It’s been a while since there was some roster news for the Penguins. Recently, the Penguins have decided to take a look at Jordan Nolan in training camp. Jordan Nolan is a former two-time Stanley Cup Champion with the Los Angeles Kings.
GM Jim Rutherford: "We will bring an American League contract to camp. That will be Jordan Nolan. We like this player. We will see how camp goes. At any time, we can flip his American League deal to an NHL contract. He brings a dimension to his game that is important for teams."
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 21, 2020
I have no problem at all with bringing players in to build the depth of the AHL squad. I have literally no interest in ever seeing Nolan up with the big club. There is nothing he provides that isn’t already redundant on the roster. The bottom six is littered with players who do not provide a lot of offense. Nolan would be just another one of those kinds of players. His offensive resume in the NHL is not impressive.
Having only 27 points in 60 AHL games in his age 30 season also doesn't speak to being able to drive play at the NHL level even if the expectation isn't for him to help offensively. He needs to be at or above a point per game to confidently project success.
If the dimension Rutherford is referencing is toughness because the Penguins are playing the Washington Capitals and Tom Wilson eight times, save me the argument. Jordan Nolan isn’t going to do anything to deter Tom Wilson. The Penguins general manager has already made enough roster mistakes going down the neutralizing Tom Wilson path to the point where they haven’t recovered from it, yet. The shift after 2016-17 with roster construction was Tom Wilson inspired and the Penguins have gone 7-13 in the playoffs since then, including 1-9 in their last ten. The Penguins are still nowhere close to having the scoring balance throughout the lineup they enjoyed from those Cup years and Nola
Jordan Nolan for the Baby Penguins, fine. For the real club, no thanks.
In other news we have an update on Tom Wilson victim, Zach Aston-Reese.
Yesterday, GM Jim Rutherford confirmed that Zach Aston-Reese is still on schedule for his recovery after having shoulder surgery back in August.
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) December 22, 2020
He's lookin' good to us! 👀 pic.twitter.com/DQ4dlArRTp
This should put his return towards the end of February. He isn’t going to miss nearly as many games as he otherwise would have. He is a useful fourth line player who helped drive the defensive success of the fourth line last year. The Penguins are clearly all-in on that line so him coming back for the majority of the regular season is good news.
He is also changing his number to #12. Hopefully he wears it better than Patrick Marleau did, he likely will.
Thanks for reading!