"Fairly Large" Roster Cut To Come This Weekend

Matt Bodenschatz | Pittsburgh Penguins

Sep 21, 12:23 PM | Hype this story!

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that a “fairly large roster cut” should take place toward the end of this weekend, just before the team heads to West Point.

Below I will list the current training camp roster, which sits at 40 players. Those I expect to be cut Sunday evening are italicized and in blue.

I fully expect this round of cuts will reduce the roster to 28 players.

The fringe players I would guess will remain with the team for the West Point trip include defensemen Kristopher Letang, Alain Nasreddine and Mike Weaver and forwards Adam Hall, Jonathan Filewich, Ryan Stone, Tyler Kennedy and Angelo Esposito.

Of that group, look for Hall, Weaver and Nasreddine to make the team, while the others would be considered the top candidates for recalls during the season.

Remember, those in blue are the players I predict will be sent to AHL training camp in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton this Sunday.

Forwards
Colby Armstrong
Tim Brent
Erik Christensen
Sidney Crosby
Angelo Esposito
Jonathan Filewich
Adam Hall
Connor James
Dustin Jeffrey
Tyler Kennedy
Georges Laraque
Evgeni Malkin
Ryan Malone
Chris Minard
Mark Recchi
Gary Roberts
Jarkko Ruutu
Nathan Smith
Jordan Staal
Ryan Stone
Petr Sykora
Jeff Taffe
Maxime Talbot
Tim Wallace

Defensmen
Mark Eaton
Alex Goligoski
Sergei Gonchar
Ryan Lannon
Kris Letang
Ben Lovejoy
Brooks Orpik
Alain Nasreddine
Joe Rullier
Rob Scuderi
Darryl Sydor
Mike Weaver
Ryan Whitney

Goaltenders
Ty Conklin
Marc-Andre Fleury
Dany Sabourin

Comments

  1. Ben

    Sep 21, 02:57 PM

    I wonder if we won’t see the cut made on Saturday, rather than Sunday. I say this because Saturday is the last day they can send players down without having to clear waivers. Most of the players don’t need to worry about waivers yet, but there are at least one or two that do. It will be interesting to see how the Pens deal with that.

  2. Matt Bodenschatz

    Sep 21, 03:04 PM

    Very good point, which I completely neglected to consider when writing this piece, Ben. I am not sure of the exactt ime of the deadline, but I would assume it would be around 3 pm EST Sunday, which would allow the Penguins to make cuts early in the day.

    I think a good indication of when the cuts will come could happen tonight, as the Penguins play the Red Wings. If we see a bunch of minor leaguers and/or borderline players, I would assume cuts will come tomorrow. On the other hand, if the roster seems to be primarily NHL players, it could be an indication that cuts will come Sunday.

    Thanks for the heads-up Ben. Please don’t be a stranger to our comment sections!

  3. Ben

    Sep 21, 11:06 PM

    Actually, it looks like I was wrong about the date. The CBA states that waivers begin 12 days before the start of the season. I made the assumption that the NHL would only count Sept 29 as the start of the season for the Ducks and Kings, and use Oct 5th for the rest of the league. If Eklund is right (which is always a big “if” ;) ), then there are now a bunch of players around the league on waivers.

    If that’s true, then the league is using Sept 29 as the start of the season for all teams – which basically means that every team other than the Ducks and Kings got less time to evaluate players before having to deal with waivers.

    It is worth noting, though, that the Pens fielded primarily prospects against the Red Wings tonight!

  4. Matt Bodenschatz

    Sep 21, 11:55 PM

    Thanks for the update, Ben. I’m not sure what the waiver situation is, and quite frankly, I didn’t have much time today to look it up. Tomorrow may be a different story.

    As for your second comment, regarding tonight’s roster, I think it would be a good indication that most (if not all) of these players will see demotions in the near future. In other words, if they aren’t cut by Sunday, the likely will be before the start of the season.

    There are, however, two exceptions. The first would be Kristopher Letang, who apparently saw 25+ minutes of icetime tonight and, by several accounts, had a very solid game all around. He’s getting a long look right now. The second is Angelo Esposito. I watched the Town Hall meeting on the Penguins website today and a comment GM Ray Shero made may have hinted at a nine-game tryout for Espo — or it could simply be me over analyzing. Anyway, Shero said something to the effect that Esposito will get every opportunity to make the team, just as Letang and Jordan Staal did last year. Does that mean he has as good of a chance as anyone to make the team, or does that mean he will get an extended look?

    I may opine about this last part in column-form tomorrow, if time permits. We’ll see.

    Thanks, as always, Ben, for your comments. It’s great having knowledgeable fans such as yourself reading our site and contributing — we appreciate it!

  5. Ben

    Sep 22, 03:33 PM

    Well, the cut was announced, and there are a few surprises:
    Brent, Smith and Rullier are still on the roster, but Kennedy was sent down.
    From the Pens:
    http://penguins.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=338084

  6. Matt Bodenschatz

    Sep 22, 05:26 PM

    Thanks Ben, I have a story about about the cuts, which includes a depth chart as I see it. I also am in the middle of writing a piece on Esposito’s future — I think it’ll be worth the read.

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