The Pittsburgh Penguins’ 2014 first-round pick Kasperi Kapanen remains on the active roster despite the fact that he has returned home to his native Finland.
General Manager Jim Rutherford announced that five players were cut on Tuesday afternoon. Defenseman Scott Harrington was assigned to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League. Forwards Zach Sill and Andrew Ebbett and defenseman Taylor Chorney were assigned to Wheeling of the ECHL. Forward Oskar Sundqvist was returned to Skelleftea of the Swedish Hockey League. In addition, defenseman Derrick Pouliot was placed on injured reserve.
The team made the announcement an hour in advance of the 5:00 p.m. deadline to conform to the 23-man roster limit and the $69 million salary cap.
It is expected that once injured forward Beau Bennett and defenseman Robert Bortuzzo are placed on Long-term Injured Reserve, Kapanen will be returned to his Finnish team, KalPa Kuopio, and Chorney, Sill, and Ebbett will be recalled from Wheeling.
Fielding a full roster with Bortuzzo and Bennett on it before placing them on LTIR will optimize the salary cap relief that the team is afforded. Chorney, Ebbett, and Sill were assigned to double-A Wheeling because of its proximity to Pittsburgh. The Nailers, coincidentally, opened their training camp Tuesday afternoon.
Harrington seems to be the odd man out and will likely begin his season with Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. His demotion signifies the readiness of Olli Maatta, who has not yet been cleared to play following offseason shoulder surgery.
Head Coach Mike Johnston said today, “Everything is leaning in the direction that he’ll probably play on Thursday.”
Evgeni Malkin also practiced fully for the first time Tuesday. Johnston wouldn’t commit to a timeframe for his return, speculating that it could be Thursday, Saturday against Dallas, or even next week.
Without Malkin, the team’s lineup for Thursday night’s debut against Anaheim should look something like this:
Chris Kunitz-Sidney Crosby-Patric Hornqvist
Pascal Dupuis-Brandon Sutter-Steve Downie
Nick Spaling-Marcel Goc-Blake Comeau
Zach Sill-Andrew Ebbett-Craig Adams
Christian Ehrhoff-Kris Letang
Olli Maatta-Paul Martin
Rob Scuderi-Simon Despres
Taylor Chorney
Marc-Andre Fleury
Thomas Greiss
Photo Credit: Pittsburgh Penguins
