of the puck. Letang is averaging a career-low 47.8% CorsiFor% and 87.5% on-ice save percentage while at even strength. Additionally, Letang is averaging an expected +/- in the negatives for the first time since the 2020-21 season.

Still, the Penguins are contractually committed to Letang for three years beyond this one and he still represents one of their better defensive options. He’s expected to play alongside rookie defenseman Owen Pickering on the team’s top-pairing tonight.

Lower-Body Injury For Tomasino

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Penguins winger Philip Tomasino left Friday’s game against Florida early after a collision with Nate Schmidt and sustained a lower-body injury on the play.  Team reporter Michelle Crechiolo relays (Twitter link) that there was no further update on his injury today with head coach Mike Sullivan indicating that he’s still being evaluated.  Tomasino has been a nice addition since being acquired from Nashville back in November for a 2027 fourth-round pick, picking up four goals and three assists in 16 games but now it looks like he’ll be out of the lineup for a little while.  Barring any further roster movement, one of Anthony Beauvillier or Jesse Puljujarvi (who remains on the roster despite recently clearing waivers) will take Tomasino’s place in the lineup.

Pittsburgh Penguins Activate Owen Pickering

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The Pittsburgh Penguins will have their top defensive prospect back in the lineup tonight. The organization announced they’ve activated defenseman Owen Pickering off the team’s injured reserve shortly before their matchup against the Florida Panthers.

Pickering hasn’t played since late December after succumbing to a concussion against the New Jersey Devils. He’s missed Pittsburgh’s last six games but will re-enter the lineup tonight in a third-pairing role next to Ryan Graves.

The next week or two may be Pickering’s last few NHL contests for some time. The recent injury to veteran blue liner Kris Letang likely saved Pickering’s spot in the lineup. Still, there’s an argument to be made he could use more seasoning in the American Hockey League.

He’s primarily played in the NHL over his first full professional season. Pickering played the entirety of the 2023-24 season with the WHL’s Swift Current Broncos scoring seven goals and 46 points in 59 games. He started the year with Pittsburgh’s AHL affiliate, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins but was called up in mid-November due to a combination of injuries and poor play in the Penguins’ defensive core.

It hasn’t been the smoothest transition, either. Outside of a mild concussion, Pickering has suited up in 14 games this season for Pittsburgh scoring one goal and one assist averaging 15:47 of ice time per game. His 40.4% CorsiFor% and 88.5% on-ice save percentage in all situations also show a lack of maturity on the defensive side of the puck.

None of his production, or lack thereof, negates his value as a top prospect. He’s only a few days away from his 21st birthday and has plenty of time to become a fixture in the Penguins’ blue line. To preserve his development, it would be wise for Pittsburgh to reassign Pickering back to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton to build upon his one-goal effort in 12 games this season.

Penguins, Sabres Swap Bennett MacArthur, Colton Poolman

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The Penguins traded winger Bennett MacArthur to the Sabres on Friday in exchange for defenseman Colton Poolman, both teams confirmed. The swap of minor-leaguers comes in conjunction with a corresponding trade between Pittsburgh’s and Buffalo’s AHL affiliates in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and Rochester, which saw 25-year-old winger Jagger Joshua head from WBS to the Sabres’ system for future considerations.

MacArthur’s short stint in the Penguins organization comes to an end with the move. An undrafted free agent signing by the Lightning in 2022, the 23-year-old spent most of his time in the ECHL before the Bolts traded him to Pittsburgh for Lukas Svejkovsky last June. Svejkovsky and Tampa Bay have since mutually terminated his contract.

As he had in Tampa, MacArthur failed to crack the AHL roster in the Penguins organization. He’s spent the entirety of this season on assignment to ECHL Wheeling, where he’s struggled immensely with only three goals and seven points in 28 appearances. He had 32 points in 55 games for ECHL Orlando and Allen last season while under contract with the Lightning.

MacArthur will report to the Sabres’ AHL affiliate in Rochester for now, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him assigned to their ECHL affiliate in Jacksonville in short order. The Prince Edward Island native will be a restricted free agent this summer and has no points in six career AHL games with the Syracuse Crunch.

Coming to Pennsylvania is Poolman, the younger brother of LTIR-bound Avalanche defenseman Tucker Poolman. The 29-year-old inked a two-way deal with Buffalo over the summer after four seasons in the Flames organization but hasn’t established himself as a regular in Rochester, logging just one assist and a -2 rating in five appearances thus far.

He heads to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton in search of more playing time, while the Pens organization hopes he can rediscover the strong stay-at-home play he exhibited with the Flames’ AHL affiliates in Stockton and Calgary. He’s two years removed from a career-high 14-point, +18 rating season in 64 games.

No Contract Talks Between Penguins And Marcus Pettersson

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Dan Kingerski of Pittsburgh Hockey Now writes that the Pittsburgh Penguins have yet to engage in contract talks with pending unrestricted free-agent defenseman Marcus Pettersson. Kingerski adds that he doesn’t believe there are any talks scheduled, which would signal that the Penguins intend to trade the 28-year-old prior to the NHL Trade Deadline on March 7th.

The situation is a complicated one for Pittsburgh, particularly after they climbed back into the playoff picture with a solid stretch of play in December. However, getting just two of a possible six points against the Islanders and Red Wings might make general manager Kyle Dubas’ decision to trade Pettersson a little bit easier. The Penguins sit a point back of Ottawa for the final Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference, but the Senators hold two games in hand.

Pettersson missed 17 days after falling to injury in a mid-December game against the Senators and returned on New Year’s Eve but struggled to get to his game as he was on the ice for three goals against. Overall, Pettersson’s play has been a tad below his usual production, though his offensive numbers have been okay, posting two goals and 11 assists in 33 games. Even with his uneven play, Pettersson remains perhaps the only steadying defensive presence on the team’s blue line. His looming free agency could be playing a role in his play dropping off, but it could also be attributed to the Penguins’ poor team defense.

Pittsburgh has been stockpiling future assets for the past year and given the direction Dubas has gone in, and the lack of contract talks, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Pettersson will be in a different uniform by the first week of March.

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