Last night the Penguins made some roster moves in order to become cap compliant. With the moves they are clear of the salary cap ceiling by 83k.
The Penguins have assigned defensemen Mark Friedman and Ty Smith to the @WBSPenguins. https://t.co/Ij1akfJbi0
— Pittsburgh Penguins (@penguins) October 9, 2022
Mark Friedman cleared waivers and is eligible to join WB/S. Ty Smith did not need to clear waivers which is why he was sent down in the first place. He got a lot of run in training camp and made the most of it. If Pierre-Olivier Joseph was able to go down to WB/S without passing through waivers he would have been sent down. He needed to and the Penguins felt strongly enough he would be claimed ala Radim Zohorna so he is still with the big club.
Ty Smith’s waiver status buys some time for the team to figure out if they want to make other roster moves in order to make room for him in the future.
As for Zohorna he was put on waivers again by Calgary after acquiring him from the Penguins. He cleared waivers and will be with the Flames AHL team. Why wouldn’t the Penguins claim him again? They could have. It wasn’t as simple as it probably should have been. There was a path where the Penguins claim him and then stuck with him on NHL roster. The entire point of sending him down was to clear cap space. They didn’t want to take the risk of being stuck with another NHL contract. Here is an explanation
Trying explain things better. Below are the four possible outcomes that could have happened with Zohorna on waivers this time.
— Taylor Haase (@TaylorHaasePGH) October 9, 2022
Scenario 1 is what happened. Scenario 2 would have been ideal. Scenario 4 would have been bad. pic.twitter.com/POPpdIOmnQ
Three more days until real hockey starts back up again for the Penguins.
Thanks for reading!