The Penguins practiced on Friday before their fourth and final preseason game on Saturday in Buffalo. Here are all of the roster updates:
*Forward Justin Brazeau is being evaluated for a lower-body injury and did not practice. Neither did forwards Blake Lizotte (upper body) and Ben Kindel (lower body), who are both considered week-to-week with their respective injuries.
*The Penguins assigned the following players to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins (AHL):
F Atley Calvert
F Avery Hayes
F Tanner Howe
F Mikhail Ilyin
Additionally, forward Oliver Okuliar has been designated as injured non-roster and will continue his rehabilitation process in WBS. Forwards Liam and Markus Ruck have been returned to the Medicine Hat Tigers (WHL). Goaltender Collin Delia has been released from his PTO.
Hayes has a fantastic story still being written: he signed an AHL-only deal as an undrafted free agent, earned an NHL contract, and scored five goals in 16 games with Pittsburgh last season. The Penguins think highly of Hayes, but opted to send him down to the minors for now for a number of reasons.
“I think he's a good young player,” Head Coach Dan Muse said. “I think there's other guys that right now are ahead. Sometimes it is about kind of what you've done, and sometimes it's also, like, we gotta get it down to numbers, and other guys have played better, or we feel like right now are going to be a better fit. So, those are all part of the decisions.”
*Goaltender Joel Blomqvist; forwards Rutger McGroarty and Tristan Broz; and defensemen Ryan Graves, Caleb Jones, Owen Pickering, Jake Livavanage and Chase Pietila did not take part in the 12 PM practice session. They skated in a separate group.
“We needed manageable numbers, basically,” Muse said.
*These were the lines and D-pairings the Penguins used:
Nick Robertson-Sidney Crosby-Rickard Rakell
Egor Chinakhov-Tommy Novak-Evgeni Malkin
Ville Koivunen-Hendrix Lapierre-Bryan Rust
Filip Hallander-Connor Dewar-Elmer Soderblom
Declan Carlile-Erik Karlsson
van Riemsdyk-Kris Letang
Kaedan Korczak-Sam Girard
Ilya Solovyov-Harrison Brunicke
Arturs Silovs and Sergei Murashov were the goalies.
David Gustafsson, acquired from Winnipeg in exchange for Jack St. Ivany, and Bill Zonnon, one of three first-round picks in 2025, were the extra forwards. Last year, Zonnon missed what would habe been his first training camp due to injury, so the Penguins want him to soak up as much as he can right now.
“We want to see him continue to get more comfortable, and I think we've seen some of that,” Muse said. “You got the speed, you got the ability to make plays. I think he's got the ability there to impact the game, both offensively and just through his work and tenacity to impact it defensively. And so, I think he's had moments where he's been able to show that. So, again, we still got a couple days here before things are finalized.”
*The Penguins spent a decent amount of time on special teams.
These are the power-play units:
PP1: Karlsson, Crosby, Rakell, Novak, Rust
PP2: Letang/Girard, Malkin, Chinakhov, Koivunen, Lapierre
Muse reiterated that nothing is set in stone with personnel, as the Penguins have plenty of viable options to deploy. And while Novak isn’t the biggest name, he’s an under-the-radar talent his coaches and teammates appreciate, so the Penguins wanted to see him on that unit.
“I think with Tommy, you got the playmaking, you got the poise, you got the ability to manipulate defenders when he has the puck and also without the puck, which are positive attributes to have on a power play,” Muse said.
Finally, these are the PK units the Penguins used today:
Hallander, Dewar, Soloyvov, Korczak
Soderblom, Robertson, Carlile, van Riemsdyk
Robertson hasn’t spent much time on the penalty kill in his NHL career. But he has done it in the past at the AHL level, and was successful.
“I think it’s that combination of the speed, and also just the ability to take those reads to anticipate plays,” Muse said. “I think just as he came in, this was something that, especially through conversations with Kyle and just his familiarity with him, not just as of late, but also for him as a player going back to his early times here in Toronto’s system, he was able to really give us some things to look for in his game and that we have seen. Right now, we think with Nick that that's an area that he can play and be successful and help the team.”
