Yesterday, the Penguins made a number of personnel moves in response to injuries and poor play. Three players are being removed from the active roster while we are going to be getting three new ones. It was a very eventful roster day
Injuries
We knew about Justin Brazeau being injured. We now know that it isn’t quite super short term like we may have thought it would be. So the Penguins are going to be without him for a little while longer
Noel Acciari left the Maple Leafs game and did not return. He is going to miss some time due to the injury reserve designation. Acciari combined with Connor Dewar and Blake Lizotte to form a functional fourth line. Given Acciari’s veteran status and contract he is one of the leading candidates to eventually be traded off the roster to make room for a younger player. This puts a pause on that process for now.
Tristan Jarry going on injured reserve was quite the surprise, at least to me. He had a poor third period against the Maple Leafs and finished the game. Did an injury play a role in Toronto’s comeback and four unanswered goals? Jarry has had a great start to the year. We’ll see how long this injury will take to come back from and how he looks upon return.
Great play rewarded
Here’s where things get interesting. Sergei Murashov, perhaps the most talented Penguins prospect, has been called up to fill Jarry’s roster spot. He is going to be making his debut within the next week. I know the team wanted to slow play his development with Jarry and Silovs playing well to start the season. Sometimes, things don’t play out the way that you think they will. Jarry’s injury opened the door for this scenario, but Murashov’s play in October with WB/S is why the team is holding the door open for him to walk through. He was excellent.
Murashov has played great since coming over to North America. I am really interested to see how he fares against NHL shooters. He is one of the most important pieces for Pittsburgh and how fast they will be able to turn the corner back into a respectable team with legit playoff ambitions.
Danton Heinen will be rejoining the Penguins after being sent down at the beginning of the season. Heinen is an NHL player. He deserves to play in the NHL. A lot of players in his situation could have gone down to the AHL and pouted about it. He did not. He did the opposite. Instead, Heinen led the league in scoring before his well-deserved recall. In ten games he has five goals and 14 points. I really respect Heinen’s professionalism and approach to the bad situation he was dealt.
Heinen isn’t a long term answer in the top six, but he is a guy who can slide in and fill a role in the short term. With Rickard Rakell and Justin Brazeau out this provides that opportunity. Right now, I don’t think Filip Hallander is quite ready to be the regular left winger for the Crosby line. Reuniting him with Ben Kindel and Tommy Novak would probably be best.
Earned demotion
Owen Pickering has once again been re-assigned to WB/S. His play is not meeting the standard for the Penguins to keep him around. He did not have a good training camp and started the year in the AHL. His most recent NHL work was still not good enough and he will be returning to the AHL.
To this point, the Pickering selection has been a bust for the Penguins. At the time they should have used the first round pick as trade bait because the team was still trying to compete. The Penguins kept the pick and used it on a defenseman with a mediocre offensive profile. Personally, even if you are looking to draft a defenseman for their defense they should still be able to create offense at the lower levels. I hate using first round picks on players with a low ceiling even if they pan out. Pickering unfortunately is one of those types of picks. Right now it is tracking that his floor as a player might be basement level.
Even if you disagree with my assessment of Pickering as a player you can’t deny that it is his fault we are now going to have to watch Ryan Graves play NHL games for the Penguins. That is something I didn’t want to have to do again.
New lines
Now that the roster moves have been made here are how the lines looked at practice today
The move that sticks out the most is having Ben Kindel leave his third line center role to join the top line with Sidney Crosby. From an entertainment standpoint it is going to be real cool to see Kindel play with some upper end talent at 5v5. It is going to be a lot of fun seeing Crosby and Kindel try to create at even-strength. I do think this neuters the team’s ability to field three scoring lines. Even with the injuries, you still had the ability to spread things around a little bit by using Heinen on the wing and keeping Kindel in the third line center role.
I’m not out on Tommy Novak. He’s had a slower start to the year on the offensive front, but I don’t think he has been a liability. He and Kindel have had quite a bit of xGF% success so far this year. I think giving Evgeni Malkin a little more speed on his line could be helpful. Perhaps, Novak can gel with Malkin and some more tangible offense can be had for him.
The Graves-Clifton pairing is rough to see written out like that. I have zero interest in watching that.
Harrison Brunicke remains with the team, for now. The rule is once a player plays in his tenth game of an NHL season his ELC starts. It doesn’t say that tenth game has to come immediately. It is likely the front office is going to buy a little time on their Brunicke decision by scratching Brunicke and allowing him to continue to practice with the team and having access to the other NHL amenities. There will need to be a decision made in the not so distant future.
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