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Penguins make some cuts

October 3, 2022, 3:12 PM ET [79 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Over the weekend the Penguins ran out an AHL lineup against the Sabres and after the game many of those players were indeed sent down to the AHL.




Forwards Alex Nylander, Valtteri Puustinen, Drake Caggiula, Filip Hallander, Jamie Devane, Kyle Olson, Nathan Legare, Raivis Ansons, Corey Andonovski and Drew O'Connor, along with defensemen Xavier Ouellet, Colin Swoyer and Jack St. Ivany have all been assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton's training camp in the American Hockey League.
Additionally, goaltenders Filip Lindberg and Dustin Tokarski will also report to training camp in WBS.

Owen Pickering and Nolan Collins have both been sent back to their respective junior teams. Pickering will report to the Swift Current Broncos of the Western Hockey League and Collins will report to the Sudbury Wolves of the Ontario Hockey League.


The player who sticks out like sore thumb here is Drew O’Connor. This was always going to happen no matter how good he played in camp. He doesn’t have to go through waivers. He was going to be a victim of this detail. He will eventually make his way up to the big club. He likely deserves to be with the big club right now. The business side of things is getting in his way at the moment.

One interesting wrinkle is that Radim Zohorna is on waivers, but not cut.



So the loophole is that he can remain with the big club for a specified amount of time. If he clears they can send him down. This is one way to give him a longer look I suppose. Might as well try and fit him through while there is a plethora of players hitting the waiver wire. Not as easy to sneak somebody through when they are one of two or three players. Not that I necessarily think he would be claimed, but you never know.

As for the rest of the players still at the NHL level, they had a full skate today. Here is what the line combos looked like



Of note Sam Poulin is still with the big club. I still don’t have high expectations for him as far as helping the team in this last run of competitiveness but it would be nice if he proved me wrong.

The top six is still moving forward as it has been. Jason Zucker will be the piece that holds this operation together (or causes it to fall apart). That positive regression will be satisfying if it comes.

Ty Smith continues to get looks on the third pairing. He’s a real wild card. I like the idea of offensive defenseman who can do things with the puck. I think having forward skills on the backend is very valuable in helping the forwards and if you’ve seen the depth chart they could use some help. Like O’Connor Ty Smith is able to pass through waivers so I don’t think he will start the year with the big club, but if he does it will be because he earned it. The fallout would be someone like Chad Ruhwedel going through waivers. I think he should be claimed by someone who needs a bottom pairing right defender. His cost compared to what he does is very beneficial. It’s why the Rutta signing was so weird, at least to me.

The team is heading to Detroit this afternoon. Given all of the cuts there should be a good chunk of regulars playing.

Thanks for reading!
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