The jam of the roster is starting to break up for the Penguins. The team announced today their next batch of cuts. Four young players, who impressed to various degrees this camp in Tristan Broz, Avery Hayes, Owen Pickering and Sergei Murashov are going to the AHL.
The Pens are going to put a number of veterans on the waiver wire today, including Ryan Graves. Graves still has four years to go on his contract but it has been announced he will be assigned to the AHL if he clears waivers. Others hitting
the waiver wire include Boko Imama, Sam Poulin, Rafael Harvey-Pinard and Alexander Alexeyev.
Finally, the team announced that Robby Fabbri has been released from his tryout.
A lot to chew on here. The biggest note has to be the drastic decision to wipe Graves off the team. It’s a completely justifiable move — even the local media could barely drum up stories about him coming in confident and improved this season — and he struggled in the preseason games. Four years is an eternity to bury in the minors, though let’s not forget many declared Tristan Jarry would be done and persona non grata with the Penguins ever again and he was back with them not too long after. The path for Graves is long and uncertain, his contract makes him practically buyout proof so he’ll likely be out in the wilderness for a while until another team out there with a similarly bad contract might want to flip some players around.
After that, the most impactful move might be the demotion of Pickering. It doesn’t come as a sudden surprise, considering Pickering hasn’t been skating with the NHL regulars in practice in recent days and was left off the roster for the final preseason game, though it’s a telling one just the same. Pittsburgh’s left side defense is awful, and the decision makers don’t think Pickering is ready. It’s got to be some company you don’t want to keep for a first round pick to not make the NHL in his draft+4 season. Pickering is still young overall at 21 years old, and perhaps at some point he could work his way up to an NHL look during this season but it’s not encouraging that he’s not ready yet.
Two players who arguably are ready, or showed to be very close were forwards Tristan Broz and Avery Hayes. Both were among the very best showings that the Pens saw in training camp. Unfortunately for them, there is a numbers crunch, and an apparent fascination with the shot blocking and PK ability of Noel Acciari. It doesn’t help that Ben Kindel has broken out. That said, one would think both Broz and Hayes will be in-line to be called up to the NHL at some point during this season. They should be getting their chance if things go right, but then again Broz contracted mono last year – so tying back into futures being uncertain, you never know how things will play out, though smart money is definitely on those two getting their chance at some point this season.
Murashov getting sent down might raise some eyebrows, let’s repeat again the kid is 21-years old in a NHL climate where not many players that age and younger play. Murashov also only has 17 career AHL games under his belt. His talent is impressive but seasoning is needed, the right call is sending him back to the minors gain experience. This year he won’t be bouncing from the ECHL to AHL, Murashov should be getting a hefty amount of time in WBS as their main goalie.
From there, not too many other surprises. Shame about Fabbri not being able to make it, but he didn’t showcase anything extraordinary or make a particularly strong case to show why he belonged on the team. The rest of the cuts were expected.
The Pens will find out Sunday at 2pm if Graves and the rest of the players clear waivers. It’s impossible to imagine anyone will be taking Graves off their hands, the others ought to be safe as well.
All of these roster moves, concurrent with placing Bryan Rust, Kevin Hayes and Rutger McGroarty on the IR will bring Pittsburgh down to 23 players, the same number they can go into the season. Further decisions could be coming on Kindel and Harrison Brunicke but for now it looks like they are going to get a taste of the NHL regular season and make their debuts.
