The Penguins made another round of roster cuts on Friday, including one of the first notable ones for players on the edge of making the team. Avery Hayes was among eight players trimmed from the NHL roster. 2026 draft picks Markus and Liam Ruck will return to their WHL junior team and five more are headed to AHL Wilkes-Barre. Goalie Colin Delia has been released from his tryout.
Hayes appeared in two preseason games, scoring a goal. The Penguins have a spate of injuries up front, plus the absence of Andrei Kuzmenko who headed back to Russia to join his family following his father’s passing. It wasn’t enough to open the door for Hayes.
As of now, by my count (possibly dangerous) the Penguins have 37 players still in camp.
Forwards (20): Justin Brazeau*, Tristan Broz, Egor Chinakhov, Sidney Crosby, Connor Dewar, David Gustafsson, Filip Hallander, Ben Kindel*, Ville Koivunen, Andrei Kuzmenko**, Hendrix Lapierre, Blake Lizotte*, Evgeni Malkin, Rutger McGroarty, Tommy Novak, Rickard Rakell, Nick Robertson, Bryan Rust, Elmer Soderblom, Bill Zonnon
Defenseman (13): Harrison Brunicke, Declan Carlile, Sam Girard, Ryan Graves, Caleb Jones, Erik Kalrsson, Kaeden Korczak, Kris Letang, Jake Livanavage, Owen Pickering, Chase Pietila, Ilya Solovyov, Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goalies (4): Joel Blomqvist, Cam Johnson**, Sergei Murashov, Artus Silovs
‘* Injured, possibility to open season on injured reserve
‘** Currently away from team for personal reasons
They’ll need to drop down to a maximum of 23 players by the start of the league season on Monday.
