The Penguins are set to make one more spot of roster room by tomorrow after placing defenseman Ilya Solovyov on waivers today, per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman.
Solovyov has not yet played this regular season and figures to be a scratch once again tonight. The team acquired a similar player in a trade earlier in the week at the same spot, Spencer Stastney. Solovyov was acquired from Colorado in January for Valtteri Puustinen and a seventh round pick. Solovyov appeared in 14 games last season, recording
five assists and played in three more games in the 2026 playoffs.
This move is necessary for the Penguins as they battle staying under the 23-player limit. Some, like Blake Lizotte, Bryan Rust, Justin Brazeau, Ryan Graves and Ben Kindel started the season on injured reserve, where they didn’t count against the total number of players. Andrei Kuzmenko has spent most of the season on the non-injured reserve list as he went through the death of his father, also outside the accounting for the majority of the young season.
Most of the those players have returned from IR, and the Pens had previously announced that Kuzmenko would be with the team but not playing on their road trip that ends tonight. The team has previously sent David Gustafsson and Rutger McGroarty back to the AHL as the flow of players to IR has trickled back in the positive direction in the past few days and weeks.
Pittsburgh will find out at 2pm tomorrow if Solovyov has cleared waivers. If so, the team can move him off the 23-player roster and down to the AHL. If he is claimed, he will leave the Penguins and join a new club, either way opening up a spot for Kuzmenko to return to the regular roster – and perhaps lineup tomorrow night when the Pens play the Dallas Stars.
