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Penguins Activate Blake Lizotte From Injured Reserve

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4:09 PM: According to a team announcement, the Penguins organization has confirmed the activation of Lizotte from the injured reserve.

1:28 PM: Penguins center Blake Lizotte will be a game-time decision tonight against the Ducks, head coach Mike Sullivan told reporters, including Wes Crosby of NHL.com. If he plays, he’ll need to come off injured reserve. The Penguins have an open roster spot, so they won’t need to make a corresponding transaction.

Lizotte, 26, signed a two-year, $3.7MM contract in Pittsburgh over the offseason after spending the first six seasons of his NHL career with the Kings. Most had him penciled in as the team’s fourth-line center to start the campaign, but a concussion sustained during a preseason game against the Senators on Sep. 29 has kept him out of the lineup ever since. He was placed on IR to begin the season but has slowly worked his way back over the past few weeks.

With Bryan Rust out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, that’s created an opportunity for some players to move up in the lineup. If he plays, Lizotte will benefit from that. He’s projected to skate as Pittsburgh’s third-line center between Kevin Hayes and Anthony Beauvillier, relays Josh Getzoff of SportsNet Pittsburgh. It’s a marginal increase from his usual role with the Kings over the past few seasons, especially last year when he had to contend with Anže Kopitar, Phillip Danault, and Pierre-Luc Dubois ahead of him on L.A.’s center depth chart.

An undrafted free agent signing by the Kings out of St. Cloud State in 2019, Lizotte has 37 goals, 69 assists, and 106 points in 320 career regular-season games with a +34 rating. He’s one year removed from a career-high 11 goals and 34 points in 81 games in 2022-23 when he averaged nearly 13 minutes per night. He’s just above 50% on draws throughout his career and has historically solid possession numbers, controlling 54% of shot attempts and 52.9% of expected goals when deployed at even strength.

Possession quality hasn’t been an issue for the Penguins’ bottom six this season. Far from it, actually – their “usual” non-Sidney Crosby or Evgeni Malkin of Hayes, Noel Acciari and Cody Glass have controlled 70.2% of expected goals when deployed together, per MoneyPuck. Still, Lizotte has good foot speed and is far more involved physically than his 5’9″, 170-lb frame indicates.

If Lizotte doesn’t play tonight and remains on IR, it’s fair to assume he’ll be activated ahead of their next game at home against the Canadiens on Saturday.

Penguins Activate, Reassign Vasiliy Ponomarev

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Center Vasiliy Ponomarev has been activated from season-opening injured reserve and assigned by the Penguins to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, per a team announcement. The Penguins had placed Ponomarev on SOIR with an upper-body injury earlier this month after he sustained an apparent left shoulder issue in a preseason game.

Ponomarev, 22, headed from the Hurricanes to the Penguins in last season’s Jake Guentzel trade. He didn’t get an NHL call-up and was limited by injuries in the minors to end the season, scoring once in four games with the Baby Pens. Before the trade, he’d had eight goals and 31 points in 41 AHL games split between Tucson and Chicago, logging a -17 rating. He also had a goal in three preseason appearances last month.

Though he didn’t get into an NHL game with the Penguins, he did appear in a pair of contests with the Hurricanes earlier in 2023-24. The Carolina 2020 second-round pick out of the QMJHL’s Shawinigan Cataractes posted a goal and an assist to average a point per game through his brief NHL career, averaging 9:41 of ice time. He’s also been an influential minor-league point producer since turning pro in 2021. In parts of three AHL seasons, he’s played 120 games, scoring 36 goals and 86 points with a -26 rating.

Ponomarev is in the third and final season of the entry-level contract he signed with Carolina and will be a restricted free agent next summer. He’ll require waivers beginning next season. The Penguins gain $8,281 in cap space by activating him off SOIR, per PuckPedia.

Penguins Place Bryan Rust On Injured Reserve

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The Penguins placed right winger Bryan Rust on injured reserve Tuesday due to his lower-body injury, according to the NHL’s media site. They haven’t made a corresponding transaction yet, but with an open roster spot, they could make a recall ahead of tomorrow’s game against the Ducks. Rust’s IR placement is retroactive to Oct. 26, so he won’t be eligible to return until Nov. 2, but he will likely miss more time than that after being labeled week-to-week yesterday.

Rust already missed yesterday’s 5-3 loss to the Wild and has now been officially ruled out for tomorrow’s game. He left Saturday’s loss to the Canucks after getting awkwardly tangled up with Vancouver winger Nils Höglander and did not return. His absence caused Pens head coach Mike Sullivan to reshape his top line completely, bumping up Evgeni Malkin to play left wing alongside Sidney Crosby at even strength and promoting Rickard Rakell from second-line duties.

In eight games this season, the veteran Rust has scored three goals and added an assist for four points. He’s sitting on uncharacteristically poor possession metrics, logging a career-low 46.3 CF% and 41.0 xGF%. He also missed the first two games of the season with a different lower-body injury.

With Rust on the shelf for the next little while, the Penguins will rely even more heavily on that new-look top line to turn things around defensively. Primarily, they’ve performed up to expectations offensively or outperformed them entirely. Malkin has turned back the clock with 14 points in 11 games, while Rakell leads the team in goals with six. Crosby has been underwhelming with just one goal but has added nine assists for 10 points in 11 games. But the Penguins are allowing a league-worst 4.27 goals per game. While suspect goaltending shoulders some blame, Pittsburgh has also controlled just 38.2% of expected goals when their usual top line of Crosby, Rust and Anthony Beauvillier are on the ice together, per MoneyPuck. Crosby has never logged an expected goal share under 50% since the stat’s been tracked – marking a sharp drop-off in his defensive effectiveness, at least in the early going this season.

The 32-year-old Rust is in the third season of a six-year, $30.75MM contract that runs through his age-35 season. His offensive performance has been up and down over its beginning, posting an underwhelming 46 points in 81 games in 2022-23, but he rebounded last season with 28 goals and 56 points in only 62 appearances.

Bryan Rust Out Week-To-Week With Lower-Body Injury

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The Pittsburgh Penguins organization didn’t get a positive update on forward Bryan Rust’s injury. The team’s play-by-play commentator, Jeff Getzoff, shared that Rust is considered week-to-week with a lower-body injury after evaluations.

The injury could be related to the lower-body injury that kept Rust from the ice at the beginning of the season. He missed Pittsburgh’s first two games of the regular season but has managed three goals and four points in eight straight games. The Penguins only have 12 healthy forwards on the roster meaning Valtteri Puustinen should garner more ice time if the organization doesn’t make a recall from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.

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Penguins Notes: Rust, Bunting, Nieto

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The Penguins were without winger Bryan Rust at practice today, per Josh Getzoff of SportsNet Pittsburgh. Head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed that Rust is being evaluated for a lower-body injury he sustained against the Canucks on Saturday, and there’s no timeline for his return to the ice yet (via Michelle Crechiolo of Pens Inside Scoop).

Rust, 32, left the weekend loss to Vancouver after getting his right leg tangled up awkwardly with Canucks winger Nils Höglander. It’s been a mediocre start to the campaign for the five-time 20-goal scorer, who’s been limited to three goals and an assist in eight games with a -7 rating. But he’s still averaging 19:20 per game – that’s second-most among Pittsburgh forwards and, correspondingly, a large hole to fill for a team short on forward depth if he misses any extended time.

Almost no Penguin has started the season as they’d like to, aside from a handful of exceptions – namely Evgeni Malkin, who’s turned back the clock with 14 points in 10 games. But it’s been especially difficult for Rust, who also missed the season’s first two games with a separate lower-body injury. If he can’t play tomorrow against the Wild, Cody Glass is the extra forward on hand and will return to the lineup after missing the Canucks game with an illness.

Other items of note out of Pittsburgh:

  • One of this season’s biggest disappointments so far has been winger Michael Bunting. Acquired from the Hurricanes near the tail end of last year as arguably the highest-value part of the return for Jake Guentzel, he’s fallen completely flat with just one assist in nine games. He’s already been a healthy scratch once in 2024-25, and Josh Yohe of The Athletic reports the Penguins organization as a whole is “very unhappy” with his performance. It’s a completely unforeseen drop-off after he ended last season with 19 points in 21 games for the Pens, mainly playing alongside the red-hot Malkin.
  • Winger Matthew Nieto returned to practice today for the first time since sustaining a knee injury that ended his 2023-24 season all the way back in November, relays Seth Rorabaugh of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Nieto, 32 next week, underwent laparoscopic surgery on his left knee shortly after the New Year but suffered a setback that required him to undergo a reconstructive MCL procedure in May. After inking a two-year, $1.8MM deal in free agency in 2023, Nieto had a goal and three assists in 22 appearances for Pittsburgh before the season-ending injury.

Bryan Rust Suffers Lower-Body Injury

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Matt Martin’s recently signed one-year deal with the New York Islanders will pay him a prorated salary of $775K for the season (as per PuckPedia). Martin’s deal is a one-way contract with an AAV of $875K, meaning he will make $775K in the AHL or NHL. The contract also includes a $100K bonus if the 35-year-old plays ten games in the NHL this season.

The bonus in the contract is a bit peculiar given that the Islanders were likely the only suitor for Martin’s services after he lingered unsigned in free agency for over three months. However, the $100K bonus won’t impact New York much as they can roll any overage into next season when they will have over $20MM in cap space.

In other evening notes:

  • Colorado Avalanche forwards Miles Wood and Ross Colton are expected to play tonight when the Avalanche take on the Ottawa Senators (as per Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports). Both players missed team practice yesterday after they were banged up in Thursday night’s game against Utah. Colorado head coach Jared Bednar told the media yesterday that the team was trying to allow the players to recover so that they wouldn’t miss any game time. It would appear the tactic worked, which is good news for a team that has lost a pile of man games this season.
  • Pittsburgh Penguins forward Bryan Rust left last night’s game against the Vancouver Canucks with a lower-body injury (as per Ryan Gagne of The Hockey News). The 32-year-old was run into the boards by Canucks forward Nils Hoglander, who had some choice words for him as he left the ice. The Penguins were quick to rule the veteran out for the remainder of the game which isn’t a great sign for the struggling club moving forward. Pittsburgh has yet to provide an update and returned to Pittsburgh today after a disastrous road trip through Western Canada that saw the Penguins go 0-3-1. Pittsburgh plays at home on Tuesday against the Minnesota Wild.

No Extension Talks Coming For A While For Pettersson

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The Penguins intend to wait a while before deciding if they’ll proceed with any significant discussions about an extension for defenseman Marcus Pettersson, relays David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period (Twitter link).  The 28-year-old has become a key cog on Pittsburgh’s back end in recent years and is heading for a raise on his current price tag of just over $4.0.25MM.  However, the Penguins need to determine if they’re going to be a team that’s vying for a playoff spot in the second half of the season or a possible seller if things aren’t going so well.  If it’s the latter, they could decide the better move is to move him as a rental player at the trade deadline where there would be a strong market for his services.  Accordingly, don’t expect a decision on that front for a while yet.  Pettersson has four points in nine games so far this season while averaging over 21 minutes a night of playing time.

Penguins Assign Tristan Jarry To AHL On Conditioning Loan

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The Tristan Jarry situation in Pittsburgh has taken another turn.  Just a couple of days after being sent back to Pittsburgh from their road trip to work on his game away from the team, the Penguins announced (Twitter link) that Jarry has been assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on a conditioning loan.

The 29-year-old has certainly struggled out of the gate this season, allowing 12 goals on 73 shots in his first three appearances, ceding time to prospect Joel Blomqvist early on.  With Alex Nedeljkovic returning earlier in the week, the Penguins have been carrying three goaltenders on their active roster since then.

Jarry’s assignment to the minors doesn’t change that as players on a conditioning loan count against the 23-player active roster.  It also means that Pittsburgh does not receive any cap benefit from this roster move.

The maximum length of the assignment is 14 days.  Wilkes-Barre/Scranton plays in five games over that stretch so if Pittsburgh intends to keep him down there as long as possible, Jarry should at least have a few starts to work on his game to see if he can at least start to turn his fortunes around.

With Jarry being signed through the 2027-28 season with a $5.375MM cap charge, it’s fair to suggest that there isn’t much of a viable trade market for him out there.  Accordingly, if Jarry struggles in the minors or even if Pittsburgh wants to extend his assignment if Blomqvist and Nedeljkovic are playing well, the next move would likely come in a couple of weeks with a waiver placement as it’s highly unlikely he’d be claimed.  This certainly isn’t a situation GM Kyle Dubas envisioned when he signed Jarry to this contract in the 2023 offseason but a loan to the minors probably is the best option for both sides at this time.

Jarry Away From Team To Work With Goalie Director In Pittsburgh

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The Penguins announced that they’ve sent goaltender Tristan Jarry back to Pittsburgh from their current road trip to work with their director of goaltending Jon Elkin.  Head coach Mike Sullivan indicated that this was the plan heading into the trip which has two games remaining on it.  Jarry is off to a particularly rocky start with a 5.47 GAA and a .836 SV% through his first three starts and while that’s a small sample size, he struggled late last season as well, eventually losing the starting role to Alex Nedeljkovic.  The assignment will give Jarry a few days to reset away from the team and he will remain on the active roster during this time.

East Notes: Jarry, Blue Jackets, Ekman-Larsson

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Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Tristan Jarry will be a healthy scratch for a second straight game tonight when the Pens take on the Calgary Flames. Jarry sat out Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets and hasn’t played since he gave up three goals on five shots last Wednesday against the Buffalo Sabres.

The Penguins are currently carrying three NHL goaltenders on their road trip through Western Canada and have been reportedly trying to get extra work in for Jarry in practice as he tries to steady his game and move on from the struggles that plagued him since late last season.

In other Eastern Conference notes:

  • Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Don Waddell isn’t in a hurry to add to his roster via trade despite a rash of injuries (as per James Murphy of Responsible Gambler). The Blue Jackets will be without key contributors Boone Jenner, Erik Gudbranson and Kent Johnson for quite a while, but as Waddell puts it, the team knows where they are at, and they know that acquiring short-term pieces doesn’t make sense at this stage of their rebuild. The Blue Jackets have been turning over their roster for five years now and appear unwilling to rush themselves back into the playoff picture by sacrificing the future. The Blue Jackets have several young players on their NHL roster who have performed well in the early going and have a decent pipeline of prospects on the way to the NHL.
  • The NHL Department of Player Safety has announced that Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has been fined $5000 for running interference on Tampa Bay Lightning forward Jake Guentzel in last night’s contest. On the play, Ekman-Larsson was the puck carrier and threw a reverse hit on an unsuspecting Guentzel knocking him to the ice. Guentzel remained down for a brief moment before getting back to his feet. OEL received a minor penalty on the play for interference. The fine is the maximum allowable under the Collective Bargaining Agreement and the money from it will go to the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.

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