As we talked about last week after the elimination of the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins from the AHL Calder Cup playoffs, the Pittsburgh Penguins have now finally, officially re-called the bulk of their team. Why? Well, you have to make sure your NHL team is going to advance deeper into the playoffs, no use wasting money and people's time calling up a bunch of young guys for a few days. Also it gives everyone a chance to breakdown things in Scranton, to pack up apartments/houses and all those details.
Anyways here's the link from the team for the seven players officially recalled: forwards Dustin Jeffrey, Nick Johnson, Mark Letestu, Eric Tangradi and Tim Wallace. Defenseman Steve Wagner and goalie John Curry also get the call. WB/S regulars Chris Conner, Ben Lovejoy, Deryk Engelland and Brad Thiessen are already with the Pens in Pittsburgh.
Behind the jump a guess at what the organizational depth chart probably looks like at this point.
Kunitz | Crosby | Guerin |
Talbot | Malkin | Ponikarovsky |
Cooke | Staal | Kennedy* |
Rupp | Adams | Dupuis |
Fedotenko | Conner | Godard |
Tangradi | Letestu | Johnson |
Jeffrey | Wallace |
Orpik | Gonchar |
Eaton | Letang |
McKee | Goligoski |
Leopold* | |
Lovejoy | Engelland |
Wagner |
*Things are a little wacky, as the status of Kennedy and Leopold are unknown. If Kennedy can't go, expect Dupuis to slide into the 3rd line role and either Conner or Fedotenko to take a spot in the lineup....I realize Conner isn't a center, but given the number of wingers who can play center (Talbot, TK, even Rupp) it makes sense to list Conner on the 5th line, being as he's more likely to get in a game than most others, which explains that.